608 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
May 27, 1898. 
Whe Tomato. — There are plenty of 
^ croakers who are too ready to shake 
their heads with awful solemnity and aver 
that the Tomato craze will soon wear itself 
•out. We should very much like to know 
upon what ground that gloomy foreboding 
is based ? We have not yet tired of Cucum¬ 
bers, Marrows, Melons, or indeed of any 
description of garden produce which has 
grown into popularity and become estab¬ 
lished food. To us it rather seems as if 
the Tomato would have a very ling innings, 
for few fruits, after all, seem to have in 
them such elements of continued favour. 
We can have them practically all the year 
round from somewhere. We can have 
them in very great abundance at home for 
fully six months of the year, and with the 
aid of heat fully nine months. 
The Tomato is easily grown, easily raised 
from seed, is not at all above the efforts of 
amateurs and cottagers to successfully cul¬ 
tivate, and it is, after all that has been said 
about it, not specially susceptible to disease. 
We were in the houses of a grower the 
other day, whose plants were only 14 inches 
apart, growing on a soil bed some 14 inches 
in width, and which, undt-r similar con¬ 
ditions last year, produced an average of 
20 lbs. per plant. Putting this produce at 
the low estimate of pd. per lb., that gives 
6s. 8d. per plant, and we should like to 
learn of any other plant that would give 
so much of fruit value in so small a space. 
This was at Mr. H. J. Jones’s, Hither 
Green Nursery, Lewisham, where all the 
best market sorts are being grown, and 
where it is being constantly demonstrated 
that far better results come from limited 
root areas—the soil being fairly well fed 
during the season—than where there is 
excessive root room. The culture of 
Tomatos for market leads to the discovery 
of many matters that otherwise do not come 
within the ken of the ordinary gardener or 
amateur. 
ISThe Guild of Kew Gardeners.-— It was 
^ a distinctly happy thought which 
prompted Mr. Watson and his co-workers 
in the Royal Gardens at Kew to band 
themselves with past employes in the same 
national establishment into a Guild, which, 
as the director, Mr. Thiselton Dyer, well 
points out in the “ Journal of the Kew 
Guild,” which has just been issued, cannot 
but have the effect of consolidating the 
esprit de corps which exists among the young 
men under his control, and in other ways 
be of great benefit to the great botanical 
garden of which we are all so proud. 
The objects which the promoters of the 
Guild have in view are, we are glad to 
know, not to be of a purely “domestic” 
character—such a combination for the mere 
glorification 0/ Kew and its staff would be 
too contemptable to think of—but are of 
the really laudable character of bringing 
together in a bond of fellowship all who 
have at any time been employed as gar¬ 
deners at Kew, by means of a journal which 
will convey to them news of interest and 
enable them to communicate with each 
other, and to a scheme of this sort we can 
heartily wish all possible success. 
The first number of the “Journal” now 
before us will, we are sure, be read by all 
Kewites with great interest, by those of 
the “ past ” perhaps more so than by those 
of the “ present,” for it contains a wide and 
most interesting range of information of 
peculiar value to the men more particularly 
concerned in the doings at Kew, and this 
feature of the Guild’s operations may 
reasonably be expected to be improved and 
extended as time goes on, and many who 
are for the moment forgotten are brought 
into the fold. There was a time when Kew 
men, as a rule, were not held in any great 
esteem by their brother gardeners, having 
the general reputation of being too 
bumptious for the company of ordinary 
mortals, and not to love work too well. 
But such depreciatory feelings have, 
happily, long since passed into the limbo 
of obscurity, and the average Kew man of 
to-day has a better standing among his 
fellows. 
^ahlias. — We have, happily, in the 
Dahlias plants that bloom so long and 
persistently that they cannot be said to 
have any special season, and it looks as if 
this year their blooming would be unusually 
prolonged. Those who had the courage to 
plant out early have been, so far, amply 
rewarded. They found the weather hot 
and dry, it is true, but the Dahlia will 
endure warmth, whilst water and mulching 
can soon be furnished ; better these con¬ 
ditions, however, than cold winds, storms, 
or frosts. The earlier planting will natur¬ 
ally lead to earlier Looming, and we may 
hope that as a result, many seedlings, 
which were destroyed last autumn by that 
untoward September frost, will this season 
show their complete form, as also will new 
seedlings, which, put out late, require a long 
summer to enable them to completely 
bloom. 
So far the only protection needed for the 
plants has been stakes and ties to hold 
them secure during strong winds. The 
recent rains have been productive of great 
good, hence Dahlias have been singularly 
favoured. Even the young plants from 
cuttings went out under unusually favour¬ 
able conditions, because the strong sunlight 
had hardened the stems and rendered the 
plants more fit for exposure than is the case 
when the Springtime is cold and gloomy. 
There is, however, no reason to assume 
that it will be needful to bring forward the 
Dahlia Shows. On the other hand, we 
shall probably see good flowers mueh earlier 
than is usual at the ordinary Summer 
Shows, and that will be a great gain, and 
will help to popularise the Dahlia in many 
directions. 
This will specially be the case with the 
beautiful Cactus section, for these flowers 
are often unduly late, and many tire of 
growing them for that reason. The section 
is a greatly improving one, indeed it bids 
fair to become the most popular in time. 
When to the best Cactus flowers have been 
added the growth or habit and floriferous- 
ness of the Pompon section, everybody will 
grow Cactus Dahlias. 
-- 
Mr. James McNab, so well known “ on the Road ” 
as traveller for the Liverpool Horticultural Company, 
Limited, has joined the staff of Messrs. F. Sander 
& Co., St. Albans, in a similar capacity. 
H R H. The Duke and Duchess of Connaught 
honoured Messrs. W. & G. Drover with a visit to 
their nurseries at Fareham, on Friday of last week. 
The royal visitors were received by Mr. W. Drover, 
and conducted over the establishment, the Duchess 
evincing great interest in the Stephanotis, Gardenia, 
and Rose houses, and on leaving, Her Royal High¬ 
ness was presented by Mr. Drover with a bouquet 
of Pearl des Jardin Roses, together with a copy of 
the firm’s illustrated book on the “Growth of the 
Chrysanthemum." 
Gardening Engigements.—Mr. H. Watt, for the 
last twelve years gardener at Rockingham Castle, 
has been engaged by the Earl of Ancaster as gar¬ 
dener at Normanton Park, Stamford, in succession 
to Mr. John Gilbert.—Mr. G. H. Krumbiegel, for 
the last two years sub-foreman in the Propagating- 
Department at Kew, has been appointed 
superintendent of the State Gardens at Baroda, 
India, which, during the past four years, have been 
remodelled and extended under the superintendence 
of Mr. W. Goldring. 
- ■■ - . . - 
Mr. Alexander McDonald, for the last four years 
foreman at Methven Castle, Perth, has been engaged 
as gardener to Sir Thomas Monro, Bart., Lindertis, 
Forfarshire. 
Shipment of Potatos to New York—Large 
quantities of Scottish Potatos are being shipped 
weekly from the Clyde to United States ports. 
Two steamers for New York are taking out 944 tons, 
which are valued at £3,620. 
Early Strawberries.—As an illustration of the 
forwardness of the season in the metropolitan dis¬ 
trict, we may state that the first dish of Strawberries, 
Laxton's King of the Earlies, was gathered at 
Chiswick on Whit Sunday, and two other of Mr. 
Laxton’s seedlings were ready on the following day, 
while Noble would not be ripe for a week. Mr. 
Barron having kept the plants well watered during 
the dry weather, has a grand crop this season. 
The Temple Show.—By the time these lines appear 
in print the large tents erected in the Temple 
Gardens for the holding of the Royal Horticultural 
Society’s annual exhibition will have been filled to 
repletion and all made ready for public inspection. 
So far as we can learn at the time of going to press, 
the display will be a notable one for a few special 
things, such as Orchids, hardy plants, Begonias, 
and Gloxinias, and the hardy plants alone, in pots 
and as cut flowers, will fill one of the great tents. 
Baron Schroder, Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., 
Messrs. Sander, Williams, Low, Cypher, etc., will 
be represented in the Orchid section as usual. 
Finfler-and-Toe in Turnips.—The Seeds and Plant 
Diseases Committee of the Royal Agricultural 
Society have instructed the consulting chemist and 
the consulting botanist to investigate, but upon per¬ 
fectly separate lines, the disease known as “ finger- 
and-toe “ in Turnips. The agriculturists of the 
country are suffering very much from this disease 
through its unknown causes and its unknown treat¬ 
ment, and it is to be hoped that Dr. Voelcker and 
his coadjutor will be able to throw some light upon 
the matter. 
A Plague of Caterpillars.—The Caterpillar is play¬ 
ing sad havoc with the fruit trees in some parts of 
Cornwall, and especially with the Apple and Pear 
trees. Indeed, some of the orchards are so stricken 
as to be completely stripped of fruit and leaf, and 
those which were a week ago in the height of bloom, 
giving promise of a splendid yield, have now a most 
miserable appearance. Poisonous water has been 
freely used, and other well-known remedies, but 
without that good effect that could be desired. This 
is another misfortune brought about by the long-con¬ 
tinued drought. Nevertheless, taking the county all 
round, there are evidences of good crops in the parts 
not absolutely affected with the trouble mentioned — 
a continuation of the good supply already 
commenced. 
The late Lord Derby.—At the dinner given to the 
judges and exhibitors at the Manchester Exhibition, 
last Friday, Mr. Joseph Broome, who presided, said 
they had to mourn the loss of their president, Lord 
Derby. His lordship was president of the society 
for thirteen years, and no president gave more 
attention to the duties of the office than he did. His 
purse was always open for anything the Council 
required for the advantage of the society, and his 
advice was always freely given, and if the speeches 
he had delivered at various times were collected and 
published in a volume they would make a very hand¬ 
some memorial of Lord Derby’s valuable services as 
president, and of the interest he took in the society. 
One of his last actions was to give a cup of the value 
of twenty guineas as a prize to be competed for. He 
hoped his lordship’s memory would be cherished, as 
it deserved to be, in all ranks of society. 
The Kentish Fruit Season.—Owing to the excep¬ 
tional forwardness of the season the Strawberry crop 
in all parts of Kent is fully a month earlier than 
usual. A few sample pickings, destined mainly for 
the northern markets, are reported to have been 
made on Saturday last, and picking of the earlier 
sorts became general on Whit-Monday. The 
drought has somewhat affected the older plants, but 
those of two and three years’ growth are showing 
well, and with a continuance of the mild, warm 
showers we have experienced lately, there is every 
prospect that the later varieties will yield heavily, 
the crop being fully equal, if not superior, to the 
average of the last few years. Owing to the hard¬ 
ness of the ground, caused by the long-continued 
