July 9, 1874 ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



39 



I 



liquid 13 almost ioBtantaneoualy ch'iDged in character. It baooines touflh 

 hmd, and fibrous, but its weight is nut incroa-ied, and it is far better for 

 ■wri'iQ^ purposes than uuimal parchiuent. It can be rubbed bettor than 

 paper, and almjst as well aa eheepskio ; and it serves for vellum in buuk- 

 biuiiiug, and for all luj-al purput^ea, tis well aa animal parchment, for strouf^ 

 biiiUiu^, and as a aub-ititute for bladders to cov^r pickle audjam jars; aud 

 any paper that has even been printed on ma? be cimverted, by means of 

 Buiphiirio acid, into vegetable parchment. Paper can be made waterproof 

 wittioiit giving it the cuaracerof parchment by dis-^olving 2i ozs of alum 

 and 4 ozB of white soap in 2 lbs. of water; also, iJ oza. ol gum araiiic and 

 (J o/,-, of glue in 2 lbs. of water ; the two h 'lotions are to be mix«d. and i he 

 sheet-* of paper dipped into the mixture while warm. They are then to be 

 hung up to dry, aud pressed. Thi.s paper id very useful fur packages exported 

 to the damp, or for any purpose comiec'ed with the preservation of articles 

 fnira m fisture." — (Casscll's " Household Guide" for July.) 



ViOLi irfirfiai.— It is imp ssible to jud^-e of the merits of your seedling 

 Pau-iy from a dried single flower. Send a plant to the Floral Committee or 

 to Cbiswiok. 



Old Gooseberby and Curb4nt Bcshes [E D I-.).— Cat out the young 

 ceutre braa-jbe^^. Destroy half the bushes, and plant young ones this 

 ftutuma, and destroy the other half aod plaut young ones iti the autumn of 

 next year. 



Grasses for Cow Fodder {Wellington) —All the Grasses and Clovora, &c , 

 you name are ptrenbiul except the Italian Rye Grass. We should have 

 Per«^nnial R-e Grass in place of the Ifaliau, and not depend on one subject 

 alone, but have a mixture. For your snil a Huitable mixture would be two 

 biinliels Perennial I Pacey'b) Eye Grass, one bu-hel Itaiiin ibeat quality). Red 

 WeUh Clover, 5 lbs. ; White Clover, 4 lbs. ; Alsike Clover, 1 lb ; Trefoil, 5 Iba, ; 

 and your sitil being moist as well as light, you may add 2 lbs. Timothy Gra^s. 

 The ab<)ve quantities are a mixture for one acre. For early cutting the .-^eed-* 

 Tonld be bust sown iu September, the land bein:^ in good tilth aud clean. It 

 may ^ive four or five cuttiug:i for forage the ^st year, audit left a second, 

 being well manured, three or four. 



Swainsonia '^eedlisg Cdltdre (C TV.). — Pot them singly in small pots, 

 aeiug a compost of three parts sandy turfy loam, one part sandy peat, half a 

 part leaf Bull and old dry cow manure, aud one-sixth each silver sand aud 

 pieces of charcoal, with good drainage. Shade fur a few days, and keep rather 

 moist, eyriueing freely, so as to keep down red spider, affording an airy 

 losit ion. Shift into larg-r pots as thuae they are in become liUe 1 with roots, 

 ,e 'ping rather dry in winter, and encoura ge growth iu spring wi'h moistuie. 

 Wbea shifting iuto larger pots be careful not to pot them btlow the seed 

 leaves. 



Grapes Mildewed {W. C. D.). — The Grapes not having commenced to 

 ripen change colour you may syringe them, aud whilst wet dust them with 

 the flowers of sulphur, and you may free them of the sulphur by syrinying 

 before the Grapes chauge colour; but if they have commenced ripening you 

 may cause the sulphur to adhere, as it will to the mildewed parts, by forcing 

 it against them upwards with an iusi rumeut the hame as is uted for the appli- 

 citiou of tobacco powder, and which may be had of aoy dealer in insecticides. 

 By all means apply fire heat, so a? to enable you to ventilate freely, and coat 

 the hot-water pipes with flowers of sulphur of the cousistency of paint, 

 brought to that with a soft-soap solution, 1 lb. to the gallon, applying to the 

 pipes with a brush. 



Plants for Winter-flowering (Novice). — You do not say whether you 

 req'iire the plants for in or ouf-door decorati'in. If the latter, you would see 

 ■wiiat Mr. Luckhurst in the number of July 2nd says ou those; but as we 

 apprehend >ou mean those for iu-door decoration, our advice will relate to 

 them. Few are the subjects you wi'l be able to raise from seed — Primula 

 sinensis in variety, Cioerftria, Cyclamen, and Mignonette. Fur blooming in 

 winter, the Cineraria, Cyclamen, and Primula ^hould be sown in March or 

 April and the Mignonette maybe sown now. Intermediate Stocks are also 

 good ; seed should be sown at once. Of plants. Camellias, Kpacrises, Epiphyl- 

 luin vars.. Ericas gracilis autumnalis, rubra, melaothera, byetnalis, coloraus. 

 ciffra, and arbuscula; Cjronilla glauca, Cjtisus raceinosus, >alvia Heeri, and 

 Chrv^aiithemums. For early wmter-floweriug the Roman Hyacinth is very 

 desirable, and you may keep up a gi'od display with Crocuses, Tulips, Hya- 

 ciuths, Dielytra soectabilis. Spiisea japonica, Deutzia gracilis, aud Lily of the 

 Va ley. introduced at intervals of three weekd from the beginning ot January 

 to March. 



Lily— TuBERons-RooTED Geranium (K. S. ilf.).— We do not recognise the 

 Lily from your description. Send a specimeu. It may be Lilium Martagon 

 Bfipalid albia. The Geraniums are probably in the Koyal Botanical Garden, 

 Kew. 



Strawberries Ulcerated (Perplexed}. — We never saw the fruit similarly 

 affected. Not knowing anything abuuc the cultivation adopted, we can only 

 fiuggest that the ulcers arise from want of sap. If bo, copious watering with 

 weak liquid manure might save the unaffected berries. 



Names of Plants (P. P.),— 2, Viburnum Lautana variegata; 6, Gecista 

 triquetra. We cannot name plants from It^aves ouly, and the other flowers 

 had dropped. iDj. — Hedysarum coromwium and Astraniia major. iP. Q.}. — 

 No. I, Juniperus Sabina variegata; 2, Abiea Nordmanniana; 3, CupressuB 

 macrocarpa. (G. S.). — Ervum hirsutum. 



POULTRY, BEE, AHD PIGEON OHRONIOLE. 



THE SILVER POLANDS AT REA.DING. 



I FEEL it but justice to the Jud{];o at the Reading Show (Hants 

 and Berks), aa my two pens of Silver Polttuda have been criti- 

 ciBed somewhat freely by the poultry press, to explain that 

 ■when I entered the pens I intended to send a different pair in 

 the pen priced i'2 2y., and to which was awarded the first prize ; 

 but one of the birds waa so ill that I could not send it, and 

 therefore I had either to leave the pen empty, which does not 

 add to the beauty of the exhibition, or substitute another pen; 

 this I dij, claiming them myself at once. 



There will always be differences of opinion, and I apprehend 

 the great majority of fanciers would disagree with the judg- 

 ment at Beading, (I mean simply aa regards the two peus, for 



as I waa not there I cannot say anything about the other com- 

 peting pens), aud place the highly commeuded pen first. I 

 should certainly myself. Yet iu sumo reapectft both the birds iu 

 the first-prize pen were superior to the highly comtnended pen; 

 indeed, but for disease that in infancy attacked the cock iu the 

 first-prize pen aud m,irred his development, I should consider 

 him the better of the two. H-i is better coloured, better marked ; 

 and had the topkuot been equally developed ou each side, ha 

 wnald have been, to my thiukiug, altogether the better bird. 

 The hen was larger than the highly commended hen ; but other- 

 wise the hiijhiy commended bird is a beauty, and greatiy the 

 superior. But to show that the pen ia not quite so bad as some 

 of the descriptions made it out to be, I may state that the cock 

 had been exhibited three times previously, taking two first 

 prizes and highly commended ; whilst the hen was iu my silver- 

 cup pen at Chepstow three years ago, and first at Lewes in the 

 fall of the same year, and has not been exhibited since. I cer- 

 tainly consider the highly commended the better pen ; but my 

 opinion of their relative merits canuot be gathered froji the 

 prices attached to them. I may add that the hen in the first- 

 prize pen waa a spangled hen, and by some judges these are 

 c msidered superior to the laced hen. I disagree with such a 

 dictum; still it ia held by some fanciers, and they have a right 

 to their own opinion, and should they be judges at an exhibition, 

 have a perfect right to cirry it out. Oue paper remarks that 

 the topkuot of the prize hen was so white ; this is well known 

 to be the result of age. and should not miUtate greatly against a 

 bird's chances of success. 



I have felt it but justice to Mr. J. Baily, whom I do not know 

 except by correspondence, to state the facts of these two pena. 

 Perhaps, after my explauation, it may be thought the judgment 

 was less strange than the prices attached to thi^ two pens would 

 lead an outsider to expect. — Joskph Hinton, War77iinster. 



ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY'S POULTRY 

 SHOW. 



The annual Meeting of this Society took place at Stratford, 

 on 3Ut.h June aud two followiog days. The extraordinary con- 

 fusion that prevailed with regard to the numbers prevented our 

 publishing a prize list last weuk. The numbers iu the catalogue 

 differed in nearly all cases from the birds that should represent 

 them in the peus ; we could, consequently, give no accurate list 

 of the owners of the winners. If the catalogue waa wrong it 

 could have been revised and the matter put right ; but if, on the 

 other hand, the birds were wrongly penned, which many cir- 

 cumstances led us to believe, we are at a loss to understand how 

 the Judge accomplished his task; the usual *' judge's book " 

 would be useless, and he must have taken the cards in hia hand 

 and placed them on the pens as he made his selections. Wo 

 had not an opportunity of inquiring, but we think this course 

 must have been adopted, as the prize cards appeared generally 

 in the proper places on the best birds. 



Class 1, Dorkings. The catalogue contained four entries, but 

 we could find only three pens of birds. The first number, 277 

 (Mr. Liugwood'p), we could not here trace, but a pen of bitds 

 that should have appeared in this class we found with Cochins, 

 pen 292. We at first thought they belonged ti Mr. Watts from 

 the fact of finding a basket numbered 230 underneath the pens ; 

 but on returning to pen 280 we found it occupied with a pen of 

 birds marked third prize. Coming to the Cochins we find the 

 third prize for Buffs given to a number which in the catalogue 

 is shown in the next class, and belonging to Mr. Woodgate, 

 while Mr. Woodgate's White Cochins, which we think should 

 have occupied this pen, we found iu pen 296, belonging to Mr. 

 Maiden, and marked first prize. Mr. Lingwood's Dark Brahmas, 

 which we recoguised, and which also obtained a first prize, were 

 treattd in the same way; we found them in pen 308, belonging 

 to Mr. Levick. This was continued throughout the Show, which, 

 under the circumstances, was fortunately not a large one, the 

 ti'tal number of poultry and Pigeon entries amounting to only 

 218. We feel, from what we have referred to, it would be use- 

 less to attempt any detailed report of the judging, aa we should 

 probably fall into errors, and our remarks might do an injustice 

 to many exhibitors, who, if they succeed in getting their birds 

 correctly home, will at least have lost the satisfaction of seeing 

 them in their proper positions in the catalogue. 



BRAHMAS. 



[We have received from Mr. G. P. Burnham, Melrose, Massa- 

 chusetts, U.S.A., a letter, and a communication from him pub- 

 liwhed in the Philadelphia Fanciers' J»urnaL We can only 

 afford space for extracts. We decline re-opening the controversy 

 about Brahmaa, for fanciers have recoguised them as a distinct 

 breed. — Eus.j 



" I enclose an article just published over my signature, correct- 

 ing the strange ermrs committed by Mr. Lewis Wright ia his 

 lately- published " lUustratdd Poultry Book," connecting me 



