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JOUENAIi OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE QABDENEB, 



[ Jane 26, 1873. 



been gone tlirough, yet no Grapes, or but few, have been the 

 result. The Vme is here growing in an outside border in a 

 clayey soO that would make good bricks. The bed when first 

 made was just put down level with the surface, but I brought 

 it up above it ; this improved matters considerably. The Eoyal 

 Viueyai-d is growing in a house with Lady Dowue's, Buckland 

 Sweetwater, Black Hamburgh, and Muscadine, the house being 

 kept full of plants which require to be abundantly supplied 

 withwater, nevertheless the Eoyal Vineyard has set well for 

 the last two or three years under the most simple agent ; and 

 here it is — the taU of a rabbit. Nothing can equal that for aiding 

 the setting of Grapes. 



My practice is to have the plants watered the first thing in 

 the morning, and as the temperature rises to admit plenty of 

 air. By two o'clock all will be ready for operation ; the Vine- 

 yard Grape being late in flowering, all but Lady Dowue's are 

 out of bloom. The rabbit's taU is gently passed over the surface 

 of those bunches that are in the best condition. Immediately 

 pass it or gently tap it on all parts of the bunches of the Vine- 

 yard Vine, and so continue day after day as long as these 

 little crystal-like spots appear on the bunches ; you will then 

 have them set to your liking. Lady Downe's is not one of the 

 best of Grapes to set in a cold house, but by taking its pollen 

 to fertUise others it also assists itself. I beUeve it is seldom 

 that the poUen of the Eoyal Vineyard under cold treatment — 

 perhaps in heat too — comes to perfection ; it therefore needs to 

 be fertilised with that of other varieties, and then a better 

 Grape never grew. — J. T., Macsgwynne, South Vales. 



P.S. — Keep two or three rabbits' tails on hand, for if one 

 becomes wet it is of no fm-ther use, as tlie pollen adheres to 

 it. It can of course be dried again, and will then be as good 

 as ever. — J. T. 



GLADIOLUS CULTUKE — EESTRICTIONS 

 IMPOSED BY SHOW COMMITTEES. 



We are generally agreed as to the reasonableness of the 

 custom of praising the bridge that carries us safe towards the 

 end of our journey. Now, in the growing Gladioh, all perhaps 

 more or less have had difficulties, or what I may be allowed 

 to term " streams," to contend with. Some may have had 

 BoU both poor and naturally of a cankerous nature to contend 

 with ; whilst others, like myself, have had it of the more virgin 

 type, and just waiting the hand of the industrious cultivator 

 to mould and improve it into the containing any quantity of 

 good properties that the most fastidious could wish. As 

 regards the presence of wireworm, no question but the old 

 pasture newly cultivated, without artificial means being used 

 for their destruction, is one of their most favourite resorts. 



Tour correspondent's lot — and with which he is quite satis- 

 fied — has been to spend his leisure hours in a plot of ground 

 that five years ago formed a portion of an old pasture field, in 

 nature friable, with sand bottom, rather inclined to the sun ; 

 its more unfavourable characteristics being lack of protection, 

 and more than usually subject to white frosts when we have 

 a north-east wind, or off the river Wear. With my present 

 garden five years ago I commenced to grow the Gladiolus, and, 

 with a gradual improvement, may be said to have been mode- 

 rately successful. BIy first bed of some sixty bulbs was my 

 especial care ; yet, notwithstanding, they were unmistakeably 

 turning to a disheartening yehow, when one day a nursery 

 traveller gave a look-in,- and advised me to give my pets a dose 

 of nitrate of soda. A week or ten days later a marked im- 

 provement was discernible hj the most casual observer, and I 

 at once drew attention to the remedy in this Journal. Since 

 then I have tried other improvements, but my faith is still 

 Btrong in this original prescription, to which I attribute my 

 freedom from attack by that garden pest, the almost-indestruc- 

 tible wheworm. 



I am an especial admirer of this grand autumn flower — in 

 fact, I believe it to be one of the finest grown, and my object 

 has always been to give encouragement to others, in order that 

 they may experience the same pleasures as I have done. 



Taking it for granted that I am the person alluded to by 

 " D." of Deal, I have only to say that I recommended your 

 readers to use new soil, but at the same time I beg to remind 

 them that I apprise them of a " bridge '' in the shape of nitrate 

 of soda, by which they would be able to tide over a portion of 

 their difficulties. I still beUeve, if you place a Gladiolus and 

 this pest together in a pot, that the latter will make its exit 

 first, and that in an open bed its instmct will teach it to keep 

 at a respectable distance. As to prospects of the approaching 



tristing time, considering that I plant early in the open ground, 

 and the rather serious frosts that we have had here in tho 

 north, on the whole I am satisfied. Some look extremely 

 well, whilst a minor portion — perhaps fifteen per cent. — look 

 sickly ; and in taking some of the latter up I find that the 

 roots are decayed at the ends, with a yellow tinge in various 

 parts between the end and the bulb ; and in a bed where I had 

 put a few small bulbs and had neglected them, I found two 

 wireworms, which had eaten through the heart of the spike. 

 I at once gave each, good and bad, a good dose of nitrate, and 

 will closely watch the result. Contrary to former experience, 

 this year the bulbs of my own saving have spikes quite equal 

 to a fine lot of French ones. This latter fact is very satisfac- 

 tory, as the most disheartening thing to contend with in the 

 Gladiolus is its liability to degeneration, though it would be 

 more correct to describe it quantity rather than in quaUty. I 

 should like to make this Journal a medium of the bringing the 

 test of this all-important criterion. 



In my own village we cannot boast of a floral reunion, but 

 at a short distance, and weU adapted for railway communi- 

 cation, we have the show of a portion of the East Durham 

 workmen, held under the shadow of that fine old ancient baro- 

 nial pile, Lumley Castle, on the 17th of August — a suitable 

 time for south-country growers ; and on the 29th of the same 

 month we have the exhibition at the Crystal Palace, and also 

 on the 3rd of September is the International at Manchester. 

 Now the proposition I wish to make is this : If there be an 

 amateur in England who will give satisfaction as to his exhi- 

 biting his own produce, who wiU meet with twelve or eighteen 

 spikes at the former place, I wUl return him tho compliment 

 and meet him at either of the latter places, and then we with 

 more authority shall be able to talk over the pros and cons of 

 the cultivation anent old versus new soil ; and, moreover, I 

 shall bind myself at such competition to have one-half or more 

 of my stand composed of Mr. Banks's seedlings. 



Now as regards rules to be complied with. My own con- 

 viction is that rules once made ought to be abided by. Making 

 rules " for a check " is all nonsense. They simply check the 

 conscientious. At Alnwick we have a piece of absurdity in the 

 shape of dimensions of stands, even to the thickness of the 

 deal they are made of, and the distance of every hole. Of 

 course no one notices such things. At Bishop Auckland last 

 year, in tho open Gladiolus competition, after being placed 

 next to the Eev. Lord Hawke, and Mr. Thompson, nurseryman, 

 of Newcastle, Ihh'd, the latter detected some sprigs of Aspara- 

 gus stuck into tho tube, and straightway he appealed — I under- 

 stand to Mr. Downie, of Edinburgh, and who, without taking 

 the trouble to read the same rule right thi-ough, whereby he 

 would have found that none of the first three were set up 

 according to conditions, he at once disquahfied my stand and 

 awarded 7s. 6d., consolation, well knowing that every stand 

 there had cost as many pounds. Of course, I objected to the 

 others, and the farce ended with all getting the place first 

 awarded. This year I see our pets are condemned to stand 

 "in a box;" and, moreover, to stand amid moss, "whether 

 you can get it or no," and, as I understand, what is to be taken 

 advantage of, " amateurs are disqualified from showing in this 

 class." Now, I do think that the man who buys and grows 

 Gladioli ought to have some latitude for taste in the setting 

 of them up ; and I do further think it a pity that a committee 

 which has shown such commendable spirit as has the latter, 

 should have made such a mistake as to have dntied the rules 

 with such contemptible conditions. I see at Manchester there 

 is no restriction, and each rule is reasonable and easy to bo 

 understood ; and when that body wUl frame a rule for universal 

 appUcation, they will confer a boon to many, and frustrate the 

 whims of habitual grumblers, and likewise give peace of mmd 

 to those who at present at best are but perplexed exhibitors. 

 — Joseph Wiiheespoon, Chester-le-Strcet, Durham. 



MARECHAL KIEL EOSE. 



A FINE standard plant of this magnificent Rose is at present 

 in bloom in Aldersey HaU Gardens, Cheshu-e. It was planted 

 in the Idtchen garden three years ago, being trained as a 

 climber. I took the trouble to measure it, and found its cir- 

 cumference 15 feet, and diameter 5 feet. At the time of writing 

 this it has more than one hundred blooms on it. It is one of 

 the finest specimen plants I ever saw, and to a lover of Eoses 

 a sight worth going a long way to sec. Mr. Herd, the gardener, 

 states that some scores of blooms had been cut from it in May, 

 which shows that with good culture Maicchal Kiel can at times 



