April 28, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



305 



his own garden, and any one breaking this rule will be disqualified 

 from taking a prize, and will not be allowed to exhibit in future. 



3. All exhibitors mutt give notice to the Secretary some time the 

 day before the Show, of the nnmber of articles they intend to exhibit. 



4. All productions to be on the table by nine o'clock on the morning 

 of the Show, and the ground to be cleared by ten o'clock, after which 

 hour no one will be allowed to remain but those officially engaged. 



5. The Show will be open to the parishioners of generally 



at o'clock. 



I!. Nothing to be removed from the table without permission from 

 the Managers of the Show. 



7. State some local arrangement. 



SCHEDULE OF PRIZES. 

 VEGETABLES. 



sjfd. 



For the beet basket of Vegetables a 5 BO 



6 Kidnev Potatoes 1 2 6 



6 Round ditto * 2 6 



60nions 3 3 



GCarrots S 2 



OParsnips 3 3 



CTuraips S 2 



3 Cauliflowers 3 2 



8 Lettuces 3 2 



12 Pods Broad Beans 3 2 



25 „ French B-ans 3 2 



25 „ Scarlet Runners 3 2 



25 Pea 3 2 



i StalkB Rhubarb 2 10 



Collection of Herbs 4 2 6 16 



For the best Specimen in Comb 5 2 6 



FRUITS. 



For the beBt Collection ot Fruits 5 3 2 



„ 6 Applet 



2 6 16 



6Pears 2 6 16 



6Plums 2 6 16 



12 KM Gooseberries 16 10 



12 Yellow ditto 1 6 10 



12 White or Green ditto 1 6 10 



12 Bunches of Red Currants 1 6 10 



12 Bunches of White ditto 1 6 10 



12 Bunches of Black ditto 1 6 10 



Plate of Morello Cherries 3 2 



Plate of Cherries for Table 3 2 



Plate of Raspberries 2 10 



FLOWERS. 



'For the best 3 Plants in Pot suitable for Cottage 



Window i 2 6 16 



For the best Single Specimen ditto ditto 2 6 16 



For the best Boutraet of Garden Flowers for the Table 2 6 16 



For the best Bouijuet for the Hand 1 6 10 



For the best Device or Collection of Wild Flowers .... 2 G 16 



For any production not mentioned above, which the Judges may 

 think worthy of notice, small extra prizes will be given. 



From the above schedule of prizes it will be seen the expense 

 is not serious, and in the case alluded to the snm laid out 

 was sufficient for the purpose. Larger prizes might be given 

 where advisable, but it is better to multiply their number than 

 increase their value, and in the case before us the prizes for 

 well-managed gardens have on some occasions been Bwelled 

 to nearly twenty, the prize list being entirely remodelled. 

 Generally there was one first prize, perhaps three or four 

 second prizes, the same number of third prizes, and so on ; 

 and the occupiers of small gardens, competing in a class by 

 themselves, had a better chance than when contending with 

 those with larger holdings. Usually two or three neighbouring 

 gentlemen's gardeners will be found willing to act as judges, 

 and the whole affair, once it has been brought into working 

 order, is more easily managed than might be supposed. 



For the information of those who for the first time under- 

 take the duty of judging cottage gardens, I may mention a mode 

 I have adopted of noting down the merits of each in such a 

 way aa to have the whole in a tabular form when the work is 

 finished, and, owing to its simplicity, for upwards of twenty 

 years it has been adopted by all with whom I have acted in 

 concert. It is this : On taking a survey of the garden, itB con- 

 tents, and surroundings, and carefully considering its merits, 

 see how nearly it approaches perfection, and assuming perfection 

 in everything to be represented by 100, how nearly does the 

 garden before the observer approach that figure. Assuming its 

 ideal merits to be 70, affix that number against the name of 

 the cottager, go on to another, and, repeating the process, it 

 will easily be seen at last whose figure stands highest, and so 

 on. In some cottagers' horticultural societies it is customary 

 to look round three or four times during the year, and the 

 cottager having the best position at all times wins the prize. 

 The position of the cesspool, an indispensable feature in a 

 garden that adjoins the dwelling, ought also to be taken into 

 consideration ; and I could point out instances wherein judges 



became sanitary commissioners. The pig and cesspool should 

 be as far removed from the back door as possible, and the oess- 

 pool, especially, ought to be frequently emptied. I cannot, 

 however, fall in with the views put forth by the writer of the 

 pamphbt in allowing so large a space as he does for the piggery, 

 for it rarely happens that in a cottage garden so much can be 

 afforded, and cottagers who manage well know very nearly the 

 space that will do for one pig only, and that kept, perhaps, not 

 more than eight months during each year. I will, however, 

 quote another passage on cultivation with which I fully concur. 

 " Good cultivation, well made manure applied at the proper time, 

 and good seeds, are the foundation of all successful gardening ; and 

 it is possible, in the case of gardens that are apparently worn out, to 

 effect great improvements both in the quality and quantity of the 

 produce In a great number of instances cottagors' gardens, and 

 other gardens also, are never touched after the crops are cleared off in 

 the summer and autumn until the time for planting comes round 

 a^ain, the Potato and Pea and Bean haulm, the stems of Cabbages, &c., 

 bling left on the ground as if to supply food during the winter for the 

 wireworm and other pests, which will be ready to prey upon the crops 

 in the following year. We should be glad to see this slovenly system 

 give place to one which will he found to be highly advantageous 

 wherever it is carried ont. All the ground not required for cropping 

 until the following spting should be thrown up in ridges, say at the 

 end of October or beginning of November, or trenched where neces- 

 sary, and on the land so treated, during the first frosts of winter, the 

 manure for the next crop should be spread. The benefits of this plan 

 are many, and have, perhaps, never been more tersely pointed ont 

 than they were by Mr. Smith, of Woolston, in a letter published in 

 the Times in January last. Mr. Smith was speaking of a tract of 

 land in Essex, in some such state, we imagine, as the gardens we have 

 referred to, and he said ' Air and rain water are our cheapest muck- 

 cart, for we have nothing to do but to put our land in a proper state 

 to pick np the good fertilising qualities of both.' The exposure of 

 the manure during the winter, both on light and heavy soils, would bo 

 most beneficial, and the land would be found in the spring in the best 

 possible state for planting. We speak here from actual experience in 

 our own garden, and in other gardens in which we have had opportuni- 

 ties for observing the modes of cultivation adopted. Crardens which 

 have been cropped principally with Potatoes for a long period may. 

 bv the means we have pointed ont, bo brought into a state to grow 

 that root in greater perfection than has hitherto been done; and we 

 have now in our possession three or four samples of very fine seed 

 Potatoes from a cottager's garden which has been mostly under that 

 crop for many years, bnt the produce in which, of all descriptions, has 

 become much finer under a better mode of treatment." 



With regard to the most suitable time for holding a cottage 

 gardeners' "show, I mav remark that generallv one chow in a eea- 

 sonwillbe sufficient, and that it should be filed in most, if not 

 all places to come off between haytime and harvest,] ust before 

 the small fruits, as Gooseberries, Currants, &o., disappear that 

 being, in fact, the time when the greatest number of useful fruits 

 and vegetables can be collected together ; and if all those men- 

 tioned in the schedule I have given be exhibited in tolerably good 

 condition, it may be set down at a pretty fair show. Riles to 

 meet local requirements can, of course, be appended at plea- 

 sure and any other regulation needful for particular places can 

 easily be made. I mav, perhaps, return to this subject at a 

 future time ; but I would urge those having the means not to 

 let another season pass without their encouraging such Bocietiea 

 as those for which I plead.— J. Robson. 



[Since the above was in type we have received from the Rev. 

 C P Peach, Appleton-le- Street, the schedule of prizes offered 

 at the exhibition he has most successfully established there. 

 He observes :— " It has interested me very much to see the way 

 it has gradually crept up and developed. It began in 186- 

 with a schedule of prizes amounting to £18. I have a Com- 

 mittee who work very well with me, and we have been at a good 

 deal of pains about" the Bchednle, and I really think it isa 

 wonderful schedule for a country village to put out. We begin 

 the year, however, with £103 in hand, and a subscription list 

 amounting to £128." The exhibition now includes horses, 

 cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry, and one of the rules relative 

 to the exhibiting of the last-named deserves to be generally 

 adopted :— " Any trimming (except dubbing game fowls) or 

 colouring of plumage, will disqualify not only the pen exhi- 

 bited but every pen by the same exhibitor." — Eds.] 



Queensland Acclimatisation- Society.— We extract the follow- 

 ing from the Society's Annual Report, published in Jjnuary :— 

 " There is now at the park a goodly collection of young plants 

 raised from seed, of many kinds before unknown in the colony, 

 and in all cases of kinds really of value. It is not necessary to 



