The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-07-18 00:00:00

BILAFTESBITRY.

WINDOW GARDENING. -On Monday lad ii, t
Grosvenor House WILK a pretty and intensth,
'thta children's flower-show was being held in the ttplun'd,
Troops of Eluding little boys and girls co:eied
a band was playirg ; the sun 1•11.4 shining :
be given away. The Duke of Wealminster,
there was to be. flower-show held in the parinh.
proposed to lend his own garden for the purpo,,e,
tent in which the plants were placed for exhibition did
not contain anything that was rare, nor even line sped.
mens of ordinary flowers. Neyertheles, there
interest attached to the struggling geranium, and dirty
cockscombs not to be found in the Mind dililay at the
Crystal Palace. All the plant. Lame from the narnor
hot streets and mews of the neighliourhori: an had I
ou
nursed by the little children ‘,11., btu there little
children who had perhaps never piclo.ni in a
meadow or seen a wild 11/Stl grain, in a hedge. Ilut
they had done their beat to brio.: noun lireath of the
country into the noisy streets, a,,0. the
brick and mortar; and kind people siant.nl to help them
and see what micros., they hail hail iii their work. But it
in not alone among the poorer dune., that
gardening ought to lie cultivated. We do no oat why the
children of the upper and middle cLinnel sbould he with-
out their flower-shows also. Why should not they, too,
be encouraged to make gardening a pursuiC There are
thousands of professional people whose (multi., hie the
greater part of the year in a London street. livery
window in such a street might be made to glow with
beautiful flowers; nor would the assistance .4 the
nurseryman be required if the denizens .if the hem,
nursery were encouraged to love gardening. As it i., tier
know little or nothing about flowers beyond the names of
those they see hawked about the mimes and planted
geometrically in the parks.

.
'aptain °lith t eld, .8., chief of the Steam Reserve at
Devonport, the office next in rank to the admiral
superintendent, has lately shown symptoms of mental
derangement of so marked a character as to necessitate
his removal to the Royal Naval llospitaL
THE HARD Tikes "—The latest Revenue report
strongly confirms the view we hare taken of the prevail-
ing " hard times." They are hard times for the
rather than for the hulk of the people. The i:orniniasioners
report that in 1t175, in spite of the continued decline in
trade, the importation of apirita, tobacco, tea, Wheat, and
butter all increased, that of common spirits by 75 per rent
That is not good news for the teetotallers, hot it eertainly
shows that the population in 1`475 were not suffering—
that, in fact, as the Commissimiers of Customs limy "the
year was one in which those dependent upon agricultural
and other partially skilled labour for their maintenance,
whom labour is paid for on the lowest scale of remunera-
tion, hut who forms the great majority of the people,
have materially advanced in the possession of wealth."
If the distress last, it will iindoiditeilly hit the majority,
but as yet pauperism is very low, bread is very cheap, LW
outside the iron trade the only audible crj, conic. from
the luxurious trades. Coach painters suffer, not plough
men. -Special,.