692 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
July i, 1893. 
GARDENERS’ ROYAL BENEVOLENT 
INSTITUTION. 
The 54th anniversary festival of this institution was 
held at the Hotel Metropole on June 22nd, Baron 
Schroder presiding over a numerous company, among 
those present being Lord Teynham, Sir Trevor 
Lawrence, Bart., Mr. H. J. Veitch, Mr. N, N. Sher¬ 
wood, Mr. John Lee, Mr. H. J. Adams, Mr. T. F. 
Peacock, Mr. N. Cohen, Mr. T. J. Braikenridge, Mr. 
P. Crowley, Rev. W. Wilks, Mr. David Allister, Mr. 
W. J. Nutting, Mr. John Laing, Mr. H. Williams, 
Mr. A.W. G. Weeks, Mr. G. Monro, Mr. W. Y. 
Baker, Mr. Lynch White, Mr. T. Manning. Mr. A. 
Dickson, Mr. J. Webber, Mr. Peter Kay, Mr. H. B. 
May, Mr. W. Iceton, Mr. H. J. Cutbush, Mr. C. E. 
Osman, Mr. William Bull, Mr. Arnold Moss, Mr. 
W. L. Corry, Mr. Rochford, Mr. Sweet, Mr. A. 
Turner, Mr. Barron, Mr. P. Barr, Mr. Walker, Dr. 
Gorton Mr. Melady, Mr. H. J. Wimsett, and a good 
number of gardeners. In honour of the chairman's 
well-known love for Orchids, the tables were 
charmingly decorated by Miss Hudson with Orchid 
blooms, contributed by friends of the institution. 
The usual loyal toasts having been duly honoured, 
Baron Schroder—in proposing the toast of the even¬ 
ing, “ Continued success and prosperity to the Gar- 
deners'Royal Benevolent Institution,”—said, when he 
was first asked to preside on this occasion he had 
felt disposed to decline the honour because, although 
he took the greatest interest in the Institution, he 
might not be able to express all that he felt, and on 
that account the institution might not derive all the 
benefits usually anticipated from the presence of an 
eloquent chairman. However, he felt sure they 
would take the will for the deed, and he felt 
encouraged in accepting the invitation by the reflec¬ 
tion that all who loved flowers and fruits, as well as 
those who cultivated them for their delectation, were 
as well able to bear testimony to the value of the in¬ 
stitution as he himself. In this country they had 
innumerable hospitals and charitable institutions 
kindred to their own, but he thought the claims of 
the aged gardeners upon their bounty would be 
universally regarded as pre-eminent, and certainly no 
other institution spoke so much to their hearts as did 
the Gardeners’Royal Benevolent Institution. Than 
the flowers —- which their gardeners grew with so 
much skill and patient care, and often at the risk of 
their health—there was nothing so soothing to the 
hard worked city man. Flowers surrounded them 
from their birth to their death : they had flowers at 
their christenings and their bridals and oving friends 
surrounded their bodies with flowers when taking 
them to their last home. Even the boys at school 
delighted in the possession of a choica flower as a 
button-hole, and the girls, before arriving at the 
dignity of diamonds and other precious stones, were 
content with an orchid spray, while nothing delighted 
them at the altar so much as orange blossoms. 
Surely then all who delighted in flowers ought to do 
everything in their power to alleviate the sufferings 
and relieve the wants of necessitous gardeners in 
their declining days. No society did this so well as 
the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution, and 
every flower lover ought to be grateful to the institu¬ 
tion that affords them an opportunity of helping in so 
good a cause. The institution was founded in 1838, 
and two years afterwards there were two pensioners 
and one hundred subscribers. Now they had 150 
pensioners and 1,300 subscribers. That evening he 
hoped they would show to the world that they were 
not only good gardeners but true philanthropists, and 
he had the more confidence in appealing to their 
generosity in that they spent no money in bricks 
and mortar—all that the committee received, beyond 
the necessary expenses of management which, were 
kept as low as possible, going to the relief of those 
for whose benefit the institution was founded. In 
reading through the recently revised rules of the in¬ 
stitution, he had been specially struck with the new 
rule 10 which he thought an admirable innovation, 
inasmuch as that, in crediting applicants for the 
pensions with votes in proportion to the number of 
years they may have been subscribers, they were 
helping those who helped themselves, and that was 
the spirit of true philanthropy. The Baron then 
made an earnest appeal for subscriptions, and for 
himself remarked that, though no doubt later in the 
evening some kind words would be said of him, he 
would much prefer to hear that the subscription list 
was a larger one than that of last year. 
Mr. H. J. Veitch, the treasurer, in replying to the 
toast, v armly thanked the Baron on behalf of the 
institution for his presence that evening and for his 
most sympathetic speech, than which he had never 
heard one which brought the claims of the institu¬ 
tion more closely to their hearts. Though they were 
granting pensions to 150 old gardeners or their 
widows at an annual cost of £2,700, their annual 
average income from subscriptions was only 
about £2,000, and there were still many most urgent 
cases awaiting their help. 
Mr. Arnold Moss proposed " The Royal Horticul¬ 
tural, Royal Botanic, and kindred societies of London 
and the United Kingdom,” to which Sir Trevor 
Lawrence, Bart., responded. The Rev. \V. Wilks 
proposed " The Stewards and Officers,” which was 
suitably acknowledged by Mr. N. N. Sherwood, both 
gentlemen bearing testimony to the conspicuous 
courtesy and ability with which Mr. G. J. Ingram 
discharged the duties of secretary. Mr. Ingram then 
announced that the subscription list amounted to 
£1,500, Baron and Baroness Schroder contributing 
£105; Messrs. Rothschild & Son, £105; Messrs. 
Hurst & Son, £100 ; Mr. George Monro, £91 18s. ; 
Mr. Henry Williams, £40; Mr. R. Tait, £26 is.; 
Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, £21 ; Mr. William Bull, 
£13 8s.; Mr. W. H. Protheroe, £12 is.; Sir Trevor 
Lawrence, Bart., logs.; G. F. Wilson, Esq., F.R.S., 
logs.; T. B. Haywood, Esq., logs.; Messrs. Hugh 
Low & Co., logs.; Mr. W. Y. Baker, 8gs.; Mr. 
W. B. Latham, £7, etc. 
Mr. A. W. G. Weeks in graceful terms proposed 
" Our Chairman,” to which the Baron, replied and 
the proceedings terminated. 
-- 
GOVERNMENT GARDENERS. 
The London season has been at its height for the 
last week or two, and society's public parks and 
gardens have, says the Pall Mall Gazette, put on their 
full fresh greenery. But while we benefit by and 
enjoy these beautious trees and flowers and lawns, 
few of us ever stop to think by whom and at whose 
expense all this work is so charmingly done. It 
would almost seem the effect of some unseen agency, 
for we rarely see hoe or rake or spade being plied as 
we take our walks abroad. Perhaps some short 
account of the management of these gardens and 
parks may be interesting at this flowery season, if 
we deal only with those frequented by the many¬ 
headed multitude ihat forms the part and parcel of 
the London season. All the Royal parks and gardens 
are nominally under a special department of Govern¬ 
ment. Ancient functionaries called “ Rangers ” are 
supposed to control them and by-law them. But so 
far as the gardening of them is concerned they are 
under the Office of Works, a department of adminis¬ 
tration which has to do chiefly with the building, 
repairing, cleaning, and furnishing of Government 
offices. The society parks and gardens for the 
beautification of which the Office of Works is respon¬ 
sible are Regent’s Park, Hyde Park, Kensington 
Gardens, the Green Park, St. Jame's Park, the 
Treasury Garden, Parliament Square, and the 
Speaker’s Garden. Nearly 300 men are employed 
on this work. Regent’s Park has a superintendent 
and a staff of men for itself. The rest are under 
another superintendent and staff. Under each 
superintendent we find a foreman, or foremen, and 
under-foremen. In Regent’s Park the gardeners 
grow and rear all they need for the beds there. The 
head nursery quarters for the other places is at 
Kensington Gardens. 
Flowers and plants, like music, have power to 
soothe the savage breast, and they exercise upon us 
the same tendering and mellowing influence as the 
society of children. Who has not noticed that gar¬ 
deners are, as a rule, kindly, gentle men ? But 
while we in the heat and hurry of the town enjoy 
these verdant and floral oases of the metropolis, we 
are apt to forget the lot of the busy toilers who so 
sweetly soothe our senses. The gardeners of the 
Government at present begin their work at six 
o’clock in the morning, and it is a quarter to six in 
the evening before they hang up the shovel and the 
hoe. They have a long day of it, for they are 
allowed only half an hour for breakfast and an hour 
for dinner : so they do more than a ten-hour day’s 
work. To get to his work in time a man may have 
to rise at half-past four. He cannot afford to live in 
the near neighbourhood of society's park. Before 
he gets home to his supper it is past seven o’clock, 
so that for sleep and recreation he is limited to 
about eight hours. If he were well paid for it he 
need not perhaps grumble, but the wages of the 
Governmeut gardener are considerably below those 
of his class. Considering the hundreds of thou¬ 
sands of people to whom the toil of these early- 
risers gives so much pleasure, something should be 
done to see that there is no sacrifice made on the 
altar of public selfishness. It is much to be feared 
that red-tapeism has got rather a strong hold of the 
gardeners of the Government, and these horny- 
handed sons of toil are not practised in the use of 
either voice or pen. 
During a large part of the winter here in London, 
especially in foggy weather, no gardener can possibly 
see to work before half-past seven o clock, and yet 
the Government gardeners have to lounge about in 
the cold for a full hour before that, all owing to the 
thoughtlessness of officialism. That might well be 
remedied. The men are also supposed to get a half¬ 
holiday on Saturday. That is, they leave off work 
three and a half hours earlier. But, alas, the 
clumsy arrangement for paying wages makes it 
generally after four o’clock before any freedom is 
got. Does it not seem somewhat absurd to make a 
man walk a couple of miles from his usual place of 
work to get his pay, and then to find that he must 
wait his turn in a crowd ? Surely that might 
remedied. On Sunday mornings so many men hav 
to turn out betimes to gather up paper, straw, 
orange skins, and the general evidence of the people, 
before the public come out to enjoy their inheritance. 
Only twice a year are the beds cleared and fresh 
plants put in—in October for the spring, and in 
April or May for the summer, but the work is beauti¬ 
fully done, and the flowers have been carefully 
grown and reared and selected. There is every 
reason why we should be proud of our public parks 
and gardens, and in the same degree there is every 
reason why we should be grateful to our gardeners, 
and give them some adequate place in the province 
of human pleasure and enjoyment. 
-- 
RANSOMES’ POTATO 
PLANTER. 
The Royal Agricultural Society last week awarded 
five Silver Medals for new implements exhibited at 
the Chester Show, and one of them was awarded to 
a new double-row Potato planter, manufactured by 
Messrs Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies (Limited), of 
Ipswich. The principle of this machine is the same 
as that of the one they showed at Warwick last 
year; but it has been altered in many respects and 
greatly improved in several of the most important 
parts. The Potato sets to be planted are put into a 
large double hopper. At each side of this hopper 
are fixed conical discs, which turn with the road 
wheels. There discs form the two sides of the 
hopper and are provided with ten cups, which pick 
up the Potatos as they revolve. At the back of 
each cup a lever is fixed, with a projecting needle 
and a spring. At the right time, in turns, these 
levers are liberated, and the springs force the 
needles into the Potatos in the cups. They are 
then carried round with the discs, and when near the 
ground the needles are withdrawn and the Potatos 
drop quietly on to the ground at regular intervals of 
13 in. apart, or wider if required. Potatos in the 
North of England are usually planted on the manure 
placed between the ridges specially prepared. In 
this case the machine is fitted with a pole and with 
a pair of press wheels, which, running on the 
manure, prepares a place for the seed. When the 
planting is on the flat, as is the case in other parts 
of the country, the machine is fitted with small 
ridging ploughs in front, making furrows for the 
Potatos to drop in. The width of these furrows can 
be varied, to plant 24 to 30 in. apart. About seven 
to eight acres of Potatos can be planted in a day, 
and at a much more uniform depth than by hand. 
It has been found by actual experience that 95 per 
cent., or even more, of the Potatos are correctly 
planted. The machine was tried on Wednesday on 
Mr. Taylor's farm, Hoole Hall, near the show- 
ground, and the trial was so thoroughly satisfactory 
that the judges awarded it the bociety’s Silver 
Medal. Messrs. Ransomes also showed their new 
Potato digger, fitted with small plough breasts instead 
of prongs for throwing out the Potatos from the 
rows. It is this year fitted with a new patent revolv¬ 
ing screen, driven by the road wheels, which 
separates the Potatos more perfectly from the soil 
and leaves them in a line, thereby effecting a great 
saving in the labour of picking.— Bell's Messenger. 
