JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
May  3,  1900. 
;i74 
little  encouragement  to  do  much  more  than  it  has.  But  it  is  determined 
a  new  garden  is  to  be  provided,  and  when  an  adjourned  meeting  is 
called  the  nature,  cost,  position,  and  probable  suitability  of  the  selected 
or  other  site,  alone  can  be  discussed.  It  is  hoped  that  at  any  future 
meeting  the  bye-laws  and  the  new  garden  site  will  be  kept  quite 
separate. 
The  tail  of  the  resolution  passed  at  the  meeting  signifies  that  the 
“  majority  of  the  Fellows”  must  be  the  majority  voting  at  some  special 
general  meeting  of  the  Fellows  called  for  the  special  purpose  of 
dealing  with  the  council’s  report  on  the  matter.  That  such  vote  will 
be  determined  by  the  nature,  extent,  and  lucidity  of  the  report 
furnished,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  1  think  the  council  would  act  very 
wisely  in  printing  such  report,  with  a  small  map  of  the  proposed 
ground,  and  circulate  it  amongst  all  those  Fellows  asking  for  a  copy. 
That  would  facilitate  matters  immensely. 
It  is  very  surprising  to  me  that  any  person  should  still  cling  to 
poor  old  effete  Chiswick  as  constituting  a  suitable  garden  for  the 
society.  I  have  known  it  intimately  for  thirty  years,  and  have  always 
felt  it  was  a  wretchedly  poor  place  to  pose  as  the  leading  horticultural 
garden  of  the  kingdom.  Kew  is  of  course  splendid.  It  is  a  grand 
garden,  but  its  existence  close  by  only  serves  to  make  poor  Chiswick 
look  all  the  more  poor  and  inferior  by  contrast.  It  has  hardly  a  glass 
house  that  a  gardener  would  care  to  have;  and  its  huge  vinery,  noble 
an  erection  as  it  is,  only  serves  to  make  men  marvel  why  it  should 
ever  have  been  built. 
As  an  example  of  a  vinery  it  is  deplorable.  Although  both  Mr. 
Barron  and  Mr.  Wright  have  done  all  that  man  could  do  to  make  the 
garden  a  success,  the  place  is  cursed  by  its  surroundings,  or,  as  the 
scientists  say,  by  its  environments.  When  admirable  market  gardens 
are  quoted  as  existing  closely,  what  amazing  ignorance  is  shown  !  All 
surrounding  market  gardens  have  been  or  are  being  built  over  rapidly, 
and  just  as  pure  air  is  being  excluded  from  the  district  smoke,  soot,  and 
fog  are  accumulating  yearly.  The  soil  may  not  be  exhausted,  but  it  has 
become  too  intensely  porous  to  have  in  it  any  retentive  properties. 
Thus  things  in  all  parts  of  the  garden  suffer  at  once  from  excessive  soil 
dryness  and  superheated  atmosphere,  because  the  garden  is  so  boxed 
in  by  buildings.  Fogs  are  always  worse  in  the  south-west  of  London 
than  anywhere  else,  and  when  they  kill  autumn  sown  Onions  wholesale 
at  Chiswick  what  more  need  be  said  ?  Every  sensible  man  knows  that 
for  all  practical  purposes  Chiswick  is  played  out.  It  will  be  specially 
imperative  on  the  part  of  the  ccuncil  in  selecting  a  new  garden  site 
to  have  it  quite  outside  the  metropolitan  obnoxious  smoke  and  fog 
area. — A.  D. 
- «♦♦»> - 
Gardening  in  the  Green  Isle. 
Many,  too  many,  on  the  Sassenach  side  of  St.  George’s  Channel 
seem  to  have  some  vague  idea  that  the  fauna  and  flora  of  the  Sister 
Isle  are  chiefly  rep'esented .  by  “  the  gintlernan  who  pays  the  rint” 
and  that  noble  tuber  the  Potato.  The  tendencies  of  late  years  should 
go  far  to  dispel  these  hazy  notions.  As  regards  the  first,  to  anyone 
seeking  good  specimens  of  the  porcine  sjiecies  1  would  rather 
recommend  Berkshire.  No  longer  can  we  regard  Erin  as  the  happy 
grunting  grounds,  for  you  may  traverse  ndles,  of  County  Dublin 
at  least,  without  meeting  a  single  “gintlernan.”  But  the  Potato? 
ell,  that  is  another  illu-ion;  for  even  in  this  department,  at  the 
Potato  fl  ercentenary  t  eld  in  Dublin  in  1896,  Berkshire  too  bore  the 
palm,  the  great  Reading  firm  surpassing  all  exhibits  for  quantity  and 
quality  staged  in  the  round  room  of  the  Rotunda.  Messrs.  Sutton’s 
display  was  the  best  they  had  ever  made,  weighing  ov(  r  2  tons,  and 
all  so  cunningly  contrived  as  to  show  off  the  best  points.  It  was  the 
apotheosis  ot  the  Potato,  hut,  alas!  not  Irish.  Still  the  fact  remains 
that  in  the  economy  of  Irish  life  the  Potato  plays  an  all  too  prominent 
part. 
The  Tercentenary  aforesaid  was  at  one  and  the  same  time  a  bright 
success  and  a  d  smal  failure.  Arranged  and  carried  out  by  the  Iiish 
Gardeners’  Association,  with  the  hearty  co-operation  of  gardeners, 
growers,  and  scientists,  with  re|  resentative  collections  from  England, 
Scotland,  France,  and  America  to  compare  with  those  of  the  Emerald 
Isle;  and  being,  too,  the  right  thing  in  the  right  place,  what  more 
was  wanting  ?  Here  were  the  Potatoes,  where  were  the  people  ? 
Here  was  his  Excellency,  Lord  Cadogan,  standing  shoulder  to 
shoulder  with  a  few  Irish  gardeners,  re  onnting  in  his  happiest  vein  the 
failures  of  his  chef  to  place  a  decently  cooked  Potato  upon  his  table. 
Here  were  lectures,  limelight  views,  scientific  discussions,  practical 
expositions;  in  short,  all  that  could  be  said,  shown,  or  done  in  the 
matter,  yet  the  tercentenary  came  and  went  practically  unnoticed  and 
unki.own.  The  highest  praise  cnuld  not  but  be  bestowed  upon  the 
little  band  of  w<  rkers  whose  labours  of  love  must  have  been  of  the 
highest  educational  value  had  they  been  availed  of  by  the  public. 
;  That  the  finest  peasantry  in  the  world  still  depend  upon  a  Potato 
patch  for  their  staple- food  goes  without  saying,  and  in  that  mistaken 
dependence  is  to  be  found,  one  thinks,  an  explanation  of  the  poverty  of 
cottage  gardening  in  Ireland.  Cottage  gardening  as  practised  in  the 
humMe  homes  of  England  is  virtually  unknown,  and  one  can  only 
conclude  that  were  it  otherwise  its  refining  influence  and  economic 
value  would  prove  potent  factors  for  good  in  the  welfare  of  the 
people.  There  are,  however,  things  which  come  not  within  the  scope 
of  this  paper.  Thackeray’s  semi-satirical  criticism  of  Ireland,  as  he 
saw  it,  might  still  apply  if  derived  from  the  same  superficial  observa¬ 
tion.  But  he  saw,  as  too  many  see  now,  only  the  surface  of  things. 
“  Still  waters  run  deep,”  and  by  long  and  patient  observation  only  are 
the  undercurrents  of  life  revealed.  Then  ensues  an  explanation  of 
things  which  cannot  be  explained  away,  and  brings  a  clearer  under¬ 
standing  to  many  who  cannot  understand  the  Irish,  and,  unfortunately, 
never  will.  Be  it  our  endeavour  here,  however,  to  deal  with  things 
as  they  are,  and  not  as  thvy  seem,  in  turning  over  brighter  pages  in 
the  gardening  history  of  the  Green  Isle.  It  contains  many  beautiful 
pictures,  and  gardeners  in  the  fuller  sense  of  the  term  are  not  rarities. 
Within  touch  of  the  Milesian  metropolis  is  more  than  one  stately 
home  embowered  in  its  tall  ancestral  trees,  and  numerous  pleasing 
examples  of  lesser  degree  adorn  the  environs  of  “  the  car-drivingest 
city.”  Overlooking  Dublin  Bay,  among  vistas  of  surpassing  beauty, 
the  love  of  gardening  appears  to  have  long  since  taken  deep  root, 
although  there  are  not  a  few  places  showing  by  what  remains  that  its 
glory  has  departed.  Some  of  these  Irish  hi  mes  of  gardening  must 
have  been  among  the  first  to  avail  themselves  of  Paxton’s  marvellous 
creations  of  iron  and  glass,  and  commodious  curvilinear  plant  houses 
are  frequently  to  ba  found  which  point  to  a  period  when  the  gentle  art 
was  in  an  exceedingly  flourishing  condition.  One  is  often  surprised, 
too,  by  the  large  extent  of  walled- in  gardens,  the  building  of  the  walls 
of  which  would  alone  be  a  serious  matter  to  contemplate.  For 
instance,  at  Carton,  Maynooth,  the  original  kitchen  garden  as  formed 
by  James,  first  duke  of  Leinster,  enclosed  twen  y-six  acres  with 
boundary  and  dividing  walls,  and  this  when  reduced  by  Augustu-s 
Frederick,  the  third  duke,  to  ten  acres,  as  it  now  exists,  forms  no  mean 
appanage  to  a  noble  demesne.  Generations  of  gardeners  have  come 
and  gone  since  the  old-lashioned  wall  nails,  still  biist  ing  in  the 
ancient  boundary  wall,  secured  those  well-trained  tries  in  which  our 
foreflithers  delighted.  All  this  points  to  a  glorious  past  in  Irish 
gardening,  and  one  ventures  to  include  a  passing  thought  of  tho>e 
jiast  masters  of  the  craft.  In  the  ancient  graveyard  of  Grange  william, 
immediately  outside  of  the  Carton  demesne,  may  be  seen  a  huge  recum¬ 
bent  limestone  slab  toned  down  by  age  and  Lichens.  The  deeply  graved 
inscription  enables  the  curious  to  decipher  without  difficulty  that  it 
marks  the  last  resting  place  of  Pa  rick  Allen,  sometime  gardener  to 
the  nineteenth  Earl  of  Kildare,  and  James  (aforementioned)  the 
twentieth  Earl  and  first  Duke  of  Leinster.  He  it  was  who  ruled  over 
the  twenty-six  acres  of  kitcl  eu  garden  with  all  the  auxiliary  horii- 
cultural  adjuncts  then  befitting  a  nobleman  of  rank  ;  and,  rightly  or 
wrongly,  one  infers  that  Patrick  was  a  son  of  the  soil.  The  difference 
in  that  resi'ect  ’twixt  then  and  now  being  that  Scottish  and  English 
gardeners  are  in  the  ascendant  in  the  matter  of  situations  held  by 
them.  Rest  on,  old  warrior  of  ih  •  spade,  in  thy  doubtless  well-earned 
rest,  although  neither  lOO-guinea  Orchids  exercised  thy  care,  nor  the 
joys  and  griefs  of  a  “  Mum  ”  grower  came  within  thy  ken  ! 
One  is  now  and  again  surprised  in  visiting  some  retired,  unpre¬ 
tentious  place  to  see  relics  of  former  grandeur  in  the  garden;  hence 
it  may  be  deduced  that  horticulture  must  formerly  have  held  high 
rank  in  Ireland.  Some  time  since  a  great  literary  gardener  wrote 
saying  we  (English)  hear  too  little  of  what  is  going  on  in  Ireland; 
and,  it  may  be  added,  the  gardening  world  of  Ireland  is  still  to  many 
a  terra  incognita.  Some  of  these  old  world  ]  laces  one  would  fain 
describe,  for  there  is  that  about  them  which  “  age  cannot  wither  nor 
custom  stale;”  and  in  this  severely  practical  age  they  are  to  us — 
“  Voices  of  the  past,  links  of  a  broken  chain, 
Wing:s  that  can  bear  us  back  to  times 
Wnioh  cannot  come  again.’’ 
There  are,  probably,  more  of  these  old-fashioned  gardens  with  all  their 
constant,  nameless  grace  to  be  found  in  the  Green  Isle  than  elsewhere 
in  the  kingdom,  and  the  reason  is,  perhaps,  not  far  to  seek.  When 
fick'e  fashion  ordained  a  modern  system  the  expense  of  conversion 
with  the  new  order  of  keeping  was  a  serious  consideration,  hence  they 
escaped  the  innovating  hand.  Their  owners  could  just  afford  to  keep 
them  as  they  were,  and  no  more  ;  but  that  was  all  that  was  necessary, 
and  one  feels  thankful  that  it  was  so.  Still,  old  customs,  like  old 
superstitions,  die  hard  in  Ireland,  and,  as  relates  to  the  commercial 
aspect  of  gardening,  this  has  been  and  is  undoubtedly  detrimental. 
Too  many  of  those  who  formerly  won  a  fairly  comfortable  living  in 
catering  for  the  market  appear  unable  to  conform  to  the  march  of 
time,  and  are  dragged  along  in  the  procession. 
Cut  flowers  and  perishable  fruits  are  scantily  supplied  to  meet 
the  demand  which  exists;  hence  in  their  season.  Strawberries  from 
Kent,  Narcissus  from  Scilly,  and  a  host  of  perishable  products  are 
consigned  to  Dublin,  via  London,  when  such  might  by  a  little 
enterprise  be  equally  as  well  grown  in  favourable  localities  at  home. 
