582 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
December  25,  1902. 
Christmas. 
There  are  still  some  Scrooges  in  the  world  who  profess 
that  they  fare  influenced  in  no  way  by  the  season  of 
Christmas.  They  wrap  themselves  in  their  selfish  mantles, 
and  look  upon  the  preparations,  the  rejoicings,  the  meet¬ 
ings,  and  the  festivities  of  the  season  as  a  parcel  of  silly 
sentiment.  Let  them  do  so.  Nobody  cares,  so  long  as  they 
will  hold  themselves  aloof  from  the  section  of  humanity 
that  enters  into  the  spirit  of  Christmastide,  and  not  try  to 
mar  the  enjoyment  of  others  by  attempting  to  overshadow 
them  with  their  own  wet  blanket  of  discontent.  It  is  not 
likely  that  the  Scrooges  will  have  their  way.  Christmas 
will  always  be,  as  it  ever  was,  a  time  of  peace  and  goodwill, 
a  season  when  men’s  hearts  open  wider  than  usual,  and  they 
are  moved  towards  their  fellows  with  feelings  of  generosity 
and  sympathy. 
If  such  were  not  the  case,  and  Christmas  ceased  to  be 
what  it  is,  can  anyone  realise  the  difference  it  would  make, 
commercially  and  otherwise,  to  those  who  contribute  directly 
and  indirectly  to  the  general  make-up  of  Yuletide  cele¬ 
brations  ?  A  British  Christmas !  What  a  season  it  is ! 
Though  strictly  a  Christian  festival,  peoples  of  many  lands, 
colours,  nationalities,  and  religions  contribute  towards  it ; 
and  what  a  connection  there  is  between  Christmas  and 
horticulture !  Gardens  and  gardeners  have  ever  been 
inseparable  to  the  season,  and  for  long  enough  before  the 
time  preparations  are  going  on  in  hundreds  of  establish¬ 
ments,  but  with  one  object  in  view. 
From  a  Horticultural  Point  of  View. 
In  the  first  place,  there  is  the  decorative  side,  for  the 
provision  of  which  gardens  and  woodlands  are  mainly 
drawn  upon.  The  bit  of  green,  the  red  of  the  Holly  berries, 
and  the  bunch  of  Mistletoe,  have  we  lost  our  sentiment 
regarding  them?  Not  a  bit  of  it,  and  hundreds  of  wives  and 
mothers  when  counting  out  the  money  from  the  limited 
stock  for  the  purchase  of  modest  Christmas  luxuries,  place 
a  portion  aside  for  the  purchase  of  decorative  material.  In 
one  house  this  is  little  enough,  and  you  could  cull  as  much 
from  one  corner  of  the  garden  and  never  miss  it ;  but  it 
means  something  when  you  consider  the  supply  of  a  city. 
To  realise  something  of  what  it  does  mean,  go  into  any 
great  central  markets  in  London  or  elsewhere,  and  observe 
the  great  piles  of  evergreens  that  seem  to  arrive  there 
by  some  magic  means  just  before  Christmas.  One  wonders 
where  it  all  comes  from  ,and  where  it  goes  to.  It  comes 
mostly  from  British  gardens  and  woodlands,  and  is  divided 
up,  a  bit  here  and  a  bit  there,  by  the  means  of  coster¬ 
mongers,  dealers,  fruiterers,  and  greengrocers,  amongst 
thousands  of  householders,  who,  for  old  custom’s  sake,  will 
have  the  Christmasy  look  about  the  home  which  is  intro¬ 
duced  by  means  of  Holly-berries,  Mistletoe,  and  evergreens. 
For  some  years  the  writer  was  engaged  in  the  supply 
of  evergreens  for  the  Christmas  trade  of  that  thriving  city 
of  Manchester.  About  a  month  before  the  time  the  work 
of  cutting  began,  and  all  hands  rvere  busy  carting  and  tying 
up  the  material  into  faggots,  which  were  transferred  to  the 
Cottonopolis  by  the  railway  company.  Trade  was  best 
when  Holly-berries  were  plentiful,  and  it  is  surprising  what 
the  average  decorator  thinks  of  a  few  red  berries  at 
Christmas  time.  Fogs  just  before  Christmas  were  tan¬ 
talising,  and  sometimes  caused  serious  loss  wThen  the  market 
was  brisk  ancl  prices  good,  and  truckloads  of  material  were 
lingering  on  the  line  hung  up  by  the  canopy  of  fog  which 
hampers  traffic  so  terribly.  This  is  only  one  instance,  and 
when  one  considers  that  the  same  sort  of  thing  goes  on  in 
numerous  other  places  one  can  partly  realise  what  a 
drain  there  is  on  British  Conifer  and  other  trees  for 
Christmas  decoration.  Anything  green  will  not  do,  and 
decorators  know  the  material  they  want.  Holly  is  always 
in  demand,  the  more  so  if  it  is  berried.  Ivy  sells  well, 
particularly  if  it  has  berries  on  it,  and  there  is  a  steady 
demand  for  Laurel  and  Box.  Rhododendron  is  not  much 
good,  as  it  flags  so  quickly,  and  there  is  little  demand  for 
Spruce,  except  for  Christmas  trees.  Here,  again,  a  happy 
Christmas  custom  has  created  a  trade,  and  every  season 
thousands  of  young  Spruce  are  sawn  off  or  dug  up  with  roots 
for  the  Yuletide  Christmas  tree.  They  have  their  hour  of 
triumph  when  the  branches  are  laden  with  presents  and  lit 
up  with  coloured  candles,  and  happy  children  dance  round 
them ;  but  humiliation  follows,  and  the  Christmas  tree,, 
discarded  and  bare,  ends  its  days  in  the  backyard  or  in  the 
dust-bin. 
Except  in  a  very  small  way,  the  supply  of  the  mystic. 
Mistletoe  is  not  a  home  trade,  and  to  see  its  extent  you 
must  be  on  the  vcharf  when  the  steamers  draw  up  and  dis¬ 
charge  their  freights  of  crates  containing  the  material, 
which  has  such  a  peculiar  and  time-honoured  association 
with  Yuletide.  It  is  grown  on  trees  and  land  not  English, 
and  is  cut  and  packed  by  people  who  neither  speak  our 
tongue  nor  share  our  customs  ;  but  they  have  learnt  enough 
about  us  to  know  that  Mistletoe  is  indispensable  to  a  British 
Christmas,  and  that  is  sufficient. 
And  of  late  years  flowers  have  played  a  great  part  iu 
Christmas  decorations,  particularly  so  since  market  garden¬ 
ing  under  glass  has  become  such  an  industry.  In  hundreds, 
of  houses  there  are  late  varieties  of  Chrysanthemums  being 
kept  back  for  Christmas,  and  in  hundreds  of  others  flowers 
are  being  forced  out  of  their  natural  season  for  the  same 
purpose.  Gardeners  in  the  Netherlands  grow  bulbs  by  the 
million,  Lily  of  the  Valley  crowns,  and  roots  of  every  other 
plant  almost  that  will  force  for  the  supply  of  floral  material 
for  our  British  Christmas.  By  the  extremes  of  cold  and 
heat  home  growers  place  the  flowers  before  the  man  in  the 
street  just  at  the  appointed  hour.  They  store  up  the  forces 
that  would  have  been  expended  naturally  a  long  time  before 
by  means  of  retarding  in  refrigerators,  and  then  by  the  aid 
of  strong  heat  and  good  judgment  remove  roots,  crowns, 
and  bulbs  from  freezing  cold  to  the  opposite  extreme,  and 
time  them  so  that  the  flowers  come  in  on  the  day  required. 
Brains,  money,  judgment,  and  enterprise  at  home  and 
abroad  all  combine  for  the  one  purpose — that  Britain  may 
have  its  flowers  at  its  Christmas  festival. 
And  Yuletide  is  a  time  of  eating,  sometimes  followed  by 
dyspepsia  and  indigestion,  but  not  if  fruit  plays  its  proper 
part  in  the  diet.  Who  supplies  the  Christmas  fruit? 
Gardeners,  or  fruit  growers  if  you  like  the  term  better 
(though  I  fail  to  see  a  distinction),  both  at  home  and  in 
every  land  where  fruit  is  cultivated.  Go  into  a  Grape¬ 
growing  establishment,  and  see  the  thousands  of  bunches 
hanging  there  for  the  Christmas  market  of  those  who  can 
afford  to  buy  hothouse  Grapes,  and  for  those  who  cannot 
pay  the  price  asked,  and  yet  would  have  Grapes.  They  come 
from  climes  where  the  Vine  flourishes  outdoors,  and  are 
palatable,  even  after  their  long  journey  in  barrels  of  sawT- 
dust. 
In  his  own  little  way  the  English  fruit  .grower  does  some¬ 
thing  to  contribute  towards  Christmas  fare  by  saving  his 
Blenheim  Oranges,  Cox’s  Orange  Pippins,  and  other  well- 
known  Apples  that  are  associated  with  the  season,  with 
the  hope  that  he  will  get  the  best  prices  for  them  then. 
He  is  told  that  he  ought  to  do  more  in  the  growing  and 
storage  of  keeping  Apples,  and  probably  had;  but  in 
the  meantime  thousands  of  acres  of  fertile  land  in  North 
America,  Tasmania,  and  New  Zealand  are  producing 
splendid  Apples,  and  in  growing  and  shipping  them  our 
relatives  in  distant  parts  of  the  world  have  got  their  eyes 
on  the  Christmas  market  in  the  old  country.  There  is  Great 
Britain,  just  a  spot  on  the  map  of  the  world;  but  it  is 
like  a  magnet,  drawing  to  itself  the  products  of  almost 
every  clime  and  race,  and  as  Christmas  time  draws  on  the 
magnetic  power  seems  to  grow  in  strength. 
Need  I  mention  the  ingredients  of  the  time-honoured 
plum  pudding,  the  mince  pie,  and  the  Christmas  cake,  that 
the  garden  does  so  much  to  provide  ?  At  home  we  do  not 
produce  Raisins,  Currants,  candied  peel,  and  spices  ;  but 
gardeners  of  other  lands  do,  though  perhaps  they  know 
nothing  of  a  plum  pudding  and  its  association  with  an 
English  Christmas.  Our  own  modest  contribution  to  the 
mince-meat  in  the  way  of  fruit  are  the  Apples,  and  it  is 
quite  likely  they  come  from  America,  so  that  for  our 
Christmas  sweetmeats  we  have  to  depend  largely  on  the 
gardens,  climate,  and  fruits  of  other  lands,  where  the  sun 
ever  shines,  and  the  Christmas  season  is  far  different  to  our 
own. 
And  apart  from  the  great  question  of  national  supply  and 
demand,  our  private  gardener  working  in  the  private  garden 
knows  the  meaning  of  Christmas.  He  knows  from  experi¬ 
ence  that  extra  supplies  of  flowers  will  be  wanted  then,  for 
it  is  a  time-honoured  custom  for  British  families  to  spend 
Christmas  at  home.  Fruit  also  has  to  be  kept  back  for  the 
