April 21, 1900. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
683 
Camellias and Olivias are plants which are 
attracting a good deal of attention from the gardeners 
and nurserymen of England. 
“ Gouk’s aits.”—A correspondent to The North 
British Agriculturist asks what are "Gouk's aits.” 
These are oats sown on or after the ist of April — 
that is “Gouk's Day.” “There will be a large 
acreage of ' Gouk’s aits ' this year.” 
The desire of a Doctor.— “ I wish,” said a 
doctor the other day, as he saw a group of school 
children troop out of a confectioner 's where they had 
been spending their pennies, “ that I could form a 
society among the little folks in which each member 
would take a pledge to spend all his pocket money 
for fruit instead of candy.” An Apple or a Banana 
or an Orange can usually be bought for the price of 
a little candy, and the fruit is generally much better 
in everyway than the swaet. 
Australian Coffee Cultivation.—The north¬ 
eastern and semi-tropical regions of New South 
Wales are remarkable for the possession of soil and 
climatic condition, which have made practicable the 
successful production of crops not popularly associ¬ 
ated with Australian agriculture. At the present 
time there are 24,759 acres under Sugar Cane, last 
year’s crop producing 289,206 tons. Silk cultiva¬ 
tion is also carried on at a place called New Italy. 
Coffee is one of the crops which have been tried, 
the berries being equal to the best which are im¬ 
ported. Official report has stated that around the 
Richmond, Clarence, and Tweed river districts, the 
soil, climate and quality of existing Coffee plants are 
all that could be desired for the extending of the 
industry. 
The Pastors of the Steppes.—Prof. Alfred C. 
Haddon, in his series of articles on “ The Evolution 
of Simple Societies,” in Knowledge for April, gives us 
an interesting glimpse of life among the Kaikas. 
“ One can understand that in a country so clearly 
circumscribed its inhabitants can more easily retain 
their primitive character, foreign Influences pene¬ 
trate with difficulty, and the whole people will 
preserve their homogeny and similarity of customs 
The altitude determines the peculiar climate, which 
is inordinately cold, snow persisting on the ground 
during a greater part of the year. Thus we have 
the two characters of a steppe—(1) the production of 
grass; (2) the more or less complete exclusion of 
other vegetation. This is caused by a short season 
of humidity regularly intervening each year between 
a barren winter and a summer, the dryness of which 
stops the growth of all vegetation. . . . Le Play 
has pointed out that the snow persists on the plain, 
after it has disappeared on the slopes of the same 
region, owing to the heat of the sun in early spring 
melting the superficial snow, and the water filters 
down into the deep layers, when it freezes in the 
night and forms a more compact and resistant layer. 
At length the time arrives when the snow has 
vanished, the soil, thoroughly soaked with water, is 
suddenly exposed to an already elevated temperature. 
The grass grows immediately with an extraordinary 
rapidity on the incomparably fertile plain. . , . 
Winter extends for three-fourths of the year, there 
is practically neither spring nor autumn, tropical 
heat succeeds without transition to arctic cold. Hue 
states that in the country of the Kaikas the cold is 
so terrible that during the greater part of the winter 
the mercury of the thermometer freezes. . . . 
The second aspect of the pastoral life explains the 
agility and remarkable suppleness which, in ail times, 
have made the nomads the finest horsemen in the 
world. The daily necessity of pursuing animals in 
flight has given muscular vigour and insensibility to 
fatigue which is astonishing. . . . There is no 
government external to the family. The patriarch 
combines the functions of the father, teacher, magis¬ 
trate, priest and sovereign. The sole grouping above 
the family is the tribe; but it is more a union of 
several families of common origin than a fixed terri¬ 
torial grouping 1 . The tribe is mobile like the family. 
The central government has not a more real existence. 
It is at most a kind of nominal and vague pro¬ 
tectorate that is exercised, partly by Russia, and in 
part by China. . . . Peace reigns among the 
pastors. These men, so dreaded in the numerous 
raids they have made in other countries, are quitt, 
sociable and hospitable in the steppe, where they 
have no foreign competition to fear.” 
Narcissus Poetaz.—This Narcissus results as a 
hybrid between N. Tazetta and N. poeticus. The 
bunch flower habit of the Tazetta is still retained, 
and the poeticus element comes in to give increased 
size to the individual blooms. The opinions about 
the merits of N. poetaz are varied. However, 
something finer may evolve from this as a start. 
Messrs. Barr & Sons showed specimens at a recent 
Drill Hall meeting. 
■ ■ ■ — 6 -» - 
PRIMULA SINENSIS ALBA PLENA. 
Where a stock of this is at command no time 
should be lost in removing the lowermost leaves 
with a knife, and mounding up the plants with a 
mixture of finely sifted leaf-soil and plenty of sand, 
with a little chopped sphagnum, keeping the same 
fairly moist with a fine rose can. In about a 
month’s time they should be ready to part up, pre¬ 
serving every new root that is possible, potting the 
offsets into 2 and 4-in. pots, according to size. Use 
as a compost, loam, leaf-soil, peat, and plenty of sand 
that has been passed through a J-inch sieve, placing 
the plants in a partly exhausted hotbed, which 
should have just the desired bottom-heat to give 
them a start. Keep them near the glass, lightly 
dewing overhead according to the leather, and 
shading from the sun. Keep here until the roots 
are playing nicely down the side of the pots, giving 
a little air after the first fortnight. Give them their 
final shift into 4f-in., 5^-in., and 6|-in. pots respec¬ 
tively, using similar soil just advocated, but a trifle 
rougher, with the addition of a little charcoal. They 
can then be placed into a cold frame on a bed of 
ashes, and kept as near the glass as practicable, 
allowing a goad space between each plant so as to 
avoid elongated foliage, affording plenty of ventila¬ 
tion when once established. Shade will be necessary 
from about gam. until 3.30 p.m. when bright, unless 
stood under a north wall or hedge ; but I always 
think in these places plants are more likely to get 
drawn up than if placed in an open position where 
light and air can reach them from all quarters. As 
regards watering, great care is necessary ere the pots 
become fairly full of roots that it is not overdone. 
A light dewing overhead is beneficial in hot weather 
about mid-day, and let your shading material be as 
thin as practicable, to the welfare of the plants.— 
J. Mayne, Bicton. 
GARDENERS’ GRIEVANCES. 
Your suggestion in your sympathetic editorial on 
gardeners’ grievences in The Gardening World 
of April 7th of giving cottages to heads of depart¬ 
ments (and I might suggest to some of the rank and 
file, for all men are not born to lead), would greatly 
help to prevent the leakage that is going on from 
the ranks of the profession, and would help to re¬ 
tain many clever men that would be otherwise lost to 
it, for it is very often the clever and enterprising that 
leave the profession. One of the greatest causes of 
young gardeners leaving the profession after they 
have been a few years at it is not more the poorness 
of their pay than the very small chance they have 
of getting a head gardener's situation. All journey¬ 
men gardeners can never hope to get head gardeners' 
situations. Their chances are about four to one. 
With a few years’ experience and a little reflection 
they come to see it, and decide to try some other 
occupation before they get too old to learn. 
The poorness of the journeyman gardener's pay is 
also sufficient reason for them to try some other 
occupation, and the fact that a tax is put on the 
journeyman's knowledge, and a premium put on the 
labourer’s ignorance in many places by giving the 
latter a higher wage than the former gives point to 
the journeyman’s decision to try some other occupa¬ 
tion where knowledge and skill are better rewarded. 
It would raise journeymen gardeners' pay, if being a 
journeyman was looked upon as a consummation in 
itself (they cannot all be masters) in much the same 
lightasajourneymanjoiner or mason is looked upon, 
and given a wage according to their knowledge and 
skill which would be far above that of an ordinary 
labourer if the same ratio was maintained as be¬ 
tween journeymen and labourers in other occupa¬ 
tions. 
With this change and cottages given to any that 
wanted to settle down a great many experienced men 
would be retained in the profession. Horticulture 
would be the gainer and consequently the employer, 
for after all is said or written experience is the most 
important part of a gardener’s knowledge. I would 
fain hope that employers are dealing more generously 
with their gardeners than in past years; yet that 
attitude of mind which makes men generous is of 
slow growth. Ask a street musician which part of 
a city or town he finds the most generous, and he 
will tell you " the poorer parts." People do not 
accumulate money by giving it away, and the habit 
of holding on is not easily got rid of after they have 
got as much as would enable them to be generous. 
I am afraid gardeners will never be able to form 
a union, and consequently will never be so well paid 
as workmen that have unions. When their pay is 
raised and their housing improved it will be when 
the trade of the country is brisk, and large numbers 
of them are attracted to other occupations as at 
present, then better pay and better conditions will 
be offered to retain their services. This occurred in 
the west of Scotland about 1877 or 1878, when 
wages were raised two to three shillings per week, 
and bothies were improved.— W. K. 
TRANSATLANTIC “ LINERS.” 
There is in a certain part of Florida a very peculiar 
variety of Rose, which has a romantic story attached 
to it. The petals curve slightly inward, and are the 
colour of bright arterial blood, while the odour is 
pungent and fascinating, yet slightly sickening and 
unpleasant in a marked degree. The dew that drops 
from the blossoms is of a pinkish hue. It is called 
the Grant Rose, and was first discovered on the spot 
where a whole family of that name was massacred 
by the Indians some sixty years ago. A few years 
afterwards this Rose was discovered,a vigorous bush, 
growing on the spot where a pool of blood had 
collected. It will not grow outside of a circum¬ 
scribed area. 
During a grand army encampment at Washington 
the flower beds at the Pension Office grounds presented 
a most striking and pleasing appearance. Coleus, 
red, brown and green, were employed ; in the centre 
of each oval were designs of the badges of three 
organisations in oblong beds of foliage. 
The centre-piece was a gigantic reproduction of 
the Grand Army of the Republic badge, flanked on 
either side by that of the Loyal Legion and of the 
Woman’s Relief Corps. 
Above the trio of badges was a semi-circle of 
letters, a yard tall, in dark red, forming the words, 
“ Welcome, Grand Army of the Republic.” The 
colour chosen stood out boldly from the green back¬ 
ground. The badges of the Army Corps were also 
reproduced in Coleus, the whole forming a unique 
display of landscape gardening. 
The Golden Gate Park, of San Francisco, received 
some years ago from Queen Kapiolani, dowager of 
the Sandwich Islands, the gift of a Cocoanut Palm, 
said to be the largest ever successfully transplanted. 
It took eleven men three hours to unload it, and 
move it into its quarters. It was fairly well supplied 
with young fruit, about 30 ft. high, including fronds, 
and weighed about five tons. Previous efforts in 
transplanting those have failed. 
From Savannah comes a thrilling tale of gigantic 
frogs which attack unwary fishermen. One of the 
fraternity thought he saw a large sack filled with 
" summut ” on a river bank, but on closer inspection 
found it to be one of these frogs, which seized him 
by the coat tail, which, along with the coat it 
belonged to, he had to relinquish in order to make 
his escape. He is still alive, and so is the frog. 
Mummy Peas have turned up again, this time in 
California. A man there has a friend who purchased 
a mummy and found a packet of seeds in the shell 
around the body. Four of them were planted, and 
three grew, producing a plant resembling a Sweet 
Pea, but without leaves, and with a corrugated stem. 
It grows tall, and at the top is a pod just like a Pea 
pod, and the flowers are exactly alike. The 
utilitirian owner intends some day to feast on Pea 
soup from the land of the Pharoihs. 
A Louisiana writer looks upon Ramie as the most 
valuable fibre in the world for manufacturing pur¬ 
poses if a machine to decorticate it can be invented. 
He expects then to paralyse the silk and flax 
industries at one blow, and cripple cotton also. It 
makes a lovely fabric, cool as linen, soft as silk, far 
more durable than either, with an iridescent lustre. 
There will shortly be a trial of Ramie decorticators 
at New Orleans. 
Rotting tree stumps are easily removed by boring 
