MR. DISRAELI ON COTTAGE GARDENING.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 1, 3 February 1872, Page 8

MR. DISRAELI ON COTTAGE GARDENING.

[From tho Melbourne Leader."} Mr. Disraeli shines as much in gardening as he does in politics. Combined with consummate knowledge of the Esthetics of landscape gardening, as shown ia Lothair, it would appear that he also possesses a thorough acquaintance with the practice of gardening, if we may judge by the following extract taken from his speech when proposing " Prosperity to the Hughenden Horticultural Society" on the 24th of September last. Mr. Disraeli said : — I think we may appeal to our cottage life in this parish generally, aud specially in contrast with what it was many years ago, without dissatisfaction. Now in this attempt to raise and make interesting the life of our cottagers, the garden is a most important element ; and I think I may say that there are no cottages — certainly very few in this somewhat large parish — without gardens, and gardens in which great taste and skill are displayed. A garden is to a working man a source of profit, a source of comfort, aud a source of pleasure. It is a source of profit when it enables any individual to pay his rent by selling fruit. It is a source of comfort when he can lay up for his family a stock of potatoes aud other roots, and supply them with green, winter vegetables which will carry them through the year. And it is a source of pleasure to him when he produces flowers which charm his eye with beauty of colour and harmony of form. There are few things which can contribute to the happiness of a man more than the creation and cultivation of a garden. I will not give you a lecture on cottage gardening on the present occasion, although I take great interest in the subject. JJut I will lay down one principle which is of great importance, because it applies to the present moment, and because those who hear me may be influenced by what I say ; and that is, that in cottage gardening autumnal cultivation is the first point. If your garden is well cultivated in the autumn — if it is prepared in proper manner — it is impossible, either in the plenteousness or the quality of the crops, to conceive what may be the result, lieuiember that autumn commenced about fortyeight hours ago, and that summer ended on the 22nd September ; and this is the moment when you must dig, trench, and accumulate manure; and it is upon the autumn cultivation that your success will depend when you claim prizes for the next year. With regard to flowers, I should like to see more products of that description ; but I know there is an impression that it is an expensive thing to cultivate flowers. Now, I must say that that is a very great error. There is nothing so cheap as to constitute a flower garden. In the first year there might be a very slight expenditure in seeds. In the next year you help each other aud exchange seeds and plants ; and it is quite impossible to say how much can be effected in the garden by constant vigilance aud industry. A friend of mine said to me the other day that roses were expensive things. I told him that all he had to do in November was to plant some briars, and then in the spring if he would come to my garden, or the garden of any other gentleman in the pai'ish, he might obtain buds and learn how to insert them in the briars, and before the autumn was over he would find his. garden full of the beautiful productions of nature, almost as beautiful as the name they bear. Therefore, it is a mistake to suppose that indulging in the cultivation of flower is a very expensive aud troublesome affair.

The Pkesian Famine. — The Times of India says :—": — " From telegraphic intelligence placed at our disposal, we learn that rain has fallen in Teheran, Ispahan, and Shiraz. But this item of vague news, instead of adding to the comparative indifference that obtains about the famishing Persians, ought to stimulate to exertion. It may be put in this way : the rain will not directly add a single day to the life of a single family, but it will suffice to keep tho cattle alive for a month, over a great tract of country. In that month large supplies of grain might be sent up-country if the stores of the charitable were already waiting at Bunder Abbas and Bushire. What is the quantity now available at those places ? Not four persons can say how much. How much, grain can be landed at those places within a fortnight or three weekß ? This could easily be settled ; the Persian Relief Committee has already a sum subscribed which would provide a respectable cargo. Has a ship-load been sent in anticipation ? We fear not." The Bishop of Bombay has gone to Aden to consecrate a new church there.