1879.] NOTES FROM THE PAPERS. 285 



selves, and suggestions have been already offered on the subject by the editor 

 of this paper. 



A correspondent of one of the daily papers in the provinces writes as follows 

 on the subject of dishonest proceedings at flower-shows : "I can speak from 

 a good deal of experience, and can truly affirm that the days of horticultural 

 shows are numbered, unless nefarious practices are put a stop to. Exhibitors 

 who are honest are disgusted at being deprived of what they have honestly 

 won, and subscribers are in many instances declining to patronise or connect 

 themselves with what they rightly deem a disgrace to the place. I could en- 

 large this letter considerably by giving numerous instances of the variety of 

 frauds practised, but as they are generally known I scarcely think it necessary. 

 If, however, committees having the management and appropriation of money sub- 

 scribed for the encouragement or improvement of cottage-gardening would take 

 such measures as will prove of use in putting a stop to the evil, they will merit 

 the approval of every one, and will succeed in raising floral exhibitions from 

 the slough of despond into which they are fast falling to a state in which they 

 will be what they are designed to be — a great and lasting benefit to the public." 



These remarks allude to certain revelations that had been made concerning 

 fraudulent practices at flower-shows, and now quite common, it would appear, 

 and practised with impunity. 



A correspondent of 'Gardening Illustrated' says: "The Sunflower is a 

 most valuable sanitary agent. This I proved to my entire satisfaction whilst 

 living in the environs of an eastern city of the United States, where bad drain- 

 age and a hot sun — aggravated by the habits of a population ignorant of all 

 hygienic law — aroused me to the necessity of some safeguard. This was the 

 Sunflower (Helianthus), started early in pots and planted out when half a foot 

 high. They soon formed a grove in the very stiff clay soil of which your cor- 

 respondent of No. 4 complains. Jerusalem Artichokes, as a vegetable, will do 

 for him what these Sunflowers did for me. In a year or two, with generous 

 manuring, they will change yellow clay into a moderately light soil of a darker 

 hue. My family, and those of two immediate neighbouring cottages, were the 

 only ones that escaped unscathed from the smallpox epidemic. Chicken 

 cholera also raged around and cleared entire hen-roosts. Mine was untouched 

 by it. The stems of those Sunflowers which bordered the garden I utilised by 

 trimming off all leaves and laterals for bean stalks and supports for climbing- 

 flowers. The seeds, of which I had several bushels, served to fatten my fowls. 

 They ate it when they refused the more usual fare of maize. The stems, when 

 dry, I burnt for potash. No other vegetable matter contains so much of this 

 (to the gardener) valuable alkali." 



The following plan from the ' Journal ol Horticulture ' of fumigating hot- 

 houses is, we think, worth mentioning. The plan is simple, convenient, and 

 effective, apparently : — 



" Fumigating. — I beg to submit to your smoke-poisoned inquirer ' S.A.Y.,' 

 page 247, an easy and cheap method of fumigating in safety. Have a 6-inch 

 flower-pot resting on an old gridiron, or two or three pieces of iron rod, on the 

 top of two herring boxes or bricks the height you want, leaving space between 

 for a candlestick, and place your apparatus near the door ; fill the pot with 

 tobacco-paper torn in pieces half the size of your hand, do not press it too 

 firmly, place a lighted candle close to the hole in the pot, and the work is done 

 for a house 14 feet by 12. You can open the door to take out the candle, or 

 you can leave it to burn out." 



A horticultural writer in a provincial paper says that at Stevens's Rooms, the 



