February 4, 1875. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



97 



green Privet has also suffered, and many other hardy ever- 

 greens. Tender Roses are much injured. Potatoes in pits in 

 some places have been frozen ; heating apparatuses in many 

 places have been tested daring the late storm, and in some 

 places have come to grief. — H., Yorkshire. 



THE INFLUENCE OP HOKTICULTURAL SHOWS. 



COTTAGERS' GARDEN PRODUCE. 



Amongst the many things deservedly receiving public patron- 

 age at the present time are horticultural shows ; and apart 

 from those provincial shows which claim to attract exhibitors 

 from the greater portion of the county they are held in, others 

 on a less extensive scale rise up in all directions, some of them 

 limiting the exhibitors to such as reside within a given dis- 

 tance of the place where the show is held. Others are open to 

 all comers, or offer prizes for certain classes free to all. 



There can be no question but these horticultural shows are 

 the best of all sthnulauts to amateur gardening, and a prize 

 awarded to someone heretofore careless in such matters very 

 often makes an enthusiast of him and stimulates him to further 

 «xertion ; besides which, horticultural shows afford opportu- 

 nities for that intermixture of classes which tends so much to 

 enable one man to fully comprehend others, and removes many 

 of those false ideas which all are liable to entertain, and a 

 juster and better feeling is the result. 



The number of such shows is certainly increasing, and with 

 it the number of exhibitors. Gentlemen of position, having a 

 laudable wish to encourage gardening among their cottager 

 neighbours, start a cottagers' horticultural show on their own 

 grounds, and in many instances give the prizes out of their 

 -own pockets, and invite their neighbours and others to come 

 and see the show ; and the show appears so satisfactory that 

 next year it is determined to offer prizes for productions from 

 gentlemen's gardeners apart from those offered for cottagers, 

 and by this means a class of exhibitors is brought out that 

 never contemplated exhibiting at all for competition. Now 

 and then progress is marred by what all outdoor entertain- 

 ments are Uable to — a wet day ; but even that does not always 

 bring on bankruptcy, if other things be promising. Some 

 good-hearted well-disposed individuals step in with assistance, 

 and the next year greater exertions are made and the debt 

 wiped off. 



it has often been remarked that horticultural shows are now 

 more numerous than desirable, and the object for which they 

 started, which was the encouragement of good general culti- 

 vation, is diverted into a channel widely different to what its 

 promoters intended. A certain number of good articles are 

 prepared for the show, and the other things neglected. This 

 •Tiew of the matter is carried too far, but it is very often true 

 to some extent, and somehow or other those who give their 

 whole attention to such matters get by degrees into the knack 

 of so retarding certain things and forwarding others, that at 

 the show day they can put in a better appearance than their 

 neighbours, whose garden produce, if exhibited, or rather in- 

 spected, as a whole, would stand before them a long way. 

 This is one of the incidental and unavoidable results of show- 

 ing, and it cannot well be remedied even if it was desirable to 

 do so, which is questionable, for the sight-seeing public, which 

 are by far the most important patrons, would not be satisfied 

 by anything short of firtit-rate quaUty , no matter how obtained ; 

 and consequently the honourable hard-working cottager, who 

 lias taken no more pains to secure exhibition articles than he 

 has done to secure good crops and good quality in the whole 

 of his garden, is but seldom rewarded with a prize. I heard 

 one of the class remark in a tone of regret, " Ah ! showing is 

 a trade, and an honest man has no chance with the profes- 

 sional." This doubtless was taking a rather spiteful view of 

 the matter, but to those who have witnessed the prize sheet of 

 a cottagers' exhibition will find nearly the same list of names 

 year after year. A remedy for this is difficult to contrive, for 

 there is really no harm, but, on the contrary, merit in the 

 cottager encouraging the growth, by all extra means he has in 

 his power, of the articles he intends to exhibit, and if he wins 

 a number of years in succession by fair and just means so 

 much the more credit to him ; but at the same time there is 

 no question that it reduces the namber of exhibitors. — 



J. ROBSON. 



ViNE-PAiNTiUG. — For " B. G.'a" information (page 77), if I 

 had Vines infested with mealy bug I should at once, after 

 pruning; construct a trough the length of my Vines and lay 



them in it, and with pure water drown the bugs. Should 

 any remain I would repeat the operation, and with a brush, 

 similar to a spoke-brush, brush off the remainder until rid of 

 the pest, and then by pure air and pure water I would try to 

 hold the pests at bay. — H. 



POTATO-GROWING EXTRAORDINARY. 



Towards the end of 1873 we gave a brief notice of the 

 extraordinary yields of Potatoes obtained in the United States 

 under the stimulus of the prizes offered by Messrs. Bliss of 

 New York. In that year the conditions were that the prize 

 of $100 should be awarded to that cultivator who obtained the 

 greatest yield from 1 lb. of seed Potatoes. There were two 

 first prizes — one for each of two varieties of the tuber, and 

 minor prizes for the second, third, and fourth in each class. 

 The greatest yield from 1 lb. of seed was OO'J lbs., a quantity 

 very justly regarded as extraordinary, and no doubt looked 

 upon by gardeners and others in this country as a bit of 

 Cousin Jonathan's " buncome." However unjust may have 

 been the incredulity of the "blue aprons" as to the (309 lbs., 

 we can but acknowledge that, when they read the report of the 

 competition in 1871, they will be justified in refusing credence 

 to the statements made until further details are forthcoming. 

 Nevertheless, it seems from the abstract of the report pub- 

 lished by the Tribune, that the competition has been fairly 

 conducted ; and referring to the names of the Committee who 

 were entrusted with the awarding of the prizes, we must con- 

 fess that we see no reason to doubt their bona fides, or the 

 affidavits of the competitors. The results are, however, fairly 

 astonishing, and can only be accounted for — if they can be 

 accounted for at all — by one of three propositions — either the 

 Potatoes grown must be wonderfully prolific, the soil in which 

 they were grown exuberantly productive, or some method of 

 cultivation unknown out of the States must have been adopted. 

 Possibly, however, the effect is the joint result of the three 

 causes combined in one happy man with the soil and the 

 tuber. 



The prizes offered last spring by Messrs. Bliss were open to 

 the world, and amounted in the aggregate to $1,500. Six 

 prizes, varying in amount from $10 to |100, were apportioned 

 to each of three varieties of Potatoes — the Early Vermont, 

 Compton's Surprise, and Brownell's Beauty ; the conditions 

 being that the largest yield from 1 lb. of seed of each 

 sort, grown without any resort to forcing or any unusual 

 method of multiplication, should receive the first prize of 

 |100. There were prizes also for the largest yield obtained 

 from a quarter of an acre, the same varieties of the Potato 

 being used. The entry for the competition comprised many 

 hundreds of farmers and gardeners, nearly every State and 

 territory of the Union, and some of the neighbouring provinces 

 being represented. The competitors were compelled to find 

 witnesses as to the truth of their statements, and also to verify 

 them by affidavit. These statements were duly and promptly 

 made, but owing to the illness of one of the Committee the 

 report has been delayed. We can only afford space for the 

 names of the winners in each class. For Extra Early Ver- 

 mont, Mr. Alfred K. Titus of Wilmington, Vermont, is first 

 with 708 lbs. ; for Compton's Surprise, Mr. P. C. Wood of 

 Esther, Illinois, wins with 900 lbs. ; and for Brownell's Beauty, 

 Mr. H. C. Pearson of Pitcairn, New York, is first with 1018 lbs. 

 — a yield of more than a thousandfold ! Besides the States 

 mentioned above, prizewinners came from Minnesota, Kansas, 

 Pennsylvania, and one from Nova Scotia, with the not insig- 

 nificant yield of 615| lbs., so that this extraordinary Potato- 

 growing is not confined to any special locality in the North 

 American continent. This astonishing productiveness, how- 

 ever, is not borne out by the results of the quarter-acre com- 

 petition, for which there were so few entries that each was 

 entitled to a prize, though from information which has reached 

 the Committee there were many larger yields from quarter 

 acres obtained by non-competitors. For Extra Early Vermont 

 grown on a quarter acre the first prize was awarded to Mr. 

 D. Stock, of Hugbesville, Pennsylvania, for 6247 lbs. ; the 

 second and third prizes being awarded respectively to yields of 

 2612 lbs. and 2581 lbs. The first prize for Compton's Sur- 

 prise was obtained by Mrs. M. A. Koyce, of Home, E. Ten- 

 nessee, for 7350 lbs. ; and Mr. A. Rose, of Pen Yau, New York, 

 carried off the first for Brownell's Beauty with 8809 lbs. 

 Taking the last figures as a basis for a short calculation, it 

 will be seen that they represent the very respectable yield of 

 nearly 10 tons an ncre, and although this amount has fre- 



