14 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Jftnuftry 6, 1876. 



Princess Royal. Follow with Princess Royal at Buitable intervals throughout 

 March and April, making two eowiogs of Veitch's Perfection in May. 

 Durinfi the firfit week in June make a sowing of twice your utiual size of 

 Hair's Dwarf Mammoth, and with good cultivation and a favourable season 

 you will have Fam of good quality until the middle of November. We have 

 fieqaently, for the sake of economy in both seed and labour, obtained a large 

 Bupply of good Pea3 by sowing Auvergne in drills 2 feet apart, letting them 

 grow without sticks or any other support. Thia is a most useful sort for a 

 dry district. 



PfiiaicLA JiPONici Loaraa Foliage (E. M. S.).— It is usual for these 

 plants to lose most of the older leaves, the plants becoming almost, and in 

 Bome instances quite, deciduous. We had plants in a similar state to your.^ 

 some time agn, which are now in a greenhouse throwing-up strongly for 

 bloom, which we have no doubt yours will do in a short time, the soil being 

 kept moist, but avoid overwatering, increasing the supply with the growth. 

 From the description you give of the insects infei^tmg the Geranium wo 

 think yon were quite correct in concluding they were red spider. 



HYaciN'THS IN Glasses (Mrs. W.]. — We cannot say " why some Hyacinths 

 in glasses tbrow-out small offsets and noi others," only that tUey exist in 

 fimbryo at the side of the bulbs when introduced to the glasses in the case of 

 those now having them. Usually those having offsets are loose and light as 

 compared with tliose having the bulbs lii*m and heavy, which la^it give the 

 finest spikes. It does not injure the bulbs to break off the offsets, and this 

 ought to be done, as they appropriate the support that would otherwise be 

 expended npcn the foliage and spike from the bulb. 



Manuring Roses ^^Iillla^ld Comtiies). — Tlie winter dressing of manure 

 ought to be given now, though we prefer to give it early in December, quite 

 as much as ii means of protection against severe weather as a manuring 

 agent. The best application as a summer dressing would be cool manure, as 

 that of ow dung, applying it when the flower buds appear, watering very 

 liberally after the blooms show coloui* twice a-week, and afford liquid manure 

 once a-week between the other waterings. A good preparation for your soil 

 would be a peck each of fresh cow dung and soot in tifty gallons of water ; 

 failing that, 1 lb. of guano to twenty gallons of water. If the weather be 

 wet the watering will not, of course, be neoes-sary, but the liquid mmure 

 should not in that case be omitted. About the middle of July apply another 

 top-dressing of manure, watering copiously in dry weather, aud the liquid 

 manure as befoce, which will give you line late summer blooms. Mulching is 

 very good, preventing, as it does, evaporation, aud securing gieater regularity 

 of moisture. Grass mowings as a mulch are likely to be of benefit, but we 

 should only use them thinly over the top-dressings of manure. 



PflUNixG Roses on the Manetti (G. Y.]. — We should pruua the first 

 mild weather after the middle of February, or at that time if severe weather 

 is not prevalent. iThe shoots 6-feet in length we should cut-back to six 

 eyes of their base, and those of 2 feet to four eyes, and if the wood be weak 

 to three or two eyes, according to its \'igour. Those with the lowe.^t branches 

 2 feet from the ground must have been neglected in the previous pruuiogs. 

 We should seek to originate shoots nearer the surface by cutting a fair pro- 

 portion of shoots of the length you state to within fi or 8 inches of the soil, 

 and eecui'ing shoots from those, serve the remainder the same way at ths 

 succeeding winter pi-nniug, and having them once well furnished at the base, 

 endeavour to keep them so, as nothing is more unsightly than a leggy Rose 

 bush. 



Ingraii's Prolific Muscat Vine. — Dr. Pearson, Kensiiigton, wishes to 

 know where ho can obtain plants of this Vine raised from eyes. Oyster 

 shells cau be calcined in any fireplace or furnace. We do not know where 

 they are to be bought calcined. 



AspLENiuji TRicHojiANES (Q. McDougall], — The vai-ieties you send we 

 think will not be permanent, and differ but little from the normal form. We 

 never heard of a variety called " majus." 



Potato for Late Use (B., Bradford).— Vlajit either the Fluke or Lap- 

 stone Kidney. 



Names of Fruits (R. Brewster).— Vfe have repeatedly requested that only 

 six specimens be sent for identification. It requiies more time than we can 

 epare to find the names of many. There are thousands of named Apples 

 and Pears. One gentleman sent us two hundred specimens, and asked that 

 thay mi^^ht be named " in the next number." (E. B,, DuhUn). — 1, Gilogil ; 

 2, Doyenne Defais. (E. V. R.). — Golden Russet. (J. CoUis).—-Yoa have not 

 numbered them. The round one is Gloria Mundi, and the conical one 

 Beauty of Kent. 



POULTRY, BEE, AND PIGEON OHEONIOLE, 



PBIZB cards. 



There eeems to be quite a commotion about prize cards at 

 tbe present day. Exhibitions appear to compete with each 

 other in producing new cards, highly coloured and elaborate. 

 We have always noticed that the amateur in the commencement 

 of his winnings is anxious to obtain these first trophies of his 

 success, and even older fanciers much delight in collecting the 

 pieces of pasteboard from the various meetings wherewithal to 

 paper their poultry rooms or nail up over their pens. We have 

 seen rooms of good dimensions profusely covered with these 

 cup and prize cards, and a very pretty effect they made ; but 

 good-bye to such vanities in future if we have to pay for them, 

 as would seem now to be becoming the fashion. When the 

 fee is paid and the cost of carriage is deducted we generally find 

 but a meagre remainder to put on the credit side in the case of 

 an ordinary prize ; but then to have something else deducted 

 for a card is positively too much to submit to, and yet such is 

 the case. We can all remember the outburst of indignation 

 when, many months ago, the authorities of the Bromley Show 

 thought well to charge Is. for an embossed card. We came 

 among the recipients of these souvenirs, and though we would 

 sooner have had the shilling, yet we are bound to say that they 

 were better worth a shilling than the pieces of card we have 

 lately had to pay for. Within the past week we have had sums 

 deducted from our prize money at two shows, the one being Is., 

 the other id. The latter was for an ordinary card with an im- 



pression of a Cochin hen printed in bronze from a cut, we should 

 say, of the defunct " Poultry Beview." The shilling article, 

 however, although deducted from the prize money some days 

 ago, has not yet come to hand, but we are looking forward to 

 its arrival with great interest. In the interval, however, we 

 write most strongly against the system, and beg other exhibitors 

 to help us in crushing any plan so ridiculous as that of paying 

 for our prize cards. 



We do not for a moment wish to advocate the plan lately 

 adopted by an eastern county of putting no prize cards on the 

 pens at all, so that they may be clean to go by post. That is as 

 unfair as it is absurd, for the spectators who pay to come in to 

 see the prize pens should at once be able to detect them without 

 having to invest another sixpence or a shilling in the shape of 

 a catalogue, which is to many, especially to the evening fre- 

 quenters of poultry shows, as so much Hebrew. The cards, 

 too, should be put up as soon as possible after each class is 

 judged, and be plainly and clearly printed. They should also 

 be of no colour where injurious preparations are used to obtain 

 the same, as many of the birds for amusement eat these cards, 

 and consequently suffer. In fact we all remember, a year or 

 two back, Mr. Brooke losing a splendid Malay pullet from de- 

 vouring her green prize card. But if a society thinks well to 

 send clean cards round afterwards gratis well and good, for it 

 gives an immense amount of pleasure to beginners in the fancy 

 to store up these cards. Oxford did this, and we believe Eden- 

 bridge did also. Anyhow, we know Oxford did, and sent, too, 

 infinitely better and prettier cards, most of them, than we had 

 to pay for the o'her day. 



As, however, the number of exhibitions where these extra 

 cards are afterwards sent round free is but limited — and natur- 

 ally so, tor beyond the cost of printing there is likewise the 

 postage ; but as, however, the number of amateurs and others 

 who rejoice in getting their cards back clean is great, we wonder 

 the plan of a card-pocket in the baskets is not more resorted to. 

 We know some do have these pockets in their baskets, but the 

 number is so few that the packers at shows find it hardly worth 

 the trouble to look for them. We read the other day in a letter 

 from Mr. Nicholla, one of the Alexandra Palace Secretaries, that 

 this was frequently the case, and we can quite understand it. 

 If, then, exhibitors put enough stress upon these cards as to 

 care to have them whole and clean, let them put these pockets 

 for the purpose at the sides of their baskets, and the poultry- 

 show attendants will soon learn to look for and make nse of 

 them. But this must become a general practice, and the pockets 

 must be placed where they can easily be found, for a packer at 

 a large show, where he has a great number of pens allotted to 

 him to pack, has no time to hunt through the lining of a basket 

 for a card-pocket, and so often, too, after all unsuccessfully ; 

 whereas if he was to know it is most likely to be there, and it 

 is placed iu a prominent place, we should have no more of those 

 ridiculous letters clamouring for clean prize cards. 



Then a word as to the get-up of these cards. We do not think 

 they can be too plain. Fair-sized white cards with the honours 

 clearly printed on them in red, blue, brown, or black should 

 answer all purposes, for these are quickly read by the spectators, 

 and after all that is what they are for. We have seen lately 

 really extremely pretty cards in use, ;with almost a miniature 

 landscape printed upon them, but we think they fail in not 

 being sufliciently able at one glance to show what honours they 

 record ; for though all the first prizes may be in one colour, and 

 all the seconds in another, and so on, still they do not answer 

 the purpose so well as a clean card with the prizes printed 

 upon them in large characters which can be understood in a 

 moment.— W. 



CANTERBURY POULTRY SHOW. 



As one of the managing Committee of the late Canterbury 

 Poultry Show I beg most emphatically to deny that sawdust 

 was used in the pens of the birds there. For fear of any inac- 

 curacy on my part I have communicated with the Secretary, 

 and he has assured me none was used for such a purpose. Silver 

 sand was used for the pins, and that only because, being snowed 

 up, the corn-dealers had not straw enough by them to cut into 

 chaff, which has always been used by us on previous occasions. 

 Sawdust was used for the floor, and for that only. Had it 

 been used in the pens I, as a member of the Committee as well 

 as an exiubitor, should have been one of the first to object. — 

 William Savile. 



RIPON SHOW OF POULTRY, &€. 



The Committee was almost entirely formed of hearty fanciers, 

 and with enthusiastic Mr. Wells at its head. The number of 

 entries was more than could be well disposed to light. With 

 true Christmas consistency the ponderous breeds were at the 

 head of the list. Geese, Turkeys, and Ducka taking the lead 

 with a grand display, but unfortunately iu rather a dark part of 

 the building. Brahmas came next, and amou§ these were some 

 good birds ; the Dorkings, Spanish, and Cochins also very good 



