January 26, 1895. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
345 
SALSAFY AND SCORZONERA. 
Salsafy (Tragopogon porrifolius) and Scorzonera 
hispanica are pretty generally associated together in 
the minds of those who cultivate them, and are old 
vegetables which have been long known and were 
formerly more extensively grown than at present. 
Although not much appreciated by some who prefer 
Parsnips, they both make very good and useful 
second course vegetables, and there are many who 
are very partial to them as such, so that all who 
have to supply large families with a variety of 
vegetables at all seasons should keep up a supply of 
these simply-grown things, which will often come in 
as an extra dish when a choice for that purpose is 
somewhat limited. It should also be borne in mind 
that they are available for use from six to nine 
months in the year. A plant or two of Scorzonera 
aid in any odd corner will give a supply of its really 
pretty deep yellow flowers which will often come in 
handy among other hardy flowers for cutting, and is 
really a better thing for 
the purpose than some 
things grown for a supply 
of cut flowers. 
The same course of cul¬ 
ture is suitable for either 
crop with one exception, 
this is, that owing to 
Scorzonera being more 
prone than Salsafy to run 
to seed, it should be sown 
at least two weeks later. 
Any good garden soil, 
which is both rich and 
deep, and has been well 
worked and pulverised and 
heavily manured for the 
previous crop, will, if 
trenched and thrown into 
ridges during the winter, 
yield a better and more 
succulent crop of roots 
than if the ground is only 
dug one spit deep. From 
the beginning to the 
middle of April is a good 
time to sow. Have the 
ground forked down on a 
dry day, and the rake 
passed over it; then draw 
the drills one foot apart. 
Salsafy should be sown 
thinly, and Scorzonera 
rather thickly. We say 
this because in our ex¬ 
perience the seed of 
Scorzonera in a general 
way does not germinate 
so freely as Salsafy. 
When the plants 
appear above ground, 
thinning out should com¬ 
mence, the plants being 
left at from 6 in. to g in. 
apart. This, if taken in 
hand in time, may be 
done with one of those 
handy little hoes known 
in market gardens as 
Carrot hoes. With these 
tools all crops in their seedling stage can be set 
out in a third of the time it will take to single them 
out by hand, and it presents the additional advantage 
of not exposing the young plants left to the drying in¬ 
fluences of both sun and wicd at the root, which 
often follows upon the disturbance of the soil whec 
hand-pulling is resorted to. Frequent hoeings and 
stirring of the soil to keep down weeds and aerate 
the soil is all the after cultivation required. 
Should the ground set apart for this crop require 
manure in order to secure straight, well-shaped 
roots, it will be necessary to trench it and bury the 
manure well down, so that the tap root runs down 
straight into it, for should the manure be dug in and 
mixed with the top spit, very few useful roots will be 
had, as most of the produce resulting from this 
proceeding will be forked, ill-shaped bunches of 
roots utterly useless. When they have completed 
their growth the roots can be lifted and laid in 
thickly in any spare corner, as being very hardy no 
frost will harm them. Care should be taken when 
lifting the roots not to break or bruise them more 
than can be well avoided, as they bleed so easily, 
and this occasions loss of flavour.— W. B. G. 
-- 
THE LATE MR. WILLIAM THOMSON. 
Speaking at the annual friendly dinner of the 
Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution on 
Thursday of last week, Mr. Harry J. Veitch alluded 
in sympathetic terms to the losses which the Institu¬ 
tion had sustained by death since their previous 
meeting, and specially referred to the late Mr. 
William Thomson, who had been a subscriber for 
forty-seven years, and who throughout that long 
period of time had ever been one of the Institution’s 
warmest supporters. He bore, said Mr. Veitch, a 
revered and honoured name in the horticultural 
world, and was a man whose private life and public 
work conferred honour on the whole gardening 
community. 
The remains of the great gardener, the world-famed 
horticulturist, of whom we are enabled this week to 
The Late Mr. William Thomson, of Clovenfords. 
give a portrait prepared from a recent photograph, 
were interred in the afternoon of Wednesday of last 
week, in the burial ground at Caddonfoot, in the 
presence of a large number of private friends and 
representatives of horticulture from various parts of 
the country, including a deputation from the Royal 
Caledonian Horticultural Society. 
The chief mourners were :—Mr. John Thomson, 
only surviving son ; Messrs. William and Herdman 
Thomson, grandsons ; Mr. David Thomson, nephew ; 
Mr. Herdman, Southside ; Mr. William Stirling, 
Assessor, Galashiels ; Mr. Walter Elliot, Hollybush ; 
and Mr. E. Bruce, his only brother, Mr. David 
Thomson, of Drumlanrig, being unable to be present 
on account of ill-health. 
The Amateur Orchid Grower’s Guide Book. By H. A. 
Burberry (Orcbid Grower to the Rt Hon. J. Chamberlain, 
M.P.). Containing sound, practical information and advice 
for Amateurs, giving a List with Cultural Descriptions ot 
those most suitable for Cool-house, Intermediate-house, and 
Warm-house Culture, together with a Calendar of Operations 
and Treatment for each Month of the Year. In Cloth (Crown 
8vo. 5 by 7§), price 2s. 6 d.; post free, 2s. gd. Publisher, Garden¬ 
ing World, i, Clement’s Inn, Strand, London, W.C, 
STOKING. 
While the majority of gardeners will admit readily 
enough that it only comes in the right and proper 
order of things that the youngest hands should have 
the roughest and most menial jobs to perform, and 
while they will take upon themselves the task of 
comforting those younger than themselves in a 
patronisingly exasperating sort of way, assuring 
them that they will get to be head gardeners pre¬ 
sently, when they will have a fine easy time of it, 
very many are exceedingly slow to take a dose of 
their own "grin and bear it ” sort of physic when 
their turn comes to go on stoking for the week or for 
whatever time the needs of the establishment of 
which they are a part require. These would-be 
comforters do not take to the harness any more 
kindly than those younger members whom they have 
been so fond of solacing. 
Looking all round we question very much if there 
is anyone operation among 
the many disagreeable 
ones that the gardener i s 
called upon to perform 
that is so universally in dis¬ 
favour as that of stoking. 
And, indeed, we do not 
wonder at it, for it is 
necessarily a work in 
which a too great regard 
for cleanliness of person 
cannot be entertained 
successfully for very 
long. But these condi¬ 
tions are aggravated to 
a tremendous extent 
where incompetent or 
badly set boilers are in 
use. In the former in¬ 
stance the stoker has to 
work doubly as hard as he 
would need to do were the 
boiler a sufficiently com¬ 
petent one to keep up the 
requisite heat,in the latter 
case he has to work just 
as hard under even 
greater difficulties. 
Many of the stokeholes 
one meets with, too, are 
anything but palaces. 
Badly made in the first 
instance perhaps, the dust 
and dirt of years have 
been suffered to accumu¬ 
late at its own sweet will 
until the stokeholes have 
become holes in every sense 
of the word. Where such 
a condition of things 
obtain it is not very won¬ 
derful that most) oung men 
do not care about disturb¬ 
ing much of this venerable 
filth, which, if removed 
from its ancient lodging 
place by the too inquisitive 
wielder of the fire shovel, 
often becomes so at the ex¬ 
pense of the latter person’s 
ears, and throat, and nostrils. Then again for six 
months of the year at any rate the thermometer 
during the night does some curious things in the way 
of long journeys. Perhaps at banking-up time it may 
stand over 40° Fahr. with no suspicion of frost in 
the air, and by morning register 8 or io° of frost, to 
the no small dismay of the fireman who has been 
trusting to the continued mildness of the weather, 
and as a result of his too fond dependence finds his 
temperatures all awry in the morning. 
To learn to stoke well is no easy matter, even 
when the heating apparatus is of the best and is in 
thorough working order. It usually takes practice 
to become proficient, for nothing but experience can 
teach the novice how to work the fires of which he 
may have charge with the most advantage to the 
houses they are appointed to heat, and with the 
greatest ease and comfort to himself. It must be 
first of all impressed upon the mind of the stoker 
that cleanliness should be his motto. It is useless 
to expect a fire to draw well if the flues are filled to 
overflowing with soot, which may be used to far 
