368 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
February 10, 1894. 
purest and most beautiful kind maybe fully 
illustrated. 
The Botanic Society pleads that they 
have expended so many thousands of 
pounds in exhibition prize money. On that 
head we may think that science has 
benefited nothing, and horticulture very 
little, while so far as relates to the evening 
fetes and floral galas, they have been 
conducted on such stupid lines and with 
such an utter want of business capacity, 
that they have undoubtedly been pro¬ 
ductive of harm rather than good. The 
time evidently has arrived when the 
botanic gardens must revert to the nation, 
to whom they really belong. The position 
is different now from what it was when 
the Society originated ; the garden no 
longer serves any useful purpose, and the 
management of the Society is so hopelessly 
muddle-headed as not to deserve any 
assistance from the National Exchequer. 
HE Fruiterers’ Company. —This ancient 
civic body has just had its annual 
feast, and whilst the company has taken 
great credit in the past that its special 
patriotic aim and object is to promote 
British fruit culture, we see that it has an 
Italian for a master, that he had a 
considerable body of foreigners to support 
him, and that Sir James Whitehead had 
to declare most if not all the fruit on the 
table to be of foreign production. After 
this, we hope to hear no more of that 
patriotic humbug about the company’s 
aims to promote fruit culture at home. 
We have no wish whatever to prevent or 
deter fruit culture abroad, only let it be 
fu ly understood that it is international and 
not national fruit culture alone that the 
Fruiterers’ Company professes to en¬ 
courage. That Sir James Whitehead is 
about the only real force in the company 
so far as relates to the encouragement of 
fruit culture at home there can be no doubt, 
but we could wish that so able an advocate, 
knowing so well how restricted the 
company’s means are, would agitate for 
such a reform in its methods of procedure 
as would help to place the company in 
possession of funds, by which they could 
give some sensible aid in the promotion of 
national fruit culture, as they profess to be 
anxious to do, by the promotion of exhibi¬ 
tions, granting of prizes, and assisting 
county councils in their efforts to promote 
fruit culture in the districts under their 
control. Work that never gets beyond post 
prandial talk is of little value. Something 
much more tangible and useful is needed 
in these times. 
f ARDENING AS A VOCATION.-It is Very 
doubtful whether there is at the 
present time any vocation or form of em¬ 
ployment that is just now more suffering from 
the prevailing depression than is gardening. 
W^e do not write so much in a pessimistic 
spirit. We report it is a distressing fact. 
It is so natural that gardeners should first 
be made the corpus vile on which economical 
experiments should be tried, and unhappil}q 
therefore, the gardeners are the first to 
suffer. Just now that we have passed 
through the dead of the winter, there comes 
to lar-ge numbers in the vocation a hope for 
improvement. Elder men who have had to 
endure a long period of enforced rest, think 
the spring may bring to them some 
opportunity ; young men who have felt 
the evil of being too long in one place, seek 
anxiously for change and advancement. 
Practically the young man seems to have 
the best of the chances, as he is willing to 
take a reduced salary, and older and well- 
experienced men find themselves elbowed 
aside in the great rush that is made on the 
very few vacancies that offer. The only 
hope for any bettering of the present condi¬ 
tion of things must be in an improvement 
in trade and commerce, but when that 
trade is universally depressed we may well 
think that a complete revival is not likely 
to come in a hurry. With all love and 
respect for the gardening profession, we 
have to ask of young men widely whether 
in adopting it as a vocation just now they 
are wise. 
It is true that every branch of labour is 
crowded, too, but all others that are 
intimately associated with trade and com¬ 
merce will receive impetus from improved 
trade long before gardening will. At 
present we have a hundred applicants for 
one place, and places are becoming fewer 
rather than increasing. We think it but 
right that young men should be warned of 
this condition of things in time, and not be 
led by any illusive suggestions to enter 
into a vocation in which the pay is poor 
and the prospects of advancement very 
remote. It is so very painful to be 
constantly invited to help able * and 
meretorious gardeners into situations, and 
realise how in the present condition of 
things suih aid may be impossible. 
- ^ - 
National Chrysanthemum Society.—The Annual 
General Meeting of the members of this Society will 
take place at Anderton's Hotel, Fleet Street, E.C., 
on Monday, February igth next, at seven o clock. 
Royal Horticultural Society. —The next meeting of 
the Society will be held on Tuesday, February 13th, 
in the Drill Hall, James Street, Victoria Street, 
Westminster. The Fruit, Floral, and Orchid Com¬ 
mittees will assemble at noon, and the Annual 
General Meeting of Fellows will take place in the 
Council Room, 117, Victoria Street, at 3 o’clock. 
The York Gala Schedule for the exhibition which is 
to take place on the 13th, 14th, and 15th of June, again 
contains a goodly array of prizes, among the more 
important being £20, £1^, £10, £8, and £^ for a 300 
ft. group of plants ; ;^20,/14, £8 for 10 stove and 
greenhouse plants; £10, £5, £1, for a group of 
Carnations in bloom, not less than 50 pots ; ;^io and 
three other prizes for 10 Orchids ; £8 and three 
other prizes for 72 cut Roses; and £10, £'], £^, 
and /3, for a collection of ten dishes of fruit. The 
trustees of the Williams’ Memorial Fund will give a 
large silver medal for a group of Alpine Plants. 
A Boys’ Visit to Reading.—On the ist inst., a party 
of the boys who form the gardening class at the 
School of Handicrafts, Chertsey, accompanied by the 
head gardener, Mr. A. J. Brown, paid a visit to the 
nursery and seed establishments of Messrs. Sutton & 
Sons. The lads were most hospitably entertained 
by the firm, and were shown over all the depart¬ 
ments. They greatly enjoyed the look through the 
houses at the nurseries, and asked many pertinent 
questions of their enthusiastic guide, Mr. Atartin. 
The West Coates Winter Garden, Edinburgh. —We 
understand that the Dundee Town Council have 
decided not to accept the offer of the Winter 
Garden at West Coates, made to them by Messrs. 
R. B. Laird & Sons, the cost of removing and re¬ 
erecting the structure, and the upkeep of it after¬ 
wards, being the reasons given for declining the offer. 
The glass-houses at West Coates were sold by 
auction last week, the ground being required for 
feuing purposes. 
The Kew Guild. —We are asked to state that the 
Annual General Meeting of the Kew Guild will, by 
permission of the director, be held in the library in 
the Royal Gardens, Kew, on Monday, February 
26th, at 8 p.m. It is hoped that as many " Past 
Kewites ” as possible will endeavour to be present. 
The chief business will be the election of officers and 
the adoption of the Committee’s report. The secre¬ 
tary will be glad to receive any addresses omitted 
from the first number of the journal and any sub¬ 
scriptions not yet paid. 
" Biblical Horticulture."—A capital essay on this 
interesting subject was read on the 29th ult. by Mr. 
Arthur Treseder, at a meeting of the Conway Road 
Mutual Improvement Association, Cardiff, Mr. F. J. 
Beavan, J P., presiding. The essayist dealt with 
the subject under four heads—viz., herbs and 
flowers, perfumes and medicines, forest trees and 
shrubs, and fruit trees. The essay was an intellectual 
treat, and Mr. Treseder was highly complimented 
upon the successful manner in which he had handled 
a somewhat difficult subject. 
The Pilgrim and the Tree. —A certain Pilgrim, of 
the tribe of “ ’Arry,” journeyed from the East unto 
the West-End, and sat himself down to rest under 
the spreading branches of a Plane tree which grew 
on the verge of the highway. Now, the members of 
the tribe of " 'Arry ” have a tradition that whenever 
they journey they shall leave behind them the 
symbol of their name, by inscribing it upon some 
convenient and suitable irianimate object. This 
natural instinct acted so strongly upon our Pilgrim, 
that after a due season of rest he arose, and with 
his pocket-knife he proceeded to deeply indent his 
Cockney cognomen upon the placid Plane, where¬ 
upon he was seen and seized by the custodian of 
that neighbourhood and ignominiously placed in 
durance vile. Moral: Never cut a friend.— The 
Surveyor. 
Falkirk Gardeners’ Association.—A meeting of the 
Falkirk and District Gardeners’ Mutual Improve¬ 
ment Association was held on the 23rd ult. After 
the transaction of some formal business, Mr. Fair- 
bairn, president of the Association, read a paper on 
“ The Cyclamen and its Cultivation.” The paper 
was interesting and instructive, and was listened to 
with attention, and all the more so as Mr. Fairbairn 
was amongst the first to grow the Cyclamen with 
success. An interesting discussion followed, and the 
meeting was brought to a close by votes of thanks to 
Mr. Fairbairn, the chairman (Mr. Temple, Carron 
House), and Mr. Scott, who has acted as secretary 
for the Association since its start, and is now leaving 
the district. 
Autumn Tints ” in January. —A South Kensington 
correspondent writes to a contemporary :—I don’t 
know whether people who look for ” autumn tinted 
foliage ” after Christmas should be protected against 
themselves. It may, however, interest you to know 
that the demand for these artistic floral decorations 
has induced a supply which will, no doubt, be forth¬ 
coming all the year round. My wife, last week, 
bought some sprays of “Copper Beech” from a 
flower seller in High Street, Kensington, and used 
them in vases. A leaf or two happened to find its 
way into the water, which forthwith turned a delicate 
pink. Struck by this phenomenon, and foreseeing 
a colossal fortune in a new dye, I examined the 
leaves. Under several I found a deposit of pinkish 
powder adhering, and further experiment disclosed 
the fact that the leaves had been carefully dyed. 
Extent of Market Gardening in Cornwall and Railway 
Rates.—It is satisfactory to learn that the Great 
Western Railway Co.are making arrangements where¬ 
by a reduction in the rates of carriage will speedily 
come about. It may interest our readers to learn that 
is estimated that about 1.600 tons of seed-Potatos 
arrive in the West Cornwall district annually, and 
that the produce is equal to about 5,600 tons. 
Broccoli covers about 1,000 acres, averaging 95 crates 
per acre—13 to the ton, 7 tons per acre—a total of 
about 7,000 tons. These are forwarded—to midland 
and northern markets, including both routes, 4.743 
tons; to London, 1,400 tons; to Wales and local, 
857 tons; total, 7,000 tons. The flowers from 
Scilly to London and other districts are estimated 
at 387 tons, at an average value of 7s. 6d. per 
basket, while 75 tons of flowers and other perishable 
goods are sent from Cornwall by passenger trains. 
“ The Amateur Orchid Growers’ Guide ” will be the 
title of a work which Mr. H. A. Burberry, Orchid 
grower to the Rt. Hon. J. Chamberlain, M.P., has 
in the press, and which promises to meet a long felt 
want. We understand that among the important 
subjects treated upon are artificial heating and 
stoking ; ventilation and shading; temperatures ; 
potting and basketing; propagating; watering and 
resting; insect life and cleanliness; fertilisation of 
the flowers for seed ; Orchids from seed ; desirable 
positions for the plants; manurial aids to Orchids; 
treatment of Orchids at all seasons, in cool, inter¬ 
mediate, and warm houses; select and descriptive 
lists of Orchids suitable for amateurs to begin with ; 
and a list of Orchids that do not do well in towns, 
etc. Messrs. Blake & Mackenzie, of Liverpool, are 
