72 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
Oet. 4th, 1884. 
TIE jSlMATIWS <§A1BEN. 
An Amateur’s Garden: How it Pays.— 
Herewith is a sketch from the spot, of an amateur’s 
garden. The only remarkable thing about it beyond 
its scrupulous cleanliness and thorough cultivation is 
the fact that the whole of it is done in the narrow 
leisure of a busy life. We need scarcely hin t at the 
moral and {esthetic aspects of a recreation so whole¬ 
some and refining, one which has sufficient attraction 
to keep the “ gude man ” at home in his leisure, and 
share the sober delight of the garden with his wife 
and bairns. Our amateur is a clerk holding a very 
responsible post in a great London bank. He goes to 
Town daily at 8.30 a.m., and invariably arrives at home 
about six o’clock. He has altogether three weeks’ 
holiday in the course of the year, which he generally 
devotes to the cultivation of his garden. He has a 
pretty gabled cottage nearly covered with Creepers, 
chiefly Irish Ivy, Virginian Creeper, and Roses. It is 
surprising how much can be done by a judicious 
employment of some of the score or more attractive 
Creepers eligible for the purpose. Architects owe 
much to nurserymen; they are the vendors and 
recommendors of the good things, horticulturally, 
which help to hide architectural sins. Amateurs and 
others who are taking possession of new houses, or 
those who wish to embellish old ones, would do well to 
consult the short but carefully compiled list of hardy 
climbers given in the second number of The Gardening 
World. 
The garden under notice is situated on the north 
side of the cottage, and c vers an area of 40 yds. by 
23 yds. A brick wall 6 ft. high bounds the garden on 
the east, a wood fence on the west and north. Our 
amateur washes something may happen to the latter, 
it is shaky, part of the posts having gone between 
wind and water. He is looking forward to the sub¬ 
stitution of a wall against which he can erect a lean-to 
greenhouse, and rejoice in the prospect of .clusters of 
purple grapes and a supply of Vine leaves for his 
dessert-plates. 
The 40 yds. by 25 yds. is managed entirely by the 
amateur, and one wonders in walking round how 
he does it in the limited amount of time at his 
disposal. The soil is a heavy loam with a subsoil of 
300 ft. of clay. How do we know- that ? says our 
captious critic. The Directors of the Water Company 
here could not “ let well alone; ” they sank another— 
this an artesian well, and the aforesaid depth of clay 
was bored before they arrived at the chalk. The 
amateur’s garden lies within a sixth of a mile of the 
new well. It is intersected by three 4-ft. gravelled 
paths w-ith wooden curbings—a centre and two side 
paths. There is a nice little lawn 40 ft. by 20 ft. in 
front of his draw-ing-room w-indow, and a few 
herbaceous plants and roses along the southern side 
of it. Our friend is not great in flowers, only just 
beginning to take an interest in them. He will watch 
the opening of some seedling Polyanthus, Sweet Wil¬ 
liam, and Antirrhinum a friend has given him with 
the mild excitement and pleasurable surprise to which 
incipient amateur florists are liable. The most note¬ 
worthy feature about the garden is the comparative 
ease and freedom with which it is worked. Continual 
deep digging and stirring of the soil, with the addition 
of ashes and burnt vegetable refuse, must account for 
this. Potato haulm is always carefully burnt, for our 
amateur has an instinctive idea that the spores of the 
dreaded potato fungus still survive after the haulm is 
buried, and are lurking beneath till the spring time 
comes again in prospect of a fresh attack. 
The burnt refuse and a load and a half of horse 
dung yearly are the only additions the garden has in 
the way of manure. There is not a weed to be seen— 
not a blade of the troublesome couch grass—not a 
single twining stem of the more troublesome bindweed. 
The owner of this garden is proud of his winter stuff 
—Scotch Kale, Brussels Sprouts, and Broccoli; he 
always takes the precaution of raising his own stocks 
of the Cabbage tribe. Wise man this 1 some of us 
amateurs will say. He is not under the necessity of 
admiring in a coveteous sort of way his neighbour's 
seed-beds, or putting off the planting of profitable 
winter stuff until too late for a rapid and succulent 
growth. The Potatos he most favours are Sutton’s 
popular Magnum Bonum, Vicar of Laleham, School¬ 
master, and Gloucester Kidney. The Vegetable Marrow 
is a favourite vegetable with him; it is grown in a 
trench into which a couple of barrowfuls of manure 
has been placed three weeks before planting. It is 
then mixed up with some ashes and sound loam, and 
the long vines left to take care of themselves. This 
has been a favourable season, but too hot for Marrows 
exposed to continual sunshine. The Marrow likes 
warmth, but shade and sunshine occasionally also. 
The Marrows are allowed to ramble under the fruit 
trees, and late in the season all about. The soil, as 
we have said, is a heavy loam, but the texture has been 
much improved, and the vines root at the joints, and 
thus secure additional nourishment. There were a 
dozen or so of nice sizeable fruit ready to cut, and the 
crop had been prodigious. 
Tomatos are a favourite vegetable now-a-days, quite 
a desiderata in well-to-do families, and one of the 
most profitable of market garden crops. Between 
rows of cabbage on a border facing west, about 5 ft. 
wide, our amateur put out the plants from three penny¬ 
worth of seed ; they were raised in a friend’s hot-bed. 
About thirty plants were set crosswise, and trained to 
5 ft. stakes. The crop, of which the last were gathered 
on Monday, weighed 40 lb.; two fruit weighed 17 oz. 
There is a well-tended Strawberry bed, but the plants 
are getting too old (four years); we recommended him 
to replace a third of them every year with young 
plants. All the runners were cut off, however, a 
month ago, and a comfortable mulching of manure 
put between the rows. The usual bush fruits were 
grown, but this was no excuse for the neglect of 
keeping the ground clear of weeds. Thorough working 
of the soil, freedom from weeds and early cropping, 
and constant and persistent attention are the causes 
of the amateur’s success. But an amateur, whose 
mowing machine happens to be out of order, and yet 
is not to be beaten, who will go to work on his knees 
with garden shears and take a week to cut his lawn, is 
sure of success in almost any pursuit. He will, no 
doubt, some day attain to the rank of florist. Mean¬ 
while pleasant and healthful exercise and an abundant 
supply of fresh vegetables and fruit are a sufficient 
reward, and so the garden pays .—Luke Ellis. 
: + c - - 
Sweet Brier.—The delicious odour the Sweet 
Brier exhales ought to commend it to everyone, and 
cause it to be extensively planted, for besides the 
lovely perfume it gives off, which quite pervades the 
air in spring after a shower, it -is one of the most 
ornamental shrubs anyone can have, as may be seen 
just now, for wherever there are bushes of it they 
are aglow with their bright coloured hips, which are 
exceedingly ornamental, showing off well and most 
effectively at a distance, where they look like brilliant 
blooms, and light up a place. Rain and wind that 
spoil flowers so quickly have no adverse action on 
them, and for weeks yet to come they will be shining 
objects, and remain so long after gardens are bare. 
We have a hedge of plants, but where, I think, they 
look best is in the foreground of evergreens at the 
back of a herbaceous border, or as isolated plants on 
grass, for which they are specially suited, and I was 
much struck with some I saw the other day so planted, 
as they were of the loose bush form and laden with 
their coral-red hips that were all aglow in the sun. 
It occurred to me when looking at them, as it has 
done before, how serviceable they and many other of 
our berried plants would be for the embellishment of 
dinner-tables.— Norfolk, in The Gardeners’ Chronicle. 
GARDENING FOR COUNTRY 
SCHOOLS. 
Some graphic and interesting letters have lately 
appeared in The Daily Neu-s under the heading of the 
“ Complaint of the Village.” The writer evidently 
understands what he is writing about, and he sketches 
the varied scenes of village life and economy with a 
masterly hand. The deficiency and impurity of the 
water supply, the frequent neglect of the simplest 
sanitary precautions with regard to drainage, the 
education and status of the farm labourer, and the 
necessity for the vide extension of the allotment 
system, are all treated of and enforced in vigorous and 
picturesque Saxon English. A number of letters, 
some of them written by farm labourers, furnish 
abundant proof of the truth of the statements 
advanced. We, too, know something of village life and 
its surroundings, and desire to add our testimony to 
the urgent need of the suggested reforms. 
It is chiefly with regard to the necessity for pro¬ 
viding every village community with land for the 
profitable employment of spare time, and as a means 
of adding to the wealth and comfort of the cottager, 
and also for providing instruction in the proper tillage 
of land, that we wish to speak. Upon the former 
point there is a remarkable consensus of opinion. 
But “Villager” and his commentators seem to 
overlook the fact that before the plots of land under 
consideration can be properly, and therefore profitably, 
cultivated, some technical instruction is essential. It 
seems to be taken for granted that neither gardening 
nor fa nn ing need any such aid; whereas there 
are few occupations demanding greater knowledge 
and experience for their successful prosecution. 
“ Scientific Agriculture ” is the antidote which some 
would apply for the relief of agricultural depression 
and all the ills the village is hen- to. But the latest 
nostrum of the Kensington school, is, so far as its 
practical utility is concerned, utterly misleading and a 
waste of public money. The so-called lecturers, 
mostly the masters of Board Schools in the Metropolis 
and large towns, teach simply to earn the Government 
grant, and the quasi-scientific knowledge imparted is 
next to worthless for any practical purpose connected 
with the cultivation of the soil. 
Why should not every village school have its plot of 
garden ground attached to it, and if the master be not 
qualified to teach such rudimentary horticulture as 
would be needed for a time at least, why not call in 
the aid of the gardener ? There are hundreds of 
intelligent men who are thoroughly qualified for such 
a post. Such teaching, accompanied by practical 
demonstration on the soil itself, would tend to 
popularize the subject; boys would leam by such 
means what a well-managed garden is capable of 
producing, and the cultivation of the cottage garden 
or allotment cease to be regarded by the labourer, as 
it is fr equently now, as merely a wearisome prolongation 
of his hours of toil. “ Surnmat for the pot” is the 
labourer’s sole motive for exertion. He has no notion 
that flowers can be profitably grown, nor the remotest 
idea that a gooseberry bush or a strawberry plant will 
actually produce a crop of fruit year after year of 
sufficient value to purchase the land it stands upon. 
Let the Lords of the Education Department with 
then- worthy Vice-President add one other subject to 
their schedule, and make it an essential class subject 
in rural schools. There can be no comparison in the 
value of such a subject as “Elementary Horticulture,” 
and the ordinary class subjects either in then- direct- 
usefulness or their intrinsic value as a means of 
education. Acre after acre may be broken up as 
allotments, but until the labourer is systematically 
taught how to cultivate them, such tillage will never 
become the attractive and profitable employment it is 
hoped they will be. 
ROBERT FENN. 
As a fitting accompaniment to the Great Potato 
Exhibitions, which are now about to be held, and with 
an earnest desire to do honour to one of the most 
ardent and successful of Potato raisers, we to-day- 
present our readers with a portrait of the gentleman 
whose name heads this paper, and also with some 
slight outline of what he has accomplished with 
Potatos during an extended and busy life. With 
characteristic quaintness of style, Mr. Fenn mentions 
that his first introduction to the tuber, which in after¬ 
life he learned to appreciate so veil, was some forty- 
eight years ago, when then a small boy, he was sent 
by an uncle to pick up the crop of Early Shaws on a 
patch of soil, the promised reward being leave to go 
to the neighbouring fair-, and that, boy-like, never with 
such a reward in Hew was work ever quicker done. 
But that was hardly Potato raising in the sense with 
which Mr. Fenn’s name has since become so promi¬ 
nently associated. 
Apprenticed to a London watchmaker, fiom whose 
service in sheer disgust for the occupation he ran 
away, and finally entering the congenial and loving 
service of the Rev. Mr. St. John, then of Stanton 
Lacy, in Shropshire, and later, and for very many 
years, Rector of Woodstock, he, in this latter place, 
commenced those garden labours with which for full 
forty years he has been so prominently associated. 
It is difficult to say whether, of what a sceptical world 
