The San Francisco call., 1904-07-25
Millions IN Gardens.

It has been said that there are a
score Of noblemen in the United King
dom who spend more every year on
their gardens than would pay the Of
fetal salaries OF the entire Cabinet;
ard. extravagant as the statement may
appear. it is we'll within the limits of
truth.
Further than this, there are, on the
best authority, more than 5000 seats
Of the mighty" or at least of the rich,
the gardens Of which cost their owners
anything almost from $500 a year up
ward into the thousands while there
are as many more which demand be-
tween e2O0 and $500 a year for their
maintenance. OF these 10000 British
gardens an annual sum estimated at
over 60, 100000 is spent for labor alone;
and another round million pounds at
least goes in the purchase of seeds,
plants and manures, and the general
upkeep of the gardens and glass houses.
To this must be added the tens Of
thousands of gardens of the well-to-do
classes on which sums ranging from
10 20 perhaps 500 a year are spent,
and the hundreds Of thousands of more
modest gardens, each, however, a
source Of pride and pleasure to its
owner, which cost from a few shillings
TO a few pounds year.
1t is difficult and. perhaps, invidious
TO say which are the most costly gar
den5 in Great Britain; but among them
are certainly those of Trentham Hall,
Welbeck Abbey, Lord Bute's gardens
at Cardiff Castle, the world-famous
gardens OF Chatsworth, and those of
the ROthschilds, on which gold has
been lavished like water.
One gets an impressive idea of the
extent Of such gardens as these when
We hear that the kitchen garden alone
al Welbeck covers thirty acres, that
the houses in which peaches. apricots
and nectarines are grown stretch for a
quarter Of a mile, and that to stock
them cost as much as 10000 When a
millionaire sets his heart on making
may be sure that he recks little of the
cost
Not long ago a very rich man in the
north of England discovered that one
section Of his gardens was rendered
useless through exposure to the keen
east wind. This was not to be toler-
ated, said the great man, and to keep
the eastern blasts from trespassing he
planted thousands of Scotch and Nor
wegian fir trees to act as a screen, pay
ing as much as e5 for individual trees.
This little whim cost him nearly e20,-
900, but he considered himself amply
rewarded by seeing his wilderness
tHrned into a paradise of flowers.
In such gardens as these ii is quite
usual 10 employ as many as seventy
or eighty men and boys, so that
Cabinet Minister'S yearly salary may
easily go in wages alone. 1t is said
that there are 800 country houses in
Great Britain each of which employs
a staff of over fifty men; Of these, 200
employ between eighty and $50, while
sixty Of them employ over 200; and the
large majority of all these male serv-
ants are gardeners of one kind or an
other
In addition to the cost of labor there
are repairs and alterations of houses.
furnaces TO be fed, walls built for fruit
growing. nets for protection, tools to
buy and replace, and-often the most
costly item of all-seeds and plants to
purchase. Baron Schroeder is credited
with having spent $4,000 on his col
lection of orchids, and Sir Trevor Law
renee with an expenditure of e .0OO
Joseph Chamberlain has thirteen
glass houses containing, roughly, 5000
plants, many of them of great value
and gathered from almost every part
OF the earth where orchids are to be
found. The plants are arranged in diff
ferent houses according to the time of
Towering, so that the succession Of ex-
quisite flowers never fails the whole
year round. Each plant bears its num-
Der as well as its name, and it is said
that Mr.. Chamberlain knows every one !
OF his floral pets.-London Tit Bits.