64 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
July  28, 1898. 
plateau  the  oite  of  substantial  healthy  homes.  Mr.  Cowan  is  proud  of 
South  Shields,  of  its  rapid  growth,  its  increasing  wealth,  and  the 
enterprise  of  its  public  men,  who  are  ever  striving  to  make  it  a  happy 
place  to  live — and  die  in.  He  is  the  superintendent  of  two  cemeteries, 
telephonically  connected,  and  tells  you  when  the  first  was  formed, 
which  he  made  into  an  attractive  garden,  the  inhabitants  totalled 
35,000,  and  after  37,000  interments  it  was  thought  the  time  had  come 
for  another  and  much  more  extensive  enclosure.  Th;s  he  designed  and 
planted  on  a  windswept  plain.  Looking1  down  its  wide,  long  avenues 
closel v  belted  with  trees  and  margined  with  flowers,  it  is  suggestive  ol 
a  park  of  pleasure.  To  see  the  tombs  you  must  go  behind  these  dense 
sheltering  screens,  where  they  are  found  in  large  sequestered  squares, 
suggestive  of  quietude  and  repose,  where  all  is  neatly  kept  and  cared 
for  as  it  ought  to  be. 
Trees  for  Bleak  Positions. 
It  may  be  worth  noting  what  is  found  to  grow  the  best  under  the 
essentially  unfavourable  conditions,  especially  the  driving  winds, 
against  which  few  trees  and  shrubs  can  force  their  wav  upwards,  and 
where  most  flowers,  but  for  the  shelter  afforded,  would  be  blown  to 
tatters  in  a  very  short  time.  Some  weeks  ago  Mr.  Luckhurst  drew 
attention  to  the  enormous  value  of  shelter  for  fruit  trees  in  positions 
naturally  exposed  to  sweeping  gales.  It  is  of  advantage  to  everything 
that  seeks  to  grow  upwards  instead  of  nestling  on  and  creeping  along 
the  ground.  For  his  purpose  he  recommended  the  Myrobalan  Plum! 
On  the  bleak  north-eastern  coast  there  are  just  four  trees  that  excel  all 
others  for  the  purpose  for  which  they  are  employed.  These  are  the 
common  White  or  Huntingdon  Willow  (Salix  alba),  the  Wild  Service 
Tree  (Pyrus  torminalis),  the  Ontario  Poplar  (Populus  balsamifera 
candicans  syn.  macrophylla),  and  different  forms  of  Elders.  The 
Canadian  Poplar  is  one  of  the  most  free-growing  of  trees,  but  is  having 
a  hard  struggle  to  form  an  avenue,  and  scarcely  looks  like  itself.  The 
four  kinds  named  are  planted  in  thousands  closely,  forming  in  the  mass 
dense  walls  of  foliage.  Isolated  on  lawns  thus  sheltered,  the 
Kilmarnock  Willow  (Salix  caprea  pendula)  forms  handsome  drooping 
heads.  The  shrub  ot  shrubs  for  free  growth  and  effect,  affording 
brightness  amidst  the  surrounding  greenery,  is  the  Golden  Elder! 
Before  flowers  could  be  grown,  thousands  of  plants  of  it  were  raised 
from  cuttings,  and  in  a  small  state  grown  in  lines  and  masses  for 
imparting  colour  in  lieu  of  flowers.  It  is  grown  in  thousands  still  in 
various  sizes— -as  isolated  specimens  on  grass  as  under  growth,  cut  down 
annually  and  in  masses  with  other  trees  in  the  belts,  casting  a  golden 
glow  over  what  would  otherwise  be,  in  places,  a  sombre  scene.  Mr. 
Cowan  would  like  to  know  to  whom  the  honour  belongs  of  raising  the 
Golden  Elder,  and  hopes  he  received,  as  hej  deserved,  a  gold  medal  for 
giving  light  and  life  to  dull  places  where  scarcely  anything  else  would 
grow  so  well,  on  breezy  hills  and  in  smoky  towns. 
Flowers  in  “God’s  Acre.” 
Where  a  few  years  ago  none  would  grow  in  this  now  attractive 
resting  place  at  Harton,  practically  all  hardy  kinds  now  flourish,  and 
hosts  of  them  as  if  in  their  native  habitats.  Tender  “  bedding 
plants,  such  as  “Geraniums”  and  Calceolarias,  are  wisely  left 
alone.  Of  hardy  kinds  practically  all  are  grown — Violas  in  separate 
beds;  alpines  in  large  colonies  interspersed  with  rocks,  the  Edelweiss 
not  being  forgotten  ;  border  flowers  in  bold  groups  and  long  stretches, 
as,  for  instance,  ten  thousand  brilliant  heads  of  the  Oriental  Poppy 
glistening  in  the  sun  in  one  long  broad  line,  and  so  with  other  kinds, 
of  which  enumeration  is  impossib'e.  A  word,  however,  may  be  said 
on  Stocks  in  summer  and  Wallflowers  in  spiring.  Stretching  away 
from  the  entrance  and  tempting  passers-by,  such  a  long  broad  mass  of 
white  and  crimson  Queen  Stocks  is  seldom  seen  and  felt,  for  their 
fragrance  is  wafted  beyond  the  enclosure.  “  How  and  when  are  they 
laised  ?  was  the  natural  inquiry.  “Oh,  it’s  all  very  simple.  The 
head  of  my  garden  staff — and  a  very  good  man  too,  as  is  the  one  at 
the  old  cemetery— is  very  uncomfortable  if  he  cannot  sow  his  Stock 
seed  ontho2Ktof  May,  thinly  in  drills  in  the  open,  as  if  sowing 
Carrots,  subsequently  transplanting, and  finally  establishing  the  sturdy 
plauts  in  their  final  positions  in  September  to  get  well  hold  of  the 
strong  ground  before  winter.  Their  leaves  just  touch  when  planted, 
as  we  must  have  a  mass,  for  if  thinly  arranged  the  wind  cuts  them  in 
pieces.  It  is  the  same  with  Wallflowers  as  to  date  of  sowing  and 
^  Q  rare  that  we  lose  any  in  the  winter,  and  when 
li,  M)0  are  flowering, numbers  of  visitors  come  to  inhale  their  fragrance 
and  enjoy  their  beauty.”  It  is  surprising  if  it  were  not  so°  in  a 
district  of  over  100,000  inhabitants,  their  number  having  doubled  in 
about  twenty  years. 
Chunks 
.  Tilis  is  a  change,  and  pertains  to  the  soil.  All  has  to  be  prepared 
in  a  thorough  manner,  large  squares  of  waste  being  treated  yearly 
sown  down,  and  bells  planted  where  required.  This  work  is  always 
going  on,  and  it  would  have  been  a  treat  if  Messrs.  Thomson,  Pea, 
and  I  unn  had  been  there  to  discuss  the  matter  on  the  spot.  Bastard 
trenching  is  the  process.  A  strip  is  lined  off,  and  men  with  long, 
inght,  narrow,  tapering  spades  cut  out  this  terribly  resistant  clay  in 
chunks,  as  sharply  outlined  as  bricks,  but  longer,  and  deftly  pile  ihem 
into  ridges.  The  bottom  of  the  trench  is  broken  up  and  left,  a  thick 
layer  of  town  ashes  being  spread  in.  On  this  layer  of  ashes  the 
chunks  from  the  next  trench  rest,  and  a  quantity  of  ashes  cast  over 
them,  a  good  deal  falling  in  the  spaces  between.  It  is  easy  to  perceive 
that  the  ashes  facilitate  the  passing  down  of  the  water  (rain)  from  the 
chunks  and  into  the  subsoil.  It  is  no  light  work  to  bring  out  the 
clay  in  cubes.  It  is  not  soft,  like  butter  or  anything  of  that  kind ; 
not  wet  and  sticky,  in  the  sense  that  some  clays  are.  Perhaps  the 
under  layer  of  chalk,  5  or  6  feet  below,  prevents  that.  It  is  bluish,, 
moist,  and  extraordinarily  compressed  clay.  Watch  the  man  of 
muscle  take  out  a  cube.  He  has  his  strong  foot-iron  on,  or  it  would 
beat  him.  He  marks  his  slice  by  sharp  downmark  strokes  of  the 
spade  with  the  hand,  then  down  goes  the  foot  with  a  jump  and  a 
clatter;  five  more  savage  stamps  were  counted  before  he  got  a  leverage, 
then  a  grin  and  a  wriggle,  followed  by  five  more  lighter  and  lighter 
foot  stamps,  with  a  couple  of  wriggles  between  them ;  next,  knitting 
his  sinews  for  a  lift,  out  came  the  cube,  of  probably  a  dozen  pounds, 
accompanied  by  a  smile,  as  if  of  thankfulness  or  triumph.  When  it 
takes  five  heavy  jumps,  five  light  stamps,  ten  jerky  wriggles,  and  one 
big  lift,  as  it  did,  to  get  out  a  cube,  this  will  perhaps  be  taken  as- 
evidence  that  the  clay  justified  its  character  of  being  strong.  So  we 
pass  on. 
Pulverisation. 
If  you  want  to  extract  what  another  man  knows,  it  is  a  mistake  to- 
be  afraid  ot  revealing  your  own  ignorance.  A  young  man  might, 
perhaps  advisably,  be  a  little  chary  in  this,  or  at  least  choose  the 
moment  and  the  man  judiciously  for  a  tacit  confession  of  incapacity 
or  lack  of  comprehension;  but  a  man  whose  professional  future  is  a 
matter  of  no  importance  to  him  need  have  no  such  hesitation.  Such 
a  man  could  very  innocently,  and  regardless  of  consequences,  ask 
Mr.  Cowan  why,  at  so  much  labour,  he  bad  this  stubborn  land  roughed 
up.  He  might  anticipate  the  reply — “Roughed  up  !  why,  to  pulverise 
it,  of  course,  and  make  it  cultivable;  for  this  it  must  be  subjected  to 
the  action  of  frost,  to  shatter  it  and  make  it  fall.”  Then  you  might 
cite  authority  to  show  that  the  frost  penetrates  a  dense  body  of  soil 
more  deeply  than  it  does  a  broken-up  medium,  and  the  expansion  of 
the  water  consequent  on  its  conversion  into  ice  splits  the  mass  into 
innumerable  fragments — so  many  and  so  small  as  to  be  invisible  to 
the  naked  eye;  that  you  have  only  to  wait  till  spring  and  it  will  turn 
up  as  “nice  as  ninepence,”  or  in  beautifully  friable  condition  for 
sowing  and  planting.  Suppose  you  try  to  impress  that  doctrine  on 
Mr.  Cowan,  which  implies  how  wrong  his  laborious  practice  is,  and  he 
turns  round  and  observes,  “  If  what  you  say  is  true,  how  is  it  that 
this  land,  which  must  have  been  frozen  through  and  through  for  a 
thousand  years,  always  turns  up  like  semi-solidified  liver,  whether 
you  Trench  it  in  summer,  autumn,  winter,  or  spring?  It  is  always 
bad  alike,  and  nothing  will  make  it  crumble  but  exposure  through 
the  winter;  then  by  acting  at  the  right  time  in  spring  you  can  smash 
it  down,  turn  it  over  once  more,  bring  up  the  base  of  ashes  and  blend 
them  through  it,  sow  and  plant,  and  have  sward,  flowers  and  trees, 
just  as  you  see  them,  as  the  result  of  the  process,  and  which  could 
never  have  been  there  in  its  absence,  as  the  wild  waste  portion  shows 
you  clearly  enough.”  Suppose,  I  say,  you  had  an  argument  like  that 
to  meet  on  the  spot,  how  would  you  feel,  and  what  would  you  say  ? 
You  might,  if  you  liked,  fed  you  had  been  taken  down  a  few  steps, 
but  that  would  not  matter  after  the  extraction;  and  about  the'  bist 
thing  you  could  say  would  be,  “  Thank  you,  Mr.  Cowan,  for  the 
valuable  object  lesson  on  land  amelioration,  by  which  so  much  good 
has  been  effected,  and  if  ever  I  have  land  like  this  to  deal  with  I  will 
bear  your  successful  practice  in  miud.”  That  would  be  a  well- 
deserved  compliment  to  him,  and  he  would  be  pleased  in  being 
helpful  to  you  as  a  seeker  for  information.  And  now,  Mr.  D.  T.r 
think  again,  and  do  not  frown,  even  if  Messrs.  P.  and  D.  should- 
smirk  and  smile. 
A  Rest  and  a  Talk. 
Mr.  Cowan  has  need  to  be  grateful  to  the  public  authorities  (as  he 
is)  whom  he  serves  with  whole-hearted  devotion.  They  have  built  him 
a  home  of  which  he  may  well  be  proud,  and  on  his  marriage  made 
him  a  present  in  the  form  of  a  service  in  silver  such  as  few  public 
servants  in  his  capacity  can  have  received.  Equally  is  he  respected 
by  those  under  him,  as  their  testimonials  show.  To  the  question, 
“  Do  you  like  cemetery  work  as  well  as  private  gardening  ?  ”  the  reply 
was  prompt.  “Better,  much  better,  because— it  is  better,  here  at 
least,  in  every  way.  Numbers  of  young  gardeners  perceive  this,  and  I 
have  several  employed,  with  many  applications.  They  even  offer  to 
dig  graves  if  I  can  take  them ;  but  for  this  I  have  a  separate  staff,, 
though  they  would  have  to  help  in  an  emergency.”  But  how  do  you 
manage  the  men  in  both  places,  have  everything  in  such  good  order, 
and  all  work  done  up  to  time  ?  “Nothing  more  easy.  The  secret  rests- 
in  having  good  and  loyal  heads  of  departments  and  making  them> 
responsible  for  carrying  out  the  work.  If  you  want  to  make  a  man 
thoughtful,  careful,  and  take  real  interest  in  his  duties — in  fact,  get 
the  most  out  of  him,  invest  him  with  responsibility.  With  my 
