JOUKNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ January 21, 187S. 



absence of heat, which will be spoken of hereafter, having 

 much to do with the growing period alluded to. But with 

 August more warmth set in, and the following two months of 

 September and October being both more fruitful in rain, a 

 rapid growth in most vegetable substances was the rseult. 

 The ground becoming heated by the bright sun of the latter 

 part of July and the whole of August, aU the Cabbage and 

 kindred tribes of plants made rapid progress, and the same 

 may be said of the bedding plants. Frost, however, intervened 

 somewhat sooner than usual, to the injury of the latter, while 

 a heavy rainfall towards the end of October was beneficial 

 many ways. November as a whole was fine, the roads for a 

 considerable time being all but dusty. And the early part of 

 December was also on the whole fine until the Kith, when a 

 rather heavy covering of snow fell on ground but slightly frozen 

 over ; and this being repeated the following day, gave us a fall 

 of snow equivalent to about an inch of rain, and which lasted 

 with very little diminution up to the end of the year, with 

 frost every day sufiiciently hard to enable skating to commence 

 on •22nd and continue for ten days — an unusual thing with us. 

 The severity of the frost, however, increased very much the 

 last two days, the thermometer falling to 12' Fahr. on 31st, 

 the lowest it has been since 1867. Fortunately, however, the 

 ground was covered with snow, that the injury to crops will 

 not, I expect, be so severe as on some former occasions ; and 

 the generally good condition things were in when it commenced 

 will all tend to lessen the effects it might otherwise have pro- 

 duced. 



Up to the end of April the season was on the whole an early 

 one, and the prospects of fruit were good ; but with the com- 

 mencement of May the hopes of the fruit-grower became 

 blighted. Frosts, at first moderate, culminated at length in 

 a very severe one on 10th, which was by no means the last, as a 

 repetition on 16th and ISth, and with one as late as June 13th, 

 told a tale which resulted in many orchards being complete 

 failures, while others braved it out. But these unusually late 

 frosts with the accompanying cold weather gave such encou- 

 ragement to the insect family of all kinds, that the Hop, which 

 perhaps is more susceptible to attacks of that kind than most 

 other plants, has been in many places a complete failure ; and 

 many other crops have also been indifferent. Even the hay 

 crop was light in consequence of the cold ungenial weather at 

 the time it ought to have been growing. And in gardening 

 matters the bedding-out period was retarded very much. 

 Perhaps the latter was fortunate rather than otherwise, as it 

 not unusually happens that a tine early season tempts one to 

 plant out before it ought to be done. As it was, however, the 

 prospect at the end of June was the reverse to encouraging ; 

 but better weather setting in things improved, and in most 

 cases the crops of fruit ripened-off well when there was any. 

 Even those trees that were heavily laden — which many Plum 

 trees were to the breaking-down point — in most places attained 

 a fair average size, especially the late kinds. And the same 

 may be said of Apples and Pears, while the Corn crop is re- 

 ported everywhere as good ; and what is also encouraging, the 

 general appearance of fruit trees is good for another year — a 

 matter that ought not to be lost sight of, as I consider a well- 

 developed fruit blossom in embryo as more likely to withstand 

 frost in spring than an indifferently formed one ; in fact I 

 do not know but 2' or 3' difference of temperature, &o. , could 

 be given in the one case and still have a better result. But as 

 this has been alluded to before, we may in conclusion give a 

 passing word on vegetables. 



We have said that the dry sunny weather of the latter part 

 of July, together with August and the greater part of Septem- 

 ber, had heated the ground so as to cause a rapid and vigorous 

 growth to take place when the autumn rain fairly set in, which 

 growth continued through October, notwithstanding the check 

 of a rather sharp frost rather early in that month and more 

 severe one on the 25 th and 26th, the result being that most of 

 the BroccoH and Cabbage tribe attained an undue height ; 

 and growth continuing on until late in November, they were 

 in a great measure in a bad condition to resist the frosts that 

 commenced early in December. But these frosts being mode- 

 rate at first, we hope that all the dwarf varieties will have been 

 gradually inured to it, and that they may escape ; but we 

 much fear for some plots of the taller kinds" that the snow did 

 not protect sufiiciently, and which we accidentally omitted to 

 lay down in time. V>'e fear that many of them will be us(li>ss 

 for this season, more especially if another severe frost follows, 

 for which there is ample time yet ; but on the whole the frost 

 has not been so destructive as on many other occasions, as all 



vegetable crops covered with the anow have in general escaped. 

 The rainfall of England in 1874 being about 3 inches, and 

 that of 1873 2J inches below the average, these shortcomings 

 of our water supply in the past summer are in some measure 

 accounted for ; at the same time the rainfall of 1872 was far 

 in excess of both these deficiencies. 



Kaia in ioches. 



Jannary 1"27 



February 1"31 



March 083 



April 1-91 



May 1-21 



June 263 



July 0-72 



— J. RoESON, Maidstone. 



Hain in inches. 



August 2 07 



September 3-02 



October 3-59 



November 1'98 



December 2*95 



Total for 1874 23-19 



TEUFFLE HUNTING IN ENGLAND. 



As I was walking along the high road lately in the neighbour- 

 hood of the village of Micheldever, Hampshire, I came upon 

 an old man with a couple of dogs, as I thought, ferreting by the 

 roadside. On asking him what he was doing, he put his hand 

 into a canvas bag which he had slung over his shoulder, and 

 producing two or three small roots or bulbs said, " Hunting for 

 these." On asking what they were he told me they were 

 TrufHes, that it was his regular business hunting for them, 

 and that he sent them up to London. 



The dogs were two very intelUgent little creatures, both 

 small, one smooth-coated with a very short pug nose, the 

 other pparently something of a small Bedlington terrier. I 

 watched them for a short time, and soon saw the short-nosed 

 dog begin to scratch at the root of a Larch, when the man 

 went up with a hoe and quickly dug out another Truflle about 

 the size of a good walnut. We all know it is a practice to 

 hunt for Truffles in France with dogs, but I thought so 

 unusual a circumstance in England might be interesting .to 

 your readers. — T. C. BnsNELL. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



KoYAL HoRTicuLTDEAL SOCIETY. — The Carter Cup and other 

 prizes offered in the schedules of the Society by Messrs. James 

 Carter cS; Co., for competition at the Society's Great Provincial 

 Show, has now been arranged to take place on the 7th of July 

 at the Society's Gardens, South Kensington. 



r It has been announced that Mr. Henry J. Elwes, F.Z.S., 



F.L.S., is about to issue a monograph on the oenus Lilium, 

 with plates drawn by Mr. W. H. Fitch, F.L.S. The work will 

 be issued in parts, each containing eight plates, at the price of 

 one guinea per part. 



The ship " Tintern Abbey " has recently sailed for New 



Zealand, having on board no less than 1130 living bieds^ 

 viz., blackbirds (Turdus merula), thrushes (Turdus musicus), 

 starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), redpoles (Linota rufescens), of 

 each one hundred; hedge-sparrows (Accentor modularis), luO; 

 linnets (Linota cannabina), 140; goldfinches (Fringilla oar- 

 duelis), 160; yellow-hammers (Emberizacitrinella), 170; and, 

 lastly, partridges (Perdix cinerea), 110. When the birds 

 arrive in New Zealand they will bo let fly under proper au- 

 thority. There is, we understand, a heavy penalty enforced 

 against shooting at or injuring these birds in New Zealand, 

 and it is hoped that they will do well at the -Antipodes. The 

 New Zealand farmers cannot get on without them, for they 

 keep down the insects that ravage the crops. The AccUma- 

 tisation Society of Canterbury, New Zealand, we understand, 

 have begun and are now persevering in this good public work. 

 — (Nature.) 



HARDWICKE HOUSE, 



THE SEAT OF LADY CULLUM. 



This pretty place is little more than a mile from Bury 

 St. Edmunds. It is said to have been named " Herdwicke "' 

 from the flocks and herds which pastured on the heath or com- 

 mon, which, till within about fifty years since, almost ran up 

 to the present mansion. A charter of King Edmund in 94;) 

 granted it to the Cellarer of the Monastery of St. Edmund's 

 Bury. But of the Hardwicke of those olden times little is 

 known ; but the Hardwicke of to-day, with its numerous 

 plantations and well-furnished parks, pleasure grounds, and 

 giirdens, may be said to have been the creation of the last 

 fifty years. 



The place has been iu the Galium family for nearly two 



