July  2,  1303. 
■GUli^\AL  CF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
'mm 
Gardeners’  Commissions. 
I  enclose  herewith  slip  which  has  been  received  by  me  inside 
a  foreign  catalogue  of  bulbs.  I  have  noted  with  interest  the  cor¬ 
respondence  which  has  taken  place  in  your  paper  relative  to 
gardeners’  commissions,  and  it  appears  that  on  this  question 
probably  firms  in  this  country  are  being  fathered  with  the  .sins  of 
foreigners  if  the  enclosure  is  to  be  taken  as  an  instance.  With 
the  Bill  before  Parliament  it  occurs  to  me  as  to  how  the  point  of 
the  foreigner  offering  discount  is  to  be  met  with,  as  obviously  to 
prevent  corruption  (so  called)  by  English  firms,  some  means  should 
be  adopted  for  this  to  apply  to  foreign  firms  ;  if  it  is  not  so  it  would 
be  a  very  anomalous  position.  This  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
dealt  with  in  any  correspondence  hitherto  appearing,  and  I  think 
it  is  a  point  which  deserves  consideration.— Monitor. 
Back  to  the  Land, 
Taking  it  for  granted  that  “  D.  C.”  is  speaking  from  actual 
experience  of  unsuccessful  holdings,  I  must  confess  that  mine  is 
entirely  confined  to  the  Evesham  district  of  Worcestershire, 
where  small  holdings  are  the  rule,  and  where  they  are  ousting 
the  farmer  eveiy  year.  But  there  must  be  the  right  stamp  of  men, 
and  they  are  not  produced  in  six  months,  and  scarcely  in  one 
generation.  Farm  land  is  every  year  turned  into  allotments  in 
this  neighbourhood,  and  rents  are  at  once  raised  out  of  all  pro¬ 
portion.  My  contention  was  that  past  laws  and  conditions  have 
favoured  the  creation  of  large  holdings,  and  thus  indirectly 
helped  to  drive  labour  townward.s.  Large  holdings  cannot  afford 
to  pay  high  wages;  for  intensive  cultivation,  wherever  yon  find 
it,  has  to  pay  these  higher  wago.s,  and  then  the  laboni'ers  do 
not  go  to  the  towns  to  the  same  extent,  and  fewer  still  would 
go  if  they  could  purchaise  their  own  holdings.  Did  “  D.  C.” 
ever  hear  of  a  man  owning  and  working  three  or  four  acres  who 
left  it  tO'  better  himself  in  a  city  ?  There  must  be  something 
strangely  wrong  if,  as  “  D.  C.”  says,  men  leave  the  land — the 
first  source  of  production — to  avert  starvation.  It  would  not  be 
safe  to  offer  free  land  near  here.  I  cannot  speak  for  other  parts, 
and  it  has  to  bo  very  fold  and  very  poor  to  be  had  rent  free  for 
even  six  months.  I  quite  agree  as  to  the  difficulties  of  distribu¬ 
tion  when  distant  from  any  outlet.  I  can  give  no  figures  to 
prove  that  small  holdings  do  pay,  nor  do  I  believe  that  any  are 
needed.  I  live  in  the  midst  of  it,  see  it  spreading  eveiT  year, 
and  paying  quite  double  farmer’s  rent  and  higher  wages,  and 
so  am  convinced  that  it  ?nu.sf  pay.  That  it  would  thrive  equally 
in  every  part  of  England  is  my  firm  belief ;  but  you  must  have 
the  right  men,  as  I  said  before,  and  they  can  only  be  produced 
gradually.  Thanking  you  for  your  kind  allowance  of  space,  on 
which  I  shall  not  again  encroach,  I  am,  <frc. — Owner  anp  Tenant. 
P.S. — Would  “  D.  C.”  explain  why  Henry  George’s  philosophy 
would,  if  practically  applied,  tend  to  national  suicide  ? 
Entering  a  Holding  op  Sixteen  Acres. 
Writing  in  reply  to  a  query  in  “  Farm,  Field,  and  Fireside,” 
a  correspondent  signing  himself  “Wentworth,”  says:  “If  there 
is  still  money  to  be  got  from  the  source  from  which  you  acquired 
tlie  £200  you  have  to  .start  your  farming  with,  stick  to  it,  for 
you  will  never  keep  a  wdfe  and  family  and  save  £200  out  of 
farming  sixteen  acres  of  land  in  West  Yorkshire,  when  devoting 
your  energies  principally  to  summer  butter  making.  In  an 
issue  of  the  ‘  Mark  Lane  Express  ’  there  appears  a  letter  from 
Mr.  Clare  Sewell  Read  on  ‘  Co-operation  Among  Farmers,’  and 
he  quotes  the  caution  of  the  late  Charles  Howard,  ‘  That  the 
only  way  for  a  small  farmer  to  command  succe.ss  was  to  do  the 
work  of' two  labourers  and  live  at  the  expense  of  one.’  This  is 
((uite  our  experience,  and  this  is  the  sort  of  life  that  the  small 
holder  has  got  to  be  prepared  for.  One  of  your  proposals,  on  the 
strength  of  your  wife  being  a  good  butter  maker,  is  to  purchase 
four  cows  at  their  second  calf  in  May,  and  get  your  butter  in 
the  summer,  as  you  do  not  think  it  pays  to  make  butter  in  the 
winter.  This  argues  more  faith  than  experience.  It  does  not 
pay  to  make  butter  in  the  summer,  and  ]ea.st  of  all  from 
ordinary  second  calf  cows,  unless  it  can  be  sold  at  top  prices 
to  private  consumers.  We  have  seen  in  Yorkshire  markets,  in 
Otley,  Ripon,  and  Knare.sborough,  butter  sold  at  8d.  per  roll, 
and  a  roll  of  butter  in  Yorkshire  is  a  pound  and  a  half.  Can 
that  pay?  Unless  a  man  works  for  a  larger  farmer,  and  slaves 
at  his  small  holding  after  his  day’s  labour,  and  between  tinus, 
or  unless  it  is  situated  near  a.  town,  and  is  cultivated  principally 
as  a  market  garden,  and  all  produce--— vegetables,  butter, 
poultry,  eggs,  pigs,  Ac. — is  sold  at  retail  rates,  there  is  no 
living”  for  a  man  and  his  wife  and  family  otf  sixteim  aens 
of  land.  It  i.s  slavery  and  .semi-starvation.  It  tvould  pay 
better  to  rear  and  sell  fresh  calvers,  in  view  of  the  demand  for 
such  by  Lancashire  milk  sellers  in  West  Riding  markets  than 
to  make  butter  under  the  conditions  described,  and  it  would 
pay  better  to  follow  your  present  occupation,  or  seek  almost 
any  other  than  a.  farmer  of  a  small  holding.” 
If  this  is  re-liablcl  advice,  it  contains  a  serious  warning. 
Another  writer  to  the  samt^  query  says  :  “  Selling  farrows  of 
pigs  at  eight  or  ten  weeks  old  will  be  sure  to  pay  you.  Better 
to  hire  horse  work  done.  Fields  that  are  gra^icd  will  not  need 
dressing,  but  the  mowing  ground  will.  Good  extra  foods  for 
butter  production  are  oats,  bran,  maize,  meal,  brewers’  grains, 
cotton  cake,  linseed  cake,  carrots  or  parsnips,  and  mangold; 
the  latter  at  spring,  but,  of  course,  not  much,  if  any,  of  this 
kind  of  dieting  is  needed  in  summer  time.” 
JottiDgs  on  the  Holland  House  Floral  Fete. 
Doubtless  the  readers  of  our  Rose  Journal  will  have  a  full 
account  of  the  splendid  exhibition  of  the  Royal  Horticultuial 
Society’s  exhibition  held  last  week  in  the  lovely  and  extensive 
grounds  at  Holland  House,  generously  lent  by  the  Earl  ot 
Ilchester.  It  is  the  humble  object  of  your  correspondent  to  con¬ 
fine  his  few  remarks  to  the  Rose  division.  Regretfully,  but  not, 
as  a  matter  of  surprise,  he  is  obliged  to  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  Roses,  neither  in  numbers  or  cpiality  came  up  to  the 
mark  or  were  worthy  of  the  occasion-  Thirteen  frosts,  consecu¬ 
tively,  up  to  April  27  one  has  only  to  mention  as  the  chief  reason. 
Xeve'rtheless,  among  the  blooms  staged  many  were  exceptionally 
fine.  Of  the  two  new  light  Roses,  a  snow-iyliite  H.P.  ,  Frau  Karl 
Dru^chki  (“made  in  Germany”)  and  H.T.  Mildred  Grant  (Dickson, 
Belfast),  collections  of  twefve,  each  of  which  created  so  great  a 
sensation  at  the  Hereford  and  ^\est'  of  Kn^land  Rose  s1ioa\  last 
year — the  former  was  badly  shown,  the  latter  by  a  superb  speci¬ 
men  in  Messrs.  Frank  Gant  and  Sons’  first  prize  collection.  There 
is  evidently  a  great  future  for  both  these  varieties,  one  pro¬ 
fessional  exhibitor  expressed  his  intention  of  Avorking  10,000  on 
the  Briar  of  Frau  Karl  Druschki,  so  highly  did  he  think  of  it. 
Probably  from  its  strong  groAvth — like  H.P.,  Her  Majesty — tins 
variety  Avill  do  better  on  “  cut-backs.” 
In  the  first  and  second  prize  Colchester  collections  (forty- 
eio-ht  varieties)  the  folloAving  blooms  were  admirable; — The  neiv 
Rev.  Alan  Cheales  Iglobiilar,  very  good),  Comtesse  de  Ltidre 
(splendid),  Margaret  Dickson  (large.  Avithout  coarseness),  Caro¬ 
line  Testout  exquisite  (a  variety  supplanting  La  France  as  a 
breeder).  Dr.  SeAvell  (superb  colour),  W.  F.  Beiniet  (pliiin 
coloured),  Marchioness  of  DoAvnshire  (fine,  exquisite  in  seA-eral 
collections),  and  the  iieAV  President  Carnot  (fine,  Avitli  high 
centre).  Lady  Roberts  (noAV  and  promising,  but  shoAvn  coarse), 
Ulrich  Bruniier  (magnificent).  Captain  Hayward  (grand  colour, 
n-enerally  bad  traveller,  but  here  Avore  Avell),  Frau  Karl  Druschki 
^adly  shown).  Marchioness  of  Lome  (finely  cupped,  very  pro- 
misin'o-),  Mrs.  J.  Laing  (superb,  as  usual),  Mrs.  Ruinsey  (good), 
Diike'of  Edinburgh  (grand  in  size  and  colour),  and  Lady  Battersea 
(useful  colour,  evideiitly  not  shoAvn  in  forni).^ 
Messrs.  Prior  had  a  nice  fir.st  iirize  collection  of  eighteen  Teas, 
chiefly  noticeable:  Madame  Hoste.  Souv.  de  S.  A.  Prince,  and 
Catherine  Merniet  (fine  blooms) ;  Avhile  in  Messrs.  Prince,  Uxtord, 
the  neAv  Tea,  Souvenir  de  Pierre  Nottiiig  was  admirably  shown, 
and  Avill  be  a  great  acquisition.  Neither  this  celebrated  firm 
nor  my  friend  aiid  late  neighbonr.  Mr.  Burnside,  seem  to  liaA'e 
as  yet'  overcome  the  delays  and  difficulties  of  the  season.  As 
regards  the  new  dark  H.P.,  Edward  YII.,  from  specimens  sent 
both  in  a  cut  and  groAving  state,  it  is  premature  to  decide:  the 
habit  of  groAvth  is  first  rate,  but  Avhether  blooms  Avill  not  be 
rather  obfiise  in  petal,  and  pretty  but  lacking  in  size,  remains  to 
be  seen  ;  the  colour  is  rich  and  good. 
Messrs.  Hobbies  staged  Rambler  Dorothy  Perkins  to  great 
advantage.  This  novelty  aars  universally  admired  for  colour 
and  freedom  cf  blossom  and  groAvth. — Herefordshire  Inti'mijent. 
Slags  and  Orange  Peel. 
In  regard  to  your  par  re  aboA-e  in  “  Our  Journal  ’’  of  June  2.), 
I  have  tried  it  on  several  occasions  Avitli  great  success.  I  have 
also  found  that  Lemon  peel  is  just  as  efficacious.  Having  caught 
scores  of  slugs  in  this  manner  I  Avould  recoihmeiid  all  gardeners 
Avho  are  troubled  Avith  the  pest  to  give  this  simple  remedy  a  trial. 
_ E.  M.  E.,  West  Kensington. 
