176 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
August 3, 1895. 
HINTS FOR AMATEURS. 
The Kitchen Garden. 
While in the majority of instances too much ground 
can scarcely be devoted to the cultivation of flowers, 
at least in the eyes of the female portion of the 
household, there are other considerations to be 
looked to besides those of mere adornment, 
and thus, beautiful as flowers are, the ornamental 
has, in some measure at least, to give place to 
the useful. Indeed, after a careful consideration of 
the various branches of horticulture in which amateurs 
dabble, with a greater or less degree of success, 
that of vegetable growing is the particular one in 
which the honours are most evenly divided between 
the amateur and the professional cultivator. At 
various shows throughout the country, may be seen 
from time to time .^vegetables contributed by 
amateurs that would do credit to anyone. 
To those holders of small gardens who make a 
hobby of growing vegetables for purposes of exhibi¬ 
tion the long continued drought that lasted through 
the greater part of the spring and early summer 
months, and has, in fact, only come to a close during 
the past week or two, has been a sore trial, more 
particularly when they are straining every effort to 
go one better than their neighbours at the forth¬ 
coming local show. A fiercely bright sun shining 
day after day, his exceptional radiance scarcely 
obscured by a single cloud and an almost total 
absence of rainfall, or at least only a few drops that 
did little more than lay the dust for an hour or two, 
could scarcely fail to result in dwarfed and stunted 
growth. The recent heavy showers have put an 
entirely different complexion on things, however, 
and it is astonishing to see the rapidity with which 
many subjects have recouped their energies. Growth 
now will be exceedingly rapid, and in the event of 
fairly favourable weather, things may not be so very 
far behind hand after all. 
Tomatos. —Whatever else may have suffered 
from the tropical weather these have had a right 
royal time when it has been possible to keep them 
well supplied with water at the root, and thus there 
should be no difficulty whatever in obtaining heavy 
crops of well-ripened fruit. Nowadays, the system 
of planting rather closely, and of taking up a single 
stem is generally admitted to be the best method to 
pursue. The practice of denuding the plants of a 
great portion of their leaves, under the mistaken 
idea that better fruit is produced by this means, is 
also curiously enough believed in to a very large 
extent. Here, however, the operator must be ex¬ 
ceedingly cautious, or he will inevitably do harm 
instead of good. It may be necessary to remove a 
leaf here and there, that is observed to be shading 
the fruit, and thus accelerate the ripening process, 
or even to cut very gross growing leaves half way 
through, and in this way to partially check undue 
vigour of growth, but wholesale removal of the 
leaves is both a barbarous and an unnatural system 
to adopt, and one that cannot fail to have injurious 
effects upon the size, weight, and flavour of the fruit. 
Peas.— Although the rain came too late to save the 
early rows of Peas it has wonderfully improved the 
appearance of the later ones, which it is not unlikely 
will prove to be the most profitable of all. As a 
rule birds are the greatest enemies of late Peas, and 
some precautions will have to be taken to check the 
incursion of these feathered marauders upon the 
sweet pods and their not less sweet contents, or they 
will soon do all the Pea-picking that is required. If 
a few yards of netting can be spared this should be 
thrown over the rows, allowing it to rest upon the 
top of the sticks, then stretching it out and securely 
pegging the ends down to the ground. 
Cabbage.— A vegetable garden without Cabbages 
would indeed be an anomaly, for it is safe to say that 
next to the Potato it is the most universally favourite 
esculent. It is now quite time to see about the 
sowing of seed to supply plants for cutting from 
next springtime. Some cultivators make a couple of 
sowings, one about the third week in July, and 
another one towards the middle of August. For 
ordinary purposes, however, a single sowing should 
be sufficient, and the beginning of the present month 
for the northern counties and midlands, and a couple 
of weeks later for the most southern districts is the 
best time to see about it. We do not advise too early 
sowing, for this is a fruitful cause of bolting, a state 
of things that some growers have now and again to 
lament. The ground, too, after the rains, is in a 
splendid condition for seed sowing at the present 
time, and advantage may, therefore, be taken of this 
in districts where the earlier sowings are advisable. 
The seed must be sown on light soil, the surface of 
which has been broken up finely by means of a small¬ 
toothed iron rake. In all cases avoid sowing too 
thickly, for if the seed is good a multitude of weak, 
spindly plants is the result. It is far better to 
practise economy with regard to the seed, and insure 
better plants at the same time than it is to sprinkle 
enough seed to sow a quarter of an acre upon a plot 
of land only a few yards square. Once the seed is 
sown its protection from sparrows and other small 
birds must be the next point to receive attention. A 
line of forked wooden pegs, about 15 in. in length 
should be placed all round the outside limits of the 
seed bed, together with one or two in the centre, and 
over these a piece of netting must be stretched, 
fastening it securely to the ground by means of 
smaller pegs. This will make everything snug and 
safe from the visits of the too inquisitive birds. 
Several sorts should be grown, and among them 
Enfield Market, Ellam’s Early Dwarf, and 
Wheeler’s Imperial ; for we have proved these to be 
extremely useful and reliable varieties. 
Weeds. —These up to the present time have given 
little or no trouble, and if proper care has been 
taken to destroy the larger ones in the spring before 
they had time to seed, a good deal of trouble will 
have been saved. Still, perhaps everyone has not 
been careful to do this, and thus the tidy gardener 
may be plagued by the springing up of weeds pro¬ 
duced from seeds matured in the untidy man’s 
garden, or upon portions of waste ground in the 
immediate vicinity. These, assisted by the favoura¬ 
ble circumstances, will be making their appearance 
on all hands, as if to make up for the previous 
delay. The Dutch hoe must, therefore, be kept 
assiduously at work amongst all growing crops, for 
these latter benefit considerably by having the 
surface of the ground whereon they are growing 
frequently stirred, and that greatest of charms 
which a garden can possess, viz., cleanliness, may be 
preserved with comparatively little trouble.— Rex. 
-- 
SUMMER SCHOOL OF HORTICULTURE. 
As announced in our pages in June, the Essex 
County Council organised a short course of elemen¬ 
tary instruction in horticulture to be given at the 
County Technical Laboratories, Chelmsford, during 
the first three weeks of the month which has just 
been completed. The course of instruction has been 
brought to a successful issue and the examination 
was held on the 20th ult. Twelve scholarships w'ere 
offered by the committee for competition, but the 
applications were more nearly three times that num¬ 
ber so that fifteen candidates were selected and 
admitted to the privileges offered. The number of 
applications bears witness to a growing want, which 
becomes all the more evident when we consider that 
the applicants were limited to ages ranging between 
14 and 25, and to residents in the county, either 
engaged in gardening or seeking such employment. 
As far as we are aware this is the first institution 
of the kind that has arranged a summer course of 
instruction, and the successful consumation of the 
same is all the more remarkable when one recalls 
the broiling nature of the weather that prevailed 
nearly the whole of the time the class was sitting, 
and the fact that the young men brought together 
from various parts of the county, were practically 
unaccustomed to study. Our readers may remember 
that the course lasted eighteen days and that the 
work for each day lasted from 9 a.m. to 5 p m., 
which (under the circumstances), would have been a 
tax upon the energies of men accustomed to study. 
Every morning a lecture was given between the 
hours of 9 and 10, after which there were two 
hours of practical work with the microscope, simple 
and compound. An hour was allowed for the mid¬ 
day meal, after which a lecture of at least an hour's 
duration was delivered. This was followed by 
practical work and demonstrations from 2 to 5 p.m., 
during which the students were employed in the 
garden, digging, trenching, raking, hoeing, preparing 
seed beds, or at the potting bench, sowing seeds, 
transplanting and potting seedlings and other horti¬ 
cultural operations. Budding, grafting, layering, 
and the making of cuttings of various subjects 
occupied the time during other days. 
The visiting of nurseries, seed farms and market 
gardens, constituted another important item of the 
program and on each of these occasions, the students 
were accompanied by the biological staff, so that 
demonstrations were given at each of these places 
both by the members of the staff and the proprietors 
or managers of the same. The latter would for 
instance explain their own methods of practice in 
certain cases, giving the reasons and objects aimed 
at in adopting such and such a course. The first 
visit was made to the seed farm of Mr. Thomas 
Cullen of Witham, on the 6th ult. to see the trial 
plots of that horticulturist, whose collection of Peas 
was very extensive and excited considerable interest 
amongst the students. The second visit was made 
to the seed farm of Mr. Seabrooke, Chelmsford, on 
the nth ult. and on the afternoon of the following 
day, the students were taken over the Chelmsford 
Corporation Sewage Farm, as recorded in our pages. 
Again on the 18th ult. a visit was made to the 
nurseries of Messrs. Saltmarsh & Son, Chelmsford, 
The fruit trees, bushes and Roses at this place.as 
well as the various classes of flowers cultivated, 
furnished the young horticulturists with many a 
useful hint, seeing that they were brought into 
direct contact with the excellent methods of horti¬ 
culture as practiced in this well known' nursery. 
Mr. E. Sheerman, the manager, was in attendance, 
and courteously answered many questions put to him 
by the students concerning fruit trees. Some of the 
men in other departments, including bush fruits and 
Roses, also explained the methods they pursued. On 
the afternoon of the following day, a fifth visit was 
made, on this occasion to the market nursery of 
Messrs, Miller Bros., Coval Road Nurseries,Chelms¬ 
ford, where the chief items of attraction and instruc¬ 
tion were the Vines, Melon houses in various stages of 
progress, and the Tomato houses, all of which were 
carefully inspected. The work of packing Melons 
for market was also witnessed in the packing shed. 
The enormous crops of Melons and Tomatos on the 
plants in bearing, constituted a surprise to the youDg 
gardeners. 
A lecture was delivered and demonstrations given 
on the morning of each day, duriDg the course, by 
the Staff-Lecturer on “ Biology ” (David Houston, 
F.L.S.), County Technical Laboratories, Chelms¬ 
ford, assisted in the demonstrations by Wilfred Mark 
Webb, F.L.S., also attached to the Institution. The 
first three afternoon lectures and demonstrations 
were given by T. S. Dymond, F.I.C., on "The 
Chemistry of the Soil, Air, Water and the Con¬ 
stituents of Plants." He also constitutes one of the 
permanent staff of the Institution. William Cole, 
F.E.S., gave one lecture and demonstration on 
" Injurious Insects." Eight afternoon lectures were 
delivered on "Horticultural Operations and Prac¬ 
tices,” by J Fraser, F.L.S., editor of The Gardening 
World, and accompanied by demonstrations in the 
garden and at the potting bench. He also conducted 
the various garden operations to which reference has 
already been made. 
The accompanying illustration shows the class 
doing practical work with the microscope in connec¬ 
tion with the biological lectures, delivered during 
the early part of the day. The afternoon lectures 
were delivered in the same building. It will be 
observed that the latter is open all along one side, 
and, in fact, is fully exposed to the courtyard of the 
establishment. It was a happy idea that induced 
the Staff to select this temporary lecture room for 
the summer class; for the Laboratory itself would 
have been very close and stuffy, and altogether 
prejudicial to the best interests and convenience of 
the students during the broiling and intensely hot 
weather which prevailed during July while the class 
was sitting. Our readers will notice that the back 
and end walls of the building are covered with a 
host of diagrams which were used to illustrate the 
various subjects dealt with during the course of 
lectures, demonstrations and practical work. The 
Government Inspector expressed satisfaction with 
the arrangements for the health and convenience of 
the students. County council secretaries from 
Cambridge and elsewhere also visited the class and 
were highly satisfied with the plan of combining 
science and practice as a means of " teaching the 
young idea how to shoot," and of enabling the horti¬ 
culturists of the future to get out of the beaten track 
of the rule of thumb, hitherto so extensively prac¬ 
tised in gardens all over the country. The aim of 
all teaching should be to get the student to observe, 
think and act; and by such aids we should expect 
