950 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
November 14, 1903. 
Granted that such is the case, the plants that still remain to 
exemplify this style of gardening would be an. object-lesson as 
to what plants are able to take care of themselves or maintain 
an existence in competition with British native plants under 
given conditions. 
We know that several quite important plants have estab¬ 
lished themselves in, former years in different parts of the 
county, possibly to be destroyed later on when, such districts 
became more populated or when the hawker, with his barrow, 
cart or basket, sallies out from London, to harry the waysides* 
and hedges. In such a garden, as Wisley, however, the natural 
conditions would be present, and the society would simply be 
the means of preventing the public from destroying what 
should be encouraged as an object-lesson as to what our soil 
and climate can do in, the naturalising of beautiful plants from 
other temperate countries. 
Many plants establish themselves in suite of the fact of the 
ground being already occupied with native vegetation, and ini 
some instances particular phases of the native vegetation, 
favour them. Often it is a. case of soil, but in the case of 
Wislev the natural soil would simply be sand or alluvium, 
according to the conditions under which it now occurs, in that 
locality. There might, possibly be soil of a. heavy nature akin 
to clay, but there would be no> chalk in that neighbourhood 
beyond what might be brought there artificially. 
Above all, the English style of landscape gardening should 
receive encouragement in opposition, to the formal or geo>- 
metrical. Being entirely removed from the neighbourhood of 
towns and buildings of any she or prominence, there should 
be no necessity for shaping the garden or an,v considerable 
portion of it in uniformity with architectural designs. The 
garden might, indeed, be an oasis in the desert to those at 
least coming from the Wisley Common, side, and especially 
to those who think that there is a, deal of waste land in the 
neighbourhood, a,si was remarked by a. party which passed the 
neighbourhood in a, motor one day. At, present we under¬ 
stand the larger part of the ground 1 gifted to the society is 
arable, and might, therefore, be turned to useful account as 
an experimental garden for fruits, flowers:, and vegetables and 
arboriculture. 
In the matter of fruit trees we have yet much to learn, 
seeing that our country Is not so, well supplied with experi¬ 
mental stations in different, parts of the country as in 
America,, for instance. It would he well to ascertain what 
varieties of fruits, if any, can. be relied upon to give a, return 
in most vears, for then we should be a little more 1 independent 
of outside supplies than at present. Probably we could not, 
possibly grow all the fruits we require in this country, but, we 
should at least be able to supply a, much larger share, and 
that with reasonable profit to the cultivators themselves. A 
continuous supply of fruits is also an important matter in 
private establishments, and surely it, would be worth the 
society’s endeavours to make provision for determining which 
can he relied upon to give a fair crop, of fruit under given 
conditions in most years. 
During the past, summer we have heard a deal about the 
ruin of the Evesham fruit growers on account of the wholesale 
failure of their orchards,. That, fact alone would indicate that 
other crops should at all times be grown, upon which the 
grower could rely for providing the wherewithal to' pay current 
expenses. This might form a, subject for experiment by the 
society in order to determine what crops are suitable and fit 
for supporting the fruit industry in the way we indicate, so 
that very bad seasons may be tided over by such helps. 
We presume also there would be frequent trials of annual or 
perennial flowers, in order to demonstrate what are the best 
for any given purpose. Such a trial would at least tend toi 
keep the nomenclature correct If It did nothing else. We 
know that when flowers drop out of favour for a number of 
vpgrs they are liable to come up again under new names, so 
that confusion keeps on. multiplying. There will always be 
certain new varieties, however, which it would be interesting to 
try against the old novelties for any given, purpose. 
What we have said with regard to flowers would also apply 
to vegetables. We believe it to, be interesting and useful to 
encourage the raising of new and improved varieties of 
vegetables, even if it is only for the purpose of keeping up 
the constitution of the plants. That would apply more'par¬ 
ticularly to vegetables which are propagated in other ways 
than by seeds, because we know that many even of the best 
of them are regularly and systematically raised from seeds. 
Take, for instance, the case of Potato®. The life of a variety 
is relatively short, probably not so short as that of a Tomato"; 
still, the evidence goes to show that- Potatos require frequent 
renovation by seed-sowing ini order to get constitution able to 
withstand disease. The several new varieties which have been 
the subject of so much discussion recently might all be tried 
with great advantage by the society in, company with certain, 
older varieties 1 , to determine by an unbiased experiment what 
the several varieties are capable of doing under similar condi¬ 
tions in any given year. The excitement caused by these 
Potatos during the past year or two has led to, the excessive 
propagation of the varieties in question, no doubt to their 
distinct disadvantage. Manv a, fruit, flower or vegetable is 
ruined by over-propagation in, thei early da,vs of its history. 
Whether the society should devote itself to any extent to 
arboriculture pure and simple would depend upon the amount 
of space available, but they have been arboriculturists in the 
past, as the remains of their collection at Devonhurst, Chis- 
wick, testified. It might be said that we have Kew for trees, 
but the soil at Kew is, not favourable to all classes of orna¬ 
mental trees, and the soil and conditions a,t Wisley are quite 
distinct from those at Kew, while the environment is better. 
It, has previously been proposed that the society could at 
least get together a collection of Willows, and endeavour to 
solve the question of identity, for they are certainly in a great 
state of confusion in most nurseries in the country, while there 
is no, class of arboreal vegetation concerning which gardeners 
know so little. Wisley would certainlv he an admirable site 
for the cultivation of a collection of Willows, and many of 
them would be found in the district, while others are pro¬ 
curable from the nurseries. Those who set themselves the 
task of cultivating Willows for wicker work and similar pur¬ 
poses speak of them a,s reds, browns, or yellows, which conveys 
little or nothing to an outsider, for many of them may be red, 
brown, or yellow, or green, according to the conditions under 
which they are grown. 
It has been left to foreigners to find out the medicinal value 
of Willows, and to supply us with the same. Certain Willows 
produce this salicine in sufficient abundance to make them 
worthy of cultivation commercially for that purpose, while 
others do not contain, it in any appreciable quantity. Some 
species also contain, a. large amount of tannin, and might be 
cultivated for that purpose. The wood is also valuable for the 
making of bats and various other instruments, and, further¬ 
more, there are certain districts of thei country that are more 
suitable for the cultivation, of Willows for any particular pur¬ 
pose than, other trees. The ornamental value of Willows under 
different conditions cannot be gainsaid. 
The society might also build there a laboratory for the 
purpose of devoting a certain amount of attention to, the study 
of the scientific principles that underlie the practice of hor¬ 
ticulture,. We feel sure that if such masters of the past as 
Knight and Bindley had still been alive, they would have 
desired the society to be in the front rank for determining 
some, at least, of the many questions that are always pressing 
nnon the private and even the market gardener for solution. 
These things might even, be attempted by the society for the 
benefit, of its own Fellow's in the first instance, and for the rest 
of the world afterwards. 
Big Potatos at Nairn. —This appears to be a year of big 
Potatos. Some samples of abnormal size and weight have been 
grown by the gardener at Whinnieknowe, Nairn. One Potato 
weighed 3 lbs. 10 ozs., and measured 13 in. by 24 in. The other 
weighed 2 lbs. 6 ozs., and measured 12 in. by 22 in. They are 
of the Main Crop variety, the size and weight all over being 
exceptionally large. 
