June  30, 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
539 
accomplished  with  greater  facility.  A  few  days  since  I  saw  in  a  hay* 
field  at  Surbiton  an  elevator  secured  to  the  tail  of  a  waggon.  The  hay 
lay  in  windrows,  and  as  the  waggon  was  drawn  up  over  them  the  elevator 
came  behind  and  gathered  it  up,  tumbling  it  into  the  waggon,  where  a 
couple  of  men  built  it  up.  I  was  not  near  enough  to  see  whether  the  horses 
trampled  on  the  hay,  but  if  they  did,  and  the  hay  also  got  well  tossed 
about,  then  I  fear  the  labour  saved  was  lost  in  the  deterioration  of  the 
hay.  But  the  gardener  does  not  want  to  baymake  his  lawns,  and  he  has 
found  the  lawn  mower  a  valuable  aid  to  his  labours,  especially  that  in 
large  gardens  animals  can  be  utilised  to  perform  much  of  the  work  of 
mowing.  When  in  Messrs.  Veitch  &  Co.’s  Coombe  Wood  Nursery  recently, 
I  was  interested  to  observe  the  use  by  a  man  of  one  of  the  Planet,  jun., 
double-wheeled  hoes,  which  was  being  worked  between  rows  of  shrubs 
planted  about  20  inches  wide.  The  hoes  were  set  to  cover  about  15  inches 
width.  The  progress  made  with  the  implement  is  not  continuous  like  that 
of  the  horse  hoe,  but  is  intermittent.  The  worker  has  to  force  the 
implement  forward  by  giving  it  a  sharp  push,  say  12  inches,  then  draw  it 
back  and  give  a  fresh  impulse.  In  soft  light  soil  it  cuts  up  the  weeds 
very  well,  but  did  not  seem  to  sufficiently  disturb  them  to  their 
destruction.  It  is  my  opinion  that  an  implement,  both  pulled  and 
propelled,  composed  of  a  circular  barrow  armed  with  sharp  teeth,  made 
rapidly  to  revolve  as  the  implement  is  propelled,  would  do  the  work 
of  clearing  the  weeds  to  the  surface  more  thoroughly. — A.  D. 
and  nothing  more,  as  to  whether  certain  sites  shall  remain  practically 
valueless,  or  be  made  valuable  to  the  owner,  tenant,  manual  workers,  and 
vendors  of  the  products  of  their  judgment  and  skill.  An  unlimited 
quantity  of  water  may  flow  from  the  chalk  for  centuries,  and  riches  be 
washed  away.  It  has  been  so  ;  but  the  time  comes  when  the  right  man 
arrives  on  the  scene,  and  turns  the  long  waste  of  water  into  a  s‘>urce  of 
wealth. 
He  may  do  this  in  various  ways,  including  the  growing  of  Watercress, 
and  this  then  is  the  crop  which  in  certain  localities  is  profitable  alike  to 
owner  and  tenant — the  crop  that  is  worth  the  while  of  a  ci-devant  worker 
with  bricks  and  mortar  to  pay  £65  an  acre  for  the  site  on  which  he  has 
taught  himself  to  grow  it  ;  and,  what  is  more  to  the  point,  by  growing  it 
and  other  crops,  such  as  “  Hot  and  Cold,”  Cucumbers  and  Mushrooms, 
has  in  the  course  of  a  very  few  years  indeed  made  himself  independent  of 
landlords  by  becoming  one  himself. 
In  the  photographic  illustration  (fig.  102)  is  the  first  view  of  Water¬ 
cress  culture  that  has  appeared  in  the  Journal  of  Horticulture.  It  is  only 
a  patch  of  2  or  3  acres,  hut  as  it  gives  an  output  of  as  many  thousand 
pounds  a  year,  is  worth  mentioning  ;  bat — and  here  comes  the  point — the 
Fig.  102.— me.  NEWTON’S  WATERCRESS  CULTURE. 
WEALTH  IN  WATERCRESS. 
On  page  495,  in  the  issue  of  the  Journal  of  Horticulture  of  June  16th, 
at  the  end  of  an  article  on  “  Hot  and  Cold,”  an  outdoor  crop  was  alluded 
to  which  enabled  its  cultivator,  that  thrifty  man,  Mr.  William  Newton,  to 
grow  at  a  rental  of  £50  an  acre  and  leave  something  of  a  profit  behind  it. 
Various  comments  have  been  made  on  that  statement  “  not  for  publication,” 
which  is  somewhat  of  a  pity,  for  some  of  them  were  peculiar  and  amusing. 
Generally  it  may  be  said  that  if  it  were  possible  to  concentrate  the  purport 
of  the  observations  into  about  three  words  they  would  stand  as  follows, 
“  I  don’t  believe  it.” 
That  is  only  what  might  be  expected  in  these  days  when  so  many  are 
striving  and  struggling  to  make  a  living  from  land  under  a  rental  of  50s. 
an  acre  instead  of  £50.  No  objection  whatever  is  raised  to  the  incre¬ 
dulity.  It  was  only  natural  under  the  circumstances.  At  the  same  time 
only  one  slight  alteration  can  be  made  on  the  question  of  veracity — 
namely,  that  the  rental  was,  and  is,  in  very  fact,  more  than  £60  an  acre, 
plus  rates  and  taxes  ;  and  still  the  tenant  “  lives,”  perhaps  as  well  satisfied 
with  the  contract  as  is  his  landlord,  who  is  a  good  one,  and  not  unknown 
in  the  horticultural  world.  He  simply  knows  the  value  of  water,  and  as  a 
certain  supply  is  an  integral  part  of  his  property,  he  does  not  altogether 
let  it  run  to  waste. 
A  good  deal  is  heard  from  time  to  time  about  the  value  of  irrigation 
in  some  of  our  Colonies.  It  has  also  its  value  at  home  when  the  right 
men  turn  it  to  the  best  account,  as  circumstances  may  favour,  and  grow 
the  right  kind  of  crop  in  the  right  way.  It  is  just  a  question  of  hrains. 
land  had  been  very  much  of  a  bog  for  time  immemorial,  and  worth  little. 
Noticing  a  continuous  stream  of  chalk  water  not  far  from  its  source,  and 
finding  by  the  thermometer  during  a  sharp  frost  in  winter  a  temperature 
of  .37°,  it  was  thought  this  liquid  warmth  might  be  turned  to  account. 
The  land  was  therefore  secured,  and  now  gives  an  annual  yield  of  some 
300  tons  of  sweet  and  profitable  “  Watercreases.” 
Why  did  it  lay  so  long  idle  in  comparison  7  The  man  with  the 
thermometer  had  not  arrived.  He  bought  the  land,  formed  the  “  beds,” 
and  is  now  reaping  the  reward  of  his  keen  observation,  judgment,  and 
skill.  He  is  “  in  the  picture,”  but  like  the  modest  man  he  is,  as  far  in 
the  background  as  possible,  as  the  central  distant  figure  of  the  work  he 
has  done  so  well. 
Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  in  what  has  been  stated  we  are  at  the  end 
of  the  work  of  this  genuine  working  man.  It  will  be  a  matter  of  surprise 
te  those  who  know  him  best,  if  within  the  short  space  of  a  couple  of  years, 
and  he  continues  to  enjoy  the  blessing  of  health,  he  does  not  have  a 
return  of  £10,000  a  year  by  the  sale  of  “Watercreases,”  apart  from  his 
Cucumbers,  his  Mushrooms,  his  “  Hot  and  Cold,”  and  other  subsidiaries, 
which  an  earnest,  zealous,  sensible  man  who  loves  his  work  with  an  ardency 
that  defies  failure,  continues  to  produce. 
Enough  is  said  at  present,  and  a  little  more  may  perchance  follow 
when  the  fates  favour,  on  the  reclamation  of  another  swamp,  and  trans* 
forming  it  from  absolute  worthlessness  into  an  area  of  productiveness  such 
as  is  not  common  even  in  these  times  of  earnest  striving  to  make  the  best 
of  the  land. 
