46 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
•January 17, 1003. 
that these schools have one or more practical men attached to 
their staffs, but they are ns often .students who have been 
educated for a purpose, and lean more to the scientific than the , 
practical side of horticulture. We have no desire to see these 
phases of horticulture estranged, but rather that they should 
be brought together, and enabled to work for the common good. 
The -committees of the Royal Horticultural Society embrace 
men whose every-day life is occupied 1 in horticulture, either 
established on a commercial basis or in practical work that 
has for it® object the supply of 'the private home with the 
various products of the garden in the way of fruits, flowers, 
and vegetables, whether grown in the open or under glass. 
It must be obvious to- all that such -a. body of men enlisted in 
the welfare of the State must in the long run. make itself felt, 
as a power for good in the education of our fellow men to look 
after their own interests. 
The Governments of other countries and States furnish prac¬ 
tical aid to various institutions engaged in the education of the 
community. The Government of -this might give practical 
assistance towards the establishment of a home of horticulture 
that would be worthy .of the nation. The various provincial 
societies might be linked with the mother society, and thereby 
derive advantages they could not otherwise enjoy. The spirit 
of commerce and utilitaaianism might go hand in hand with 
the spirit of private enterprise, that- is, merely actuated with 
a love of horticulture for it-s own sake, in developing the in¬ 
dustry to its fullest legitimate limit. The .capabilities of the 
British Islands, in the widest -sense, for the production of home 
supplies has not yet been reached, and -co-operation with a 
central body of experts would 1 do- much to disseminate 
knowledge a-nd organise matters for the general good of the 
community. 
A central hall of horticulture is what we want in this country, 
and such a hall could nowhere better be situated than in 
London. Nowhere else have- we such a. body of experts in all 
branches of horticulture as are in connection with the Ro-yal 
Horticultural Society. Practically, for an institution built up 
for the teaching of horticulture, both scientific and practical, 
we have the machinery already established in London, and only 
requiring a little more capital to enable them to- carry on their 
work more efficiently than has hitherto- been done. It might 
be supposed that a society intended to be a self-supporting in¬ 
stitution should be able to carry on its own particular work 
by aid of its own Fellows ; but- co-operation, it is believed, will 
bulk largely in tlie horticulture of the future-; and a little 
State-aid in this case would consist in making the society more 
national than it lias ever been before. In helping the society 
to attain this end, the- State would be helping to assist the 
nation at large. 
The World of Gardening. 
By F. W. Burbidge, M.A., F.L.S., V.M.H. 
The world of gardens is a v-eiry wide one, extending- as it 
does from the equator t-o the uttermost fringe of the temperate 
zones. Just at the present moment garden c-raft is extremely 
popular, and horticulture, both private and -commercial, is ex¬ 
tending on all sides by leaps and bounds. Not- a-lo-ne is the 
practice of gardening advancing ahead, but its diffusion 
amongst all classes is even more astonishing. 
The British people have, for the last, three or four centuries 
at any rate, been -noted for their love of gardens, and- the 
very word “ garden ” is now used in our language in many 
Avays. Fitzherbert and other historians tell us that London 
Ava,s always a city of gardens—private gardens—of Avhich its 
rich merchants and citizens Avere justly proud, and that even 
its alehouses and taverns were decked out bravely AA-itli spring 
floAvers; 
Of later days in London, the town usurped many of the little 
town gardens and open spaces, such as the old gardens of 
Northumberland House, near Charing Cross, -with its HaAV- 
thorns and Mulberries, and the dear old Drapers’ Company’s 
garden, with its Mulberries and Water Lily pool, that was 
formerly an attraction to wayfarers who kneAv of its existence 
just behind the Bank of England. 
There have, ho-Ave-ver, been gains as Avell as losses, and 
London’s public parks and open spaces beside the river and 
elseWhere always strike foreign and Colonial visitors with 
surprise -and -delight. Greenwich, with its deer and fine old 
Sweet -Che-stnuts, Richmond and Bushey Parks, Hampstead 
Heath, Epp-ing Forest, are not easily matched in interest and 
beauty elsewhere. It- is true, perhaps, that Ave have no " Fon- 
tainb-leau,” but AA-e have Windsor Great Park, and Ave can boast 
that no other nation possesses a botanical garden comparable 
with Kew, nor a palace and gardens fraught Avalli more memo¬ 
ries and historical details than is Hampton Court—Wolsey’s 
palace beside the Willow-fringed Thames. The gardening world 
even in Great Britain and Ireland' is of an importance far 
too vast to be ignored. When Ave come to consider the enor¬ 
mous number of prWate gardens ini England, one is almost 
o-verAvhelmed! by their extent and artistic A r alue. Fine tre-e-s, 
Amlvety lawns, noble trees, evergreen and flowering slu-ubs, 
herbaceous and Alpine borders -and roc-k gardens, aquatics, and 
Bamboos everywhere. Then there are hundreds of acres of 
fruitful orchards, fertile kitchen and fruit gardens, and glass¬ 
house gardens, or conservatories, Avhich contain -all the- most 
useful -and 1 beautiful plants o-f the Avorld gathered together—or 
fooMssed', as it Were—beneath our English sky. Fern, Orchid, 
and Palm, Grapes, Peaches, or Pines, bulbs, -and flowers of all 
kinds, are as Avell groAvn in English gardens as anywhere else 
in the gardening Avorld. 
But- apart from Avliat the garden is in the England of to-day, 
Ave are promised “ the garden city” of to-morrow, in connection 
with AA'hieh cities erected in salubrious country places will be 
associated industries of many kinds, -either connected with adja¬ 
cent land and Avater poAver, or otherwise, as the case may be. 
These garden cities are meant to be more or less self-contained 
houses and gardens, -surrounded by public parks, hospitals, 
manufactories, clubs, reading-room®, schools, -sho-ps, chu-rches, 
-and chap-els, with other intellectual and -sanitary -institutions 
suited t-o- the Avell-being of the peo-ple Av'ho reside in their midst. 
One great desiderat um in the economy of the land question is 
to associate all sorts of collateral industries in conjunction Avith 
land culture, just -as chair-making and other -remunerative 
labour is carried on in Bedfordshire and Gloucestershire in con¬ 
nection with Be-e-ch Avo-od's or forests. The parrot cry of 
back to the land is no good. The children must be educated 
from tlreir earliest years to remain -on the land, -for if once 
they leave the country for the to-wn they are useless on land 
afterwards, having once lost their grip and taken to other 
pursuits. 
The arb of political economy should be taught in schools, 
and the pupils -should be taught to see realities and' the ad- 
Amntages of life in the country amid beautiful and healthy sur¬ 
rounding's. The larger Avages of the toAvns are often merely 
illusory, OAving to the cost of provisions, house rent, or lodg¬ 
ings, clothing, etc. It. is not the mere amount of wages one 
receives, but the amount of one’s earnings that can be saved, 
that -really determines the point as t-o Avhether a man is Ave-li 
or badly pa-i-d. 
The outlook in horticultural matters Avas never better all 
i oun-d than it is to-day -thanks in great measure to the urban 
and county councils. One thing is badly wanted, however, 
in the- rural districts of England, and that is a better and more 
secure system of land tenure. As it is, our antiquated land 
laws stifle industries like fruit planting and all other industries 
and investments' of capital -on the land for Avhich there is not 
a. return Avithin t-Avelve months or so. 
The-seare only a few of the problems Which Avill be dealt wit-h 
from time to time in The Gardening World— a paper which 
has always kept up with the procession in all cases wherein 
the welfare of gardens and of gardeners is concerned. 
