January  23,  1896. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
inopportune  to  refresh  the  memory  at  this  season  of  the  year  with 
a  few  retrospective  glances.  Not  very  far  back,  indeed,  for  rather 
must  we  be  taking  time  by  the  forelock  than  chivvying  at  the  heels 
of  dead  and  gone  years,  but  we  must  take  a  look  back  at  the  last 
race  to  guide  us  in  the  coming  one.  What  are  we  specially 
entering  for  ?  Is  it  fruit  or  vegetables,  stove  plants  or  timber,  or, 
what  is  more  probable,  the  stakes  of  an  all-round  successful 
gardener’s  career,  ‘.‘express  Grape  growing,”  vegetables  in  due 
season  and  out  of  season,  well-filled  dishes  and  satisfied  diners, 
the  Apple-room  filled  and  running  over,  and  the  thousand  and  one 
things  which  may  be  inscribed  on  the  unwritten  leave*  as  they  are 
daily  turned  over  ? 
The  year’s  work  of  the  Journal  of  Horticulture  is  pretty 
comprehensive  on  these  matters.  That  is  admitted,  and 
consequently  its  readers  generally  know  what  to  do.  From  an 
Onion  to  an  Orchid,  equally  important,  there  is  no  fighting  in  the 
dark  with  unknown  evils,  so  clearly  has  tbe  letter  of  the  law  been 
laid  down.  Join  to  that  the  spirit  of  observation,  for  the  subject 
is  too  elastic  to  be  brought  to  the  dead  level  of  routine,  and  this 
phase  of  the  subject  may  be  dismissed  with  the  deduction  that 
intelligent  readers  know  what  to  do  so  far  as  revealed  doctrine 
stands.  Further  concessions  wrung  from  Nature  by  the  scientist 
or  successful  practitioner  will  be  laid  down  accordingly  for  our 
edification. 
The  new  year  brings  with  it  to  all  a  stimulative  feeling 
peculiar  to  the  season.  He  is,  indeed,  pessimistic  who  does  not 
feel  its  influence.  But,  as  with  all  periods  or  phases  of  excite¬ 
ment,  a  reaction  is  prone  to  follow  in  its  train.  A  new  leaf  has 
been  turned  over,  but  the  ensuing  pages  fall  short  of  the  original 
sample.  Energy  is  the  mainspring,  but  prudence  is  the  pendulum, 
without  which  the  motive  power  is  quickly  spent.  So  evident  is 
this  in  some  cases  that  a  spell  of  ill-luck  (?)  appears  to  accom¬ 
pany  the  cultivator  to  the  end  of  the  book.  There  is  a  beautiful 
childlike  simplicity  in  trusting  to  Providence,  but  unqualified 
folly  in  tempting  it,  which  is  not  rarely  apparent. 
It  is  early  yet  to  talk  of  May  frosts,  but  it  ia  not  too  early 
for  these  contingencies  to  enter  into  present  calculations. 
Doubtless,  keenly  observant  ones  are  already  thinking  of  pre¬ 
paratory  measures  to  oope  with  or  mitigate  these  or  similar  evils. 
We  may  take  it  that  one  man  has  noted  how  tender  seedlings 
have  been  annihilated  whilst  earlier  sown  seeds  of  the  identical 
variety  have  developed  sufficiently  strong  constitutions  to  pass 
through  the  ordeal  unscathed.  Another  will  not  trust  to  appear¬ 
ances,  however  propitious  the  season  may  appear,  but  scrupulously 
moulds  his  early  Potatoes  or  what  not  daily.  Still  another  is 
prepared  for,  and  equal  to,  any  emergency  which  may  arise, 
consequently  “what  a  lucky  man  he  is  !”  “saved  his  Strawberries 
in  that  awful  frost,”  and  so  on  ;  whilst  the  unlucky  one  arises  in 
the  morning  to  shiveringly  ejaculate  over  the  forlorn  hope,  “  Oh, 
it’s  something  cruel !  ” 
British  weather  is  a  prime  factor  to  bring  out  a  man’s  inventive 
faculties,  for 
“  A  mouse  that  always  trusts  to  one  poor  hole 
Can  never  be  a  mouse  of  any  soul.” 
It  is  astonishing  the  variety  and  number  of  ways  and  means  an 
ingenious  mind  will  press  into  service  to  gain  the  end.  A  former 
curator  of  the  College  Gardens,  Dublin,  awoke  one  hard  night  with 
a  presentiment  of  danger  to  some  newly  imported  plants.  All  the 
usual  coverings  were  in  use  ;  nothing  could  be  spared,  but  invention 
sprang  from  dire  necessity,  and  the  blankets  were  hauled  off  his  bed 
to  keep  Jack  Frost  from  his  plants.  The  personal  sacrifice  is,  I 
suppose,  equally  as  great  when  prompt  action  defeats  some  sudden 
visitation  by  smart  work  in  the  “  wee  sma’  hours.” 
The  early  pages  of  our  diary  are  truly  momentous  one-).  How 
will  they  be  filled  ?  Will  December,  1896,  tell  a  tale  of  woe  or  be 
very  pleasant  reading,  so  far  as  our  work  is  concerned?  We  are 
dependent  on  the  weather,  the  rain,  the  sun,  frost  timely  or 
untimely,  some  will  say,  but  as  we  are  yearly  more  and  more 
impressed  with  the  utter  futility  of  doing  so,  it  behoves  us  to 
depend  very  much  on  our  own  exertions.  If  the  weather  prove 
good,  well  and  good  ;  if  bad,  let  things  be  not  so  bad  but  what  they 
might  have  been  worse. 
There  is  nothing,  I  think,  better  qualified  to  develop  the  latent 
energies  of  a  gardener  than  honest  rivalry,  unless  it  be  one  indirect 
phase  of  the  subject,  which  I  hope  to  treat  of  in  another  article  to 
which  it  is  more  distinctly  relevant.  Rivalry  in  its  more  active 
form  brings  exhibiting  to  the  mind,  but  that  all  cannot  thus  com¬ 
pete  is  obvious.  With  a  few  diffidence  is,  perhaps,  the  deterrent, 
arising  from  a  lack  of  energy,  not  from  a  lack  of  knowledge  of 
what  to  do.  With  the  majority  other  considerations  deprive  them 
of  this  incentive  to  the  highest  efforts.  Another  form  of  rivalry 
is  open  to  all,  and  there  are  few  but  what  enter  into  it,  although 
possibly  unconscious  of  the  benefits  derived.  This  is  quiescent 
competition.  We  do  not  like  to  see  our  neighbour’s  Cucumbers  or 
69 
Cabbages,  Grapes  or  Roses,  or  anything  that  is  his,  better,  or  bigger, 
or  earlier  than  our  own.  From  the  surreptitious  peep  of  the 
cottager  over  the  garden  wall  at  his  neighbour’s  produce  to  the 
friendly  exchange  of  visits  made  by  gardeners  of  all  grades  is  the 
same  spirit  of  rivalry  noticeable,  and  I  cannot  but  think  that  it  is 
a  good  spirit  gently  spurring  on  to  higher  things. 
How  pleasantly  the  pen  will  glide  over  our  diary  when  writing 
down  so  many  prizes  at  a  certain  show  ;  so  many  tons  of  Potatoes 
from  a  certain  field  where  the  knapsack  sprayer  went  its  rounds 
before  the  blight  gained  ground.  Ah,  we  shall  hear  a  good  deal  of 
these  and  similar  successes  in  these  pages — the  Journal  of  Horti¬ 
culture,  and  we  shall,  as  we  ought,  be  glad  to  hear  of  them.  It  is 
a  pleasant  and  satisfying  tribute  to  the  man  who  knew  what  to  do, 
and  has  done  it.  But  there  is  a  reverse  to  the  picture,  seldom 
shown.  It  is  from  the  two  views  I  have  endeavoured  in  this  brief 
homily  to  fill  in  figuratively  the  yet  blank  pages.  How  shall  they 
be  literally  written  as  we  daily  unfold  them? — Papyrus. 
APPLE  LORD  HINDLIP. 
We  announced  last  week  that  an  award  of  merit  was  granted  by 
the  Fruit  Committee  of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society  for  this  variety. 
We  believe  that  every  member  voted  for  it  but  one,  and  he  did  not 
FIG.  11. — APPLE  LORD  HINDLIP. 
vote  against  it.  The  fruits  were  exhibited  by  Mr.  John  Watkins  of 
Hereford,  who  may  be  expected  to  know  a  good  Apple  as  well  as  do 
most  people.  We  give  an  illustration  of  one  of  the  fruits — not  the 
largest,  but  as  fairly  representing  its  size,  while  its  shape  is  correctly 
delineated.  The  tree  was  described  as  a  good  grower  and  free  bearer. 
As  stated  last  week,  the  fruit  is  yellowish  green  with  crimson  streaks 
rising  from  the  base,  the  colour  deepening  on  the  sun  side,  and  flecked 
with  russet ;  stalk  long  and  slender  ;  eye  small,  closed  ;  flesh  tender, 
sveet,  and  pleasantly  flavoured.  Lord  Hindlip  is  a  Rosemary  Russet 
type  of  Apple,  and  was  regarded  as  a  welcome  addition  to  late  dessert 
varieties. 
HARDY  FLOWER  NOTES. 
At  this  early  season  it  is  impossible  to  have  any  idea  of  the 
probable  weather  for  even  a  day  in  advance.  Thus,  although  up  to 
the  time  of  writing  it  has  been  exceptionally  mild,  fogs  have  been 
prevalent,  and  there  has  been  little  of  that  sunshine  we  so  much 
value,  weak  though  it  is  at  this  season.  We  cannot,  however, 
but  feel  more  hopeful  now  that  the  days  have  begun  to  lengthen, 
and  the  garden  shows  signs  of  life  by  the  re-appearing  of  bulbs 
which  are  now  peeping  through.  Soon  will  there  be  sheets  of 
Snowdrops  in  place  of  the  small  clumps  of  a  few,  and  soon  the 
brilliant  Dutch  Crocuses  will  yield  their  flowers  in  patches  of 
glowing  gold,  deep  purple,  white,  or  of  various  delicate  shades  of 
lilac  or  light  purple.  These  are  for  the  future  though,  and  we 
must  look  for  something  in  the  present  less  attractive  and  in 
consonance  with  the  time  of  year. 
