June  16,  1904. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
509 
his  frugal  training,  and  his  native  air,  have  served  him  well, 
and  he  survives  to  marry  and  settle  in  one  of  those  dismal,  gar¬ 
denless  terraces  which  abound  in  our  third-class  suburbs,  which 
ho  reaches  by  railway  and  tramcar,  involving  a  costly  addition 
to  his  rent.  Gradually  he  sinks  into  the  usual  type  of  an  over¬ 
worked,  unhealthy-looking  town  employe,  struggling  to  rear  a 
still  more  unhealthy  family.  What  is  the  result  ?  The  family 
circumstances  and  environment  are  such  that  one  more  group  of 
human  beings  is  added  by  the  countryside  to  the  still  swelling 
town  population,  with  its  submerged  tenth,  its '  hospitals,  its 
workhouses,  and  its  cemeteries.  This  is  how  human  life — the 
very  pith  and  marrow  of  our  manhood — is  being  used  up.  There 
is,  after  all  little  difference  in  the  method  by  which  the  human 
machine  and  the  mechanical  machine  are  respectively  worn  out ; 
but  there  is  this  difference  in  the  result — the  human  machine  is 
reproductive,  and  its  offspring  reduces  the  physical  power  of 
the  average  man,  and  of  the  race  to  which  he  belongs. 
Thus  has  the  necessity  arisen  for  the  Small  Holding  and 
Garden  Village  movement,  which  is  intended  to  assist  in  the 
solution  of  one  of  those  problems  which  is  gradually  becoming 
national  in  its  aspect.  What,  may  I  ask.  will  be  the  result  of 
the  movement  in  the  course  of  time  if  it  is  adequately  supported  ? 
for  it  is  already  affecting  the  health,  the  fortunes,  and  the 
prospects  of  large  numbers  of  people,  and,  so  far  as  I  am  aware, 
there  is  no  colony,  whether  among  those  in  Lincolnshire,  in 
Worcestershire,  Dorset,  Wilts,  Noi'thumberland,  or  Surrey,  in 
which  a  shadow  of  failure  has  appeared. 
Among  the  results  I  look  for  the  fpllowing  : — 
(1)  The  repopulation  of  the  country  districts.  There  are 
some  twenty-seven  families  living  on  the  colony  established  by 
Sir  Robert  Edgcumb  in  Dorset  on  poor  lend,  where  I  believe 
only  three  or  four  families  lived  at  the  time  of  its  purchase,  and 
where  one  of  these,  the  tenant,  became  bankrupt. 
(2)  The  improvement  of  the  health  and  physique  of  the 
people.  I  hold  that  it  is  impossible  for  children  to  live  among 
the  green  fields,  and  to  be  fed  upon  milk,  home-made  bread,  and 
fresh  vegetables  and  fruit,  without  a  change  being  effected  in 
their  weight,  their  size,  and  their  mental  and  physical  constitu¬ 
tion.  The  animals  of  the  farm  improve  in  all  physical  directions 
in  accordance  with  the  character  and  quantity  of  the  food  they 
receive,  and  it  has  been  shown  by  Dr.  Hall,  of  Leeds,  and  others 
that  precisely  the  same  results  follow  the  improved  feeding  of 
children. 
(3)  The  prosperity  of  a  larger  number  of  people.  The 
existence  of  a  colony  or  garden  village  in  any  district  cannot 
fail  to  be  followed  by  beneficial  results  to  the  working  native 
inhabitants  of  the  district ;  and  where,  as  is  already  the  case  in 
existing  instances,  the  colonists  succeed,  it  follows  that  pro¬ 
sperity  is  increased. 
(4)  Increased  emproyment  to  an  increased  inimber  of  workers 
— (a)  on  the  land,  for  the  intensive  culture  of  the  small  holder 
demands  abundant  labour,  especially  at  the  time  of  spring  and 
harvest ;  (b)  in  the  building  trade,  which  in  our  own  district  is 
visibly  humming ;  (c)  in  road-making,  well-sinking,  brick¬ 
making,  hauling  timber  and  other  materials  from  the  railway 
to  the  colony,  in  the  manufacture  of  building  materials,  joinery, 
metal-work,  and  a  hundred  and  one  other  articles.  We  have 
already  employed  a  large  number  of  men  in  each  of  these 
branches  of  labour ;  (d)  in  the  handling  of  produce  grown  in 
increased  quantities  on  holdings  of  small  size,  and  in  the  con¬ 
veyance  of  this  produce  to  the  consumer  or  to  the  large  market. 
(5)  The  occupation  and  improvement  of  the  uncultivated, 
abandoned,  and  derelict  land  which  still  exists  in  large  areas, 
and  much  of  which — for  it  is  mostly  heavy  land — is  adapted  to 
the  production  of  large  quantities  of  food,  and  especially  of 
fruit  and  market  garden  produce.  On  the  poorest  clay,  almost 
the  poorest  to  be  found  in  Kent,  Dr.  Bernard  Dyer  and  his  col¬ 
league.  Mr.  Shrivell,  after  five  or  six  years  of  cultivation,  have 
been  enabled  to  grow  enormous  crops  of  almost  all  kinds  of 
vegetables,  some  of  which  were  supposed  to  be  unadapted  to 
clay,  and  converted  a  barren  field  into  a  productive  market 
garden,  growing  as  much  as  45  tons  of  Rhubarb  on  an  average 
of  4  years  ;  11  tons  of  Potatoes,  8  years’  average ;  85  tons  of 
Tomatoes,  2,800  bundles  of  Asparagus,  3  years’  average  ;  17  tons 
of  Lucerne,  6  years’  average ;  27  tons  of  Cabbage,  3  years’ 
average ;  and  approximately  large  weights  of  vegetables  and 
fruit  of  many  other  kinds.  In  a  word,  the  system  will  not  only 
assi.st  in  the  provision  of  abundance  of  food  for  the  people  of 
the  locality,  and  adjacent  markets,  but  in  increa.sing  the  value 
of  the  land  itself. 
(6)  It  will  contribute  to  a  much  larger  extent  to  our  ability 
to  feed  ourselves  as  a  nation.  It  has  been  recentl.y  suggested  by 
an  agricultural  expert  that  in  the  event  of  national  difficulty 
the  Potato  might  be  grown  to  such  an  extent  that  were  the 
wheat  .supply  to  fall  short  the  people  might  still  be  fed ;  and, 
indeed,  so  long  as  manure  is  obtainable,  there  is  barely  a  limit 
to  the  capacity  of  a  skilled  man  who  is  industrious  to  produce 
food  of  many  kinds. 
(7)  It  will  diminish  the  rates  and  taxes  in  rural  districts  l)y 
reducing  the  number  of  unenudoyed,  and  consequently  the 
amount  of  the  poor  rate,  by  increasing  the  rate  per  acre  upon 
improved  land ;  for  this  naturally  follows,  as  where  land 
rated  to-day  on  account  of  its  uncultivated  condition  at  5s.  per 
acre  becomes  worth  20s.  or  30s.,  owing  to  the  labour  which  man 
has  put  into  it,  and  by  the  increase  in  the  number  of  houses 
constructed  for  the  colonists.  It  is  worth  remarking  that  on 
Sir  Robert  Edgecumb’s  colony  the  rent  was  £240  per  annum 
at  the  time  of  its  purchase,  while  on  the  basis  of  the  rentals  of 
similar  farms  in  the  neighbourhood,  the  present  rent,  if  let  to 
a  single  tenant,  would  not  exceed  £180,  owing  to  the  diminished 
value  of  land.  Nevertheless,  the  rateable  value  of  the  estate 
has  been  increased  to  £313,  owing  to  its  division  among  twenty- 
seven  owners.  Still  further,  I  may  add,  the  rateable  value  of 
the  rural  parishes  of  the  Union  in  which  this  colony  is  situated 
fell  from  £80,000  in  1881  to  £68,000  in  1895,  showing  a  decline 
of  13  per  cent.  ;  whereas  the  relative  value  of  the  colony  rose  in 
seven  years  by  34  per  cent. 
Tk  Cultwe  of  flippeastrums. 
The  culture  of  the  Hippeastrum  is  so  simple,  and  the  floral 
results  so  brilliant,  that  it  well  deserves  the  honour  of  specialisa¬ 
tion.  It  appeals  most  strongly  to  the  amateur  specialist,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  being  a  bulb,  the  possibility  of  error  in  the 
application  of  water  is  not  so  pronounced  as  in  the  case  of 
plants  which,  lacking  the  means  of  reserving  moisture,  have  to 
depend  entirely  on  the  periodical  renewal  of  water  supply  to 
their  roots,  failing  which  they  would  soon  display  displeasure 
by  the  irritating  process  of  flagging. 
This  remark  is  not  intended  to  imply  that  care  is  not  to  be 
exercised  in  watering  Hippeastrums,  for  this  is  fallacious.  What 
is  meant  is  that  a  failure  on  the  part  of  the  grower  to  supply 
its  needs  on  one  day  will  not  weaken  the  constitution  of  tnis 
plant  to  such  a  disa.strous  effect  as  it  would  many  others.  If, 
however,  a  continued  method  of  mismanagement  be  adopted, 
the  results  are  not  difficult  tp  anticipate. 
The  propagation  of  Hippeastrums  is.  effected  in  two  ways, 
viz.,  by  seed  and  by  offsets.  The  latter  method  is  a  somewhat 
slow  process  owing  to  the  plants  not  being  largely  given  to  re¬ 
production  in  this  way.  The  advantage  gained,  however,  is 
that  there  is  a  certainty  of  the  offset  being  of  the  same  variety 
as  the  pai’ent  bulb,  which  is  not  the  case  with  seedlings.  lii 
order  to  make  success  doubly  certain,  it  is  better  to  refrain  from 
detaching  the  young  bulb  from  the  old  one  until  tlie  former 
has  thrown  forth  roots  of  its  own  to  support  it  in  its  separate 
existence. 
It  will  be  evident,  however,  that  in  reproduction  from  seed 
we  can  with  our  facilities  for  hybridisation  introduce  fresh 
vigour  into  the  stock,  and  thei'eby  materially  add  to  the  general 
constitution  of  the  collection  in  a  manner  impossible  in  the 
process  of  division.  Therefore,  I  strongly  advocate  increasing 
the  stock  by  seed. 
Seed  should  be  sown  thinly  in  pans  early  in  the  year,  and 
plunged  in  cocoa-nut  fibre  in  a  propagating  case  having  a  brisk 
bottom  heat.  Cover  the  pan  with  a  sheet  of  glass  to  insure  a 
close  atmospheric  surrounding,  and  to  prevent  too  rapid  an 
evaporation  of  the  moisture,  for  it  is  better,  if  possible,  to 
refrain  from  applying  water  again  until  signs  of  germination 
are  evident,  which  happy  event  should  occur  in  about  six  weeks’ 
time.  At  the  first  appearance  of  the  embryo  plant  remove  the 
sheet  of  glass,  and  admit  a  little  air  to  the  case,  increasing  this 
as  they  heighten  in  growth  until  it  is  thought  safe  to  remove 
them  from  the  case  altogether.  The  house  must  be  a  warm 
one,  with  a  temperature  of  about  60deg.  As  soon  as  they  are 
fit  to  handle  prick  off  the  seedlings  into  pans,  or  what  is  better, 
place  singly  in  “thimble”  pots,  guarding,  however,  against 
the  dangers  of  the  water  pot  by  plunging  these  pots  closely  to¬ 
gether  in  a  box  of  cocoa-nut  fibre,  moss,  or  coal  ashes.  This  will 
prevent  too  rapid  evaporation.  The  syringe  should  be  kept  in 
constant  employ,  dewing  them  over  at  least  three  times  a  day, 
thus  watering  from  a  can  will  be  unnecessaiy.  Shading  frohi 
bright  sunshine  will  bo  needed,  and  as  the  plants  fill  tlieir  pots 
with  roots  they  should  be  shifted  into  another  size,  but  let  not 
the  shift  be  too  pronounced. 
Towards  Augirst  discontinue  syringing  so  often,  and 
gradually  dry  off.  Let  there  be  no  sudden  withholding  of  water, 
a  process  which  has  destroyed  the  vital  energy  of  innumerable 
bulbs  and  corms,  for  it  is  evident  that  if  moisture  be  not  forth¬ 
coming  whilst  the  work  of  evaporation  is  .still  in  operation,  the 
bulb  must  necessarily  undergo  a  process  of  gradual  diminution. 
The  true  criterion  to  correct  culture  in  this  respect  is  the  firm¬ 
ness  of  the  bulb.  If  it  feels  at  all  flabby  or  shrivelled,  some 
error  has  been  committed,  and  should,  if  time  allow,  be  imme¬ 
diately  rectified  or  prevented  from  becoming  more  pronounced 
by  the  supply  of  water  in  a  judicious  quantity. — 'NV.  Rowles. 
(To  be  continued.) 
