420 



jbUKNAL OF HORTICULTITRE AOT) COTTAGE OAJRBENER. [ November 24, I8fi3. 



Cyathea dsaleata Pinnules Tcbnikg Bsown [C. S. iV.).— The tips of 

 yoTir Fern fronds may be brown from moieture lodging on them during the 

 night, which is evaporated rapidly on the presence of light in the morning. 

 Too little \Nater at the root, a current of cold air, and too dry an atmo- 

 sphei-e will also produce the same reeult. Your plant is kept at least 20"^ too 

 warm. A temperature of from 40'' to 50° is quite warm enough for this 

 Fern in winter. We keep outs in a cool houee from which frost is only 

 just excluded, and it is little short of 6 leet high, and a very young plant. 

 Try a cooler temperature and a more regularly moist atmosphere. 



Back Wall of a Vineky ( W. jy.).— Never think of withholding from 

 giving us trouble. Such letters inform us of what our subscribers want, 

 and thus enable us to please them as we would like to do. But, ot course, 

 in order ic be able to give general eatisfaction our correspondents should 

 make definite inquiries as you do, and even then send only few inquiries at 

 a time, which we are sure ihey would do if they would recollect that there 

 may be hundreds if not thousands in a similar position to themselves. We 

 think you exaggerate in speaking of the " hardness tf our knocks " even in 

 Buch cases, for we never intend to do more than ask for moderation. We 

 fully appreciate your object in desiring to keep your back wall a** low as 

 6 feet, as few advantages arc worth having that could be construed into a 

 source of annoyance by a neighbour. We presume the whole of the border 

 for the Vines is to be inside, and that for such a small house will be an 

 advantage. We have no doubt at all as to the plan answering with your 

 hipped roof at back. That hip could be hinged to open, or you could have 

 a double ridge and a space of 9 inches or so bttween them, with a cap to 

 move as desired, or a ventilator could be suspended underneath the cap, 

 and openings left on the side. The moving of the hipped roof would be 

 the simplest. If you mean to move your sashes, the having three or even 

 four bars would be ranch the best. If the house is on your own property 

 ■why not have a fixed roof! Sash bars 1^ by 2^ or 3 inches would be quite 

 sufficient. We forget already about the point in the book you refer to ; 

 and here we suppobc we must give :i knock in the shape of a hint, that our 

 friends must not suppose that we have long memories^, so as to know where 

 to turn for references without any figures of page or volume. We presume, 

 however, that you mean to folluw the plan ot houses for the million. In 

 such a case you will need little air at back ; but 3 or 4 inches must be left 

 between each sash, and the place covered by a ventilator, to be moved less 

 or more at pleasure. If we can htlp more we shall be glad. 



Vines Undee Sheet-glass Burning [E. P.).— Give plenty of air to the 

 Vines, especially at the top, and a little the first thing in the morning. 

 Then look over the glass cai efully, and on every scar or nodule of any size, 

 daub a little paint or hquid putty. In most cases the air will remedy the 

 evil ; but the knots, if at all large, will burn the leaves. They concentrate 

 the rays ol the tun to one point. 



FoEciNo A Kow OF Sea-kale {D. T. ^.).— Clear away all the old leavesi 

 place a cone of a^hea over the heads of the Kale, cover with pots, boxes, ; 

 or merely sticks and strawbands, dig out a slight trench on each side of the 

 row, and fill the trench with hot fermenting dung. Cover all overgwith 

 leaves or li tter so hot that the enclosed space will have a temperature of about 

 60*, and not more. The heat at the roots may he a little more. We are 

 supposing that you mean to force the row where it stands. If taken up a 

 dark place anywhere, with an average heat of 60'=, would do. For instance, 

 make a slight hotbed, take up the plants and put them in it, and cover with 

 an old box or chest turned topsy-turvy, or make a box of old slabs and cover 

 all over. By this plan a barrowload of fermenting manure will do a^ much 

 as a good cartload out of doors over the row. The Strawberry pots will do 

 well in a cold frame ; they will do so plunged in the border protected from 

 severe frost, or built up as described in " Doings of the Week" last week. 

 There is no book on the questions you note equal to the lucid articles in 

 tills Journal. Mr. Fish commenced a series of such articles, but other 

 matters have kept them in abeyance. You will find full particulars of all 

 such matters in " Doings of the Last Week." 



Greenhouse foe Winteeing Geeanivms, <&c. {O. S.). — We could 

 have advised better as to internal arrangements bad you given us the height 

 of the ;ipex of the roof and height in front or sides altogether. Rough plate 

 glass will be best for the roof at all times, and especially in summer. The 

 aides may be done with common plate. If expense is an object, common 

 plate about 2d. per foot will do well enough, and the light might be dulled 

 in summer. See " Doings of the Last "Week " the other week and description 

 of Keele HalL The fine taken right through the middle of the house, and its 

 top forming the pathway, would be the cheapest plan of heating. A small 

 "boiler and two pipes all round would be the best. If the roof is low a path- 

 way down the middle— say 3 feet wide, and a bed on each side 4^ feet wide 

 —would be the simplest mode of arrangement; but the plants at the sides 

 could not be so well attended to or examined as if they were nearer to the 

 hand and eye. To make the most of such a house— that is, to yield the 

 greatest amount of gratification— we would have a shelf on each side, 

 Ifi inches wide, with the heating-pipes below as fir as the doorway, the 

 shelf also going round the farther end, then a wjilk all round of 2| feet, 

 and a table or platform in the centre of 4 feet. This might be flat, or you 

 might make it into a stage with a raised shelf m the centre, and two or three 

 on each side. It would have been better if the house had stood north and 

 south, but it will do very well as it is. The raised stage would, perhaps, 

 be best If the apex of the roof were as much as 10 or 12 feet in height. A 

 vast number of things could be housed under such a stage in winter. 



Names of Fruits (iS/ar).— The Pear is Wormsley Grange, and the Apple 

 Colonel Vaughan. {A Reader, Bavfftshire).—2, betuT6 de Ranee; 3, Ne 

 plus Meuris ; 5, Figue de Naples, will not do so far north ; 6, Chaumontel. 

 Others not known. 



POULTRY, BEE, and HOUSEHOLD CHRONICLE. 



THE BIRMINGHAM TEN-SHELLING DAY. 



The foUowing paragraph in your paper of last week, quoted 

 from The Midland Counties Herald, cannot fail to excite aston- 

 ishment and suspicion : — " This year the pubhe will be ad- 

 mitted on Saturday the 28th inst., the day on which the 

 Judges make their awards. The reason for this innovation 

 is, that some exhibitors have expressed dissatisfaction that 



the judging should be conducted in private, and the Council 

 have, therefore, determined to give the privilege on payment 

 of an admission-fee of 10s. It was deemed necessai'y to fix 

 the admission-fee tlms high in order that the Judges might 

 not be impeded by a throng in the performance of their 

 ai'duous duties, and also not to interfere with Monday, the 

 day of the private view. The poultry, however, will not be 

 exhibited until Monday." 



The necessity for public judging presupposes dishonesty 

 on the part of the Judges, but it is a question whether 

 under any cu-cumstances the remedy is not worse than the 

 disease. Under the circumstances above quoted it is a 

 positive dishonesty. Either the judging should be public 

 and all exhibitors admitted by special tickets, or it should 

 be private and all exhibitors excluded. The admission of a 

 few for a fee of 10s. implies either weakness or unfairness on 

 the part of the Coimcil. They are either overawed by the 

 wishes of "some exhibitors" who have expressed dissatis- 

 faction, or else, for some reason best known to themselves, 

 they wish to give an unfair' advantage to "some exhibitors" 

 who are disposed td pay for it. It is in effect the golden 

 key to be used without secresy. The reason given, that it 

 is to avoid inconvenience to the Judges is simply a sham. 

 There is as much inconvenience to a Judge fi'om fifty excited 

 and privileged exhibitors as from a hiindred. 



Let me ask the Council if they will permit me to make any 

 alterations in my entries. They certainly vrill not. Why, 

 then, should they make any change in the regulations under 

 which those entries were made ? I certainly would not have 

 entered anything at Bu-mingham had I known of this 10s. 

 privilege, and I protest against such a breach of faith as to 

 subject me either to a tax of 10s. or to the loss of a privilege 

 which may be used very materially against me. The mean- 

 ingless remai'k that "the poiiltry will not, however, be 

 exhibited until Monday," neither tlu'ows poultry exhibitors 

 out of coiu-t nor guarantees theh- safety. It does not even 

 say that the same principle will not be applied to that 

 department. Perhaps it is intended to delude the imwary 

 into such a supposition; but if the principle be admitted 

 into one part of the Show, what is to prevent the Council by 

 a stroke of the pen gi-anting the ali'eady privileged "upper 

 ten shillings" another privilege? 



This decision of the Birmingham CoiinoO amounts to an 

 admission that the Judges are dishonest, whilst it toadies 

 to the wishes and interests of " some exhibitors." I am 

 inclined to say, despite this Birmingham admission to the 

 contrary, that the Judges at the great shows are men of 

 strict honour, and I do not know why this mead of praise 

 should not be awarded to those of smaller exhibitions. I 

 am quite willing to admit that there .are Judges who sail 

 under false colours, who are swayed by influence and self- 

 interest, and care Uttle for the results. I do not believe 

 that public judging will prevent this. There is as much to 

 fear from the excited interference or impeding (as the Mid- 

 land Counties Herald calls it) of exhibitors, as the deliberate 

 unfairness of Judges. How an honest Judge can fairly and 

 exactly decide the merits of a multitude of pens or exhibits 

 of nearly equal merit in a crowd of exhibitors of every 

 variety, I cannot tell. I do not beheve that an u-on-nerved 

 man cordd do it well ; a nervous and very conscientious 

 man would inevitably be fliu-ried, and peculiarly liable to 

 mistake. 



If the Birmingham principle is tolerated for a moment it 

 may, and probably will, spread to other shows, and then the 

 groans of your con'espondent, " An Exhibitor in a Small 

 Wat," may have some foundation. Those who oaimot be 

 present, and those who do not choose to pay, will grumble 

 that their interests should have been watched by the "upper 

 ten shillings." I am determined to have something for my 

 money, and anticipate a treat, which I may communicate 

 to you. — EOOMET. 



EEEEDING EAELY CHICKENS. 

 Those who breed early chickens — and whether for exhibi- 

 tion or the table, we think they are wise who do so — will 

 now begin to prepare their pens, and to select their breed- 

 ing-stock. It is not too early to do away with the pro- 

 miscuous^running that prevails in most yards during the 



