Jaly 8, 1873. ] 



jouenaij op hoeticultuke and cottage gardener. 



so of applving it, excepting that no conls or pullies are re- 

 quired ; each frame should have its length of shading nailed to 

 a small, round, deal pole on one side, and the other side ought 

 to have rings at equal distances corresponding with small 

 hooks in the top of the frame hghts. The rings being fastened 

 to these, the blind will run down by its own weight. When 

 not wanted it can be roUed-up by the hand and put away under 

 cover. Each blind, or shading, should have a number attached 

 corresponding to one on the frame to which it belongs. 



Next to house-shading comes that of shading individual 

 plants or flowers. Fiti. 3 is a very simple and useful con- 

 trivance for that purpose. A piece of cardboard, thin tin, or 

 even thick brown paper is shaped-out as at 1, and half of one of 

 the longest sides is fastened to the stick as at 2, and tied at the 

 top, then the upper corner of the narrowest end has a string 

 attached, which when pulled and tied at the bottom forms the 

 shape as shown at 3. This, with a stake of the proper length, 

 is ready to place over any flower that it is wished to shade. 



Fiii. i is another form of shade, and, I think, an improve- 

 msnt oafiii. 3. It is a circular one about a foot in diameter, 



z 



Fig. 4. 



made of tin, and in the form of a dish-oover. A socket is at- 

 tached to it at «, fastened to the top of the cover at b. In 

 this socket the handle is inserted which supports it in the 

 ground. Those who have tried this prefer it to any other for 

 Boses, DahUas, &c. 



Although it is not expensive yet there is a cheaper way of 

 making such covers. I call them home-spun ones, for I have 

 set the men to make them in the winter. It is this, a frame is 

 shaped-out with small wire to which painted canvas is stitched ; 

 the socket which holds the stake is in the centre at top instead 

 of at the side, as in nrj. 4, and is merely a stout piece of elder 

 wood with the pith taken out ; this is also painted, and the 

 canvas is bound round it with small wire. I do not advocate 

 this in preference to the former ones, but because of its cheap- 

 ness it is worth recommending. When out of use a lot of 

 them can be stored away by stringing them on a rope run 

 through the socket-eye, and the stakes put away for another 

 year ; they will last many years. — Thomas Eecobd. 



rough deals screwed together. There was neither paint, nor 

 distemper, nor anything whatever done to relieve their naked 

 ugliness ; even a few wreaths of evergreens, or a flag or two, 

 or anything, in fact, would have been better thau nothing. 

 Then what few large plantssthere were — and the fine specimens 

 exhibited by Messrs. Cole and Baines were worthy of all praise 

 — were not made the most of ; instead of being arranged iu two 

 centre masses in the middle of the tent, where persons might 

 have admii'ed them from all sides, they were placed on one 

 side the tent. The only coin d'avantaric from which a gene- 

 ral effect of the tent might be seen was blocked by speci- 

 men plants. The Fuchsias, which were exceedingly good, 

 were arranged at one end, and all the small plants were put 

 into the centre, which, being depressed, and having a feeble 

 fountain in the middle (which, with the taps here and there, 

 wetted the walks and made aU iu a puddle), had on the whole 

 a very meagre appearance. 



But I have a still worse complaint to make. No arrange- 

 ments whatever seem to have been made for the gardeners and 

 exhibitors ; no congress, no conversazione, unless we except the 

 microscopic soirte, to which no gardener had any special 

 invitation, but to which one could go by the payment of 

 2s. Grf. ; no tent set apart in the ground, no place reserved for 

 the Judges, exhibitors, Fruit and Floral Committees to dine 

 together the first day of the Show under the auspices of the 

 Council ; uo attempt, in short, that I could see whatever to 

 make the Provincial Exhibition of the Royal Horticultural So- 

 ciety what it might be, not only the first and finest exhibition 

 in England, but a place of reunion for horticulturists, where 

 the working bees of the gardening world might feel that some- 

 thing was being done to encourage them and to elevate them. 

 The worthy Director of floral shows has not sufficient authority 

 placed in his hands, nor efficient workers under him to carry 

 out the arrangements of a great show. If the number of 

 classes, and the number of prizes given in each class, were 

 somewhat reduced, the Exhibition would not be injured, and 

 money might be forthcoming to put up additional accommo- 

 dation for the Floral and Fruit Committees, the Judges, ex- 

 hibitors, and Fellows of the Society. Parsimony in the direc- 

 tion I have alluded to is no true policy, and if these provincial 

 exhibitions of the Royal Horticultural Society are to be looked 

 upon in any other light than the means of getting money to 

 defray home expenses, or as advertising mediums for nursery- 

 men and makers of horticultural appliances, the sooner tlie 

 present state of things is remedied the better. When no one 

 is to blame everybody is to blame, and I think the error only 

 arises from there being no committee of management appointed 

 from the officers of the parent Society, and the Local Com- 

 mittee having, as a general rule, no oflicial status, so that no 

 one thinks it his duty to stir iu the matter. I have heard, 

 however, complaints both just and deep, and I think what cau 

 be done at Manchester, York, Leeds, Bishop Auckland, and 

 elsewhere might also be achieved by the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, and I hope another year may see a real improvement 

 in this matter. — C. P. Peach. 



SHORTCOMINGS AT THE BATH EXHIBITION. 

 May I, with due deference to the Royal Horticultural Society 

 and its executive, call attention to certain things at the late 

 Show at Bath, which struck me as exceedingly poor and defi- 

 cient? First, I may remark on the narrowness of the tents 

 put up for the fruit and out flowers, the vegetables, and tlie 

 table decorations. These were supposed to be 30 feet wide, 

 bnt were considerably under that mark. They were low and 

 ill-Tentilated. No barriers were erected to separate the crowd 

 at the entrance and exit, so that when wishing to get out of a 

 tent one had to face a mob wishing to get into it. Only light 

 ropes on iron stays, screwed into the boards which formed the 

 staging, were used to keep the crowd back ; these ropes were 

 BO weak and pliable, and the stays so far apart, that the crowds 

 were forced nearly on to the flowers. There was far too little 

 space in the first instance in these tents for the exhibitors 

 and attendants when staging the plants and flowers, and far 

 less for the crowd. Then, in the centre tent, no attempt was 

 made to hide the hideous forest of wooden posts made of 



EOYAL HOBTICULTUEAL SOCIETY'S BATH 

 SHOW. 



Rose Show. — -is I supposed, the prizes offered on Thursday, 

 June 2fjth, brought together a large number of exhibitors and 

 some remarkably fine stands of Roses, the western growers 

 having, probably, the advantage, inasmuch as the season being 

 backward, and their cUmate more forward, they had the better 

 chance of cutting blooms for so early a date ; and it was not sur- 

 prising to see Mr. Cranston come out so strongly as he did, and 

 take the foremost place, beating easily Messrs. Paul & Son and 

 Turner, who were his principal competitors ; while tlie excellent 

 blooms of Mr. Baker and Mr. Camm, and the Teas of the Rev. 

 J. Handley showed how well private growers have studied and 

 practised the cultivation of the queen of flowers. 



A great deal of dissatisfaction was expressed at the nou-ad- 

 mission of the public at the time specified. This arises from 

 two causes — first, that exhibitors are so long iu staging, and m 

 this case the railway trains were disappointing; and second, 

 from the paucity of Judges. Wiiy iu the world it sliould be con- 

 sulored necessary to have only t%vo sets of Judges I caunot say, 

 except that the Royal Horticultural Society can always only 

 move in the same groove unless some pressure is put on. There 

 wore numbers of persons there who were thoroughly qualified 

 to act as judges, and by the expenditure of a few pounds tho 

 evil might have been remedied. I daresay some kind fricud 

 will say, " Oh ! he wanted to be judge himself," but that was 

 simply impossible. I had to leave by twelve, and was too fully 



