NoTomber -1, 1875. 3 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



401 



the sicatciir. With these iriBtrnments the operator will do 

 more work, but they are not equal to the knife for a clean out. 

 The knife does not crush the bark and wood as pruning scissorB 

 and all such-like pinching instruments must of necessity do. 



A few words about "grubs," which have been written about 

 in late numbers of the Journal. Several years ago our Carrots 

 were very much eaten by them. lu November of last year 

 they were so eaten that I gave the ground intended for Carrots 

 the following season a good dressing with quicklime, scattering 

 it in the trenches as it was dug. At the time of sowiuK, after 

 drawing the drills and sowing the seed, I sowed a mixture of 

 soot and wood ashes in the drills, and the Carrots are this 

 year perfectly clean, scarcely a grub-eaten one to be found in 

 the bed. I consider soot and wood ashes (or the ashes made 

 of burnt garden rubbish of any kind) one of the best things 

 that can be used. I invariably mix it with the soil in which 

 I sow Broccoli and such-like seeds, also where I prick them 

 out, and do not have one clubbed plant in a hundred. 



I would recommend those who are troubled with the Onion 

 maggot to trench their Onion ground 18 inches deep as early 

 in January as possible, puttiug-in plenty of fresh manure, if 

 direct from the stables so much the better ; if pig dung can be 

 procured it is to be preferred to all others. Dig over the sur- 

 face of the ground 3 or 1 inches deep a few times in dry 

 weather during the spring ; do not sow too early ; keep a sharp 

 look-out for the maggot, and if it should make its appearance 

 at once sift some rather fine coal ashes all over the beds about 

 half an inch thick ; water with liquid manure twice a-week 

 unless it is a very wet season, then I think there will not be 

 many Onions eaten by the maggot. — D. Walkek, Gardener lo 

 B. H. Collins, Esq., Dimorlan. 



Tulips. As a grower of the first-named he had no superior. 

 To see his Auricula frames, and, above all, his marvellous 

 Tulip beds, in their flowering season, was a sight worth going 

 a long way to see. Roses, also, he was fond of, and grew them 

 successfully; but the Auricula, Carnation, and TuUp were his 

 pets. Dr. Plant was, we believe, at his death the oldest mem- 

 ber of the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland, and was for 

 more than forty-five years a member of its Council. He had 

 arrived at the age of eighty-five years. 



Bath and West of England Society. — The usual 



Council Meeting cf this Society was held at the Grand Hotel, 

 Bristol, on the 2(jth of October, under the presidency of the 

 Right Hon. the Earl of Ducie. The Council resolved that the 

 meeting (Hereford, 1871;) shall commence on Whit-Monday, 

 June 5th, and extend over that and four following days ; they 

 also settled the stock and poultry prize sheets and implement 

 regulations, but they were ordered not to be published until 

 after the November meeting of the Council, in order that any 

 special prizes offered by the Local Committee may be published 

 simultaneously with those offered by the Society. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



The great Snow of Fbuit and Cukysanthemums to be opened 

 at South Kensington on the 10th inst. is expected to be a 

 great success. The decision of the Council to keep the Show 

 open for two days, to light the conservatory and arcades with 

 gas, and to admit the public from (J to 8 r.ji. on the first day, 

 and from ten to four o'clock on the second day, on payment 

 of Is., is a step which can hardly fail to meet with public 

 appreciation. The prizes are all to be paid without any rebate 

 on this occasion, and thus the utmost encouragement is given 

 to exhibitors as weU as to the public to inspect their pro- 

 ductions. 



The nsnal monthly dinner of the Horticultural Club 



will be held at the club house, Adelphi Terrace, on Wednesday, 

 November 10th, at 6.15, the day on which the great Fruit 

 and Chrysanthemum Show of the Royal Horticultural Society 

 will be held. 



The following gentlemen have consented to act as 



Judges at Messrs. Snttons' forthcoming Rotal Berkshire 

 Root Snow: — Professor Wrightson, Professor of Agriculture at 

 the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester ; W. Scott Hay- 

 ward, Esq., V.-P. of the Kingscote Farmers' Club; W. Brigin- 

 shaw, Esq., Her Majesty's Royal BagehotFarm ; H. Simmonds, 

 Esq., Steward to John Walter, Esq., M.P. ; and for vegetables 

 and Potatoes, Mr. Daniels, The Gardens, Swyncombe; and Mr. 

 Lees, The Gardens, Whiteknights. 



We are informed that M. Ed. AndrL- is about to depart 



on a VOYAGE OF botanical discoveey in South America, and 

 will visit Colombo, Ecuador, Pern, and Brazil. From the 

 labours of such an excellent and energetic botanist the gardens 

 of Europe may hope to secure many valuable additions. 



The Queen has accepted from Mr. Francis George 



Heath a copy of his new work, " The Fekn Paradise : a Plea 

 for the Culture of Ferns." 



" Martin Doyle," one of the earliest writers who aided 



us a quarter of a century since, is dead. The Rev. William 

 HicKET, Rector of Mulrancan, near Wexford, in Ireland, died 

 on the 24:th of October, aged eighty-eight. Besides contri- 

 buting to our columns and those of other periodicals, he was 

 the author of many useful cheap volumes on subjects con- 

 nected with the cultivation of the soil and domestic economy. 

 No one has written more home to the needs of the small farmers 

 and peasantry of Ireland. 



The Irish Farmers' Gazette announces the death of 



William Plant, Esq., M.D., at his residence, Plantation, 

 Monkstown, on the 23rd ult. Few names were more familiar 

 to florists than that of Dr. Plant, associated as it has been for 

 more than half a century with the most successful cultivation 

 of his three specialities — namely. Auriculas, Carnations, and 



WHAT IS A BUNCH OP GRAPES V 

 I CONSIDER a bunch, or cluster, of Grapes must proceed from 

 one eye, no matter what form it takes after its exit from the 

 eye — fasciated, elongated, or any form, provided it proceeds 

 from one eye. One may just as well expect two seedling trees 

 from one seed as expect two bunches of Grapes from one 

 Vine eye. Believing this to be the true and simple definition 

 of a bunch of Grapes, I say, unbiassed in any way, that the 

 Eskbank bunch of Grapes was decidedly one bunch. You may 

 call it a big bunch, a monstrous bunch, a beautiful bunch, or 

 an ugly bunch, yet it is simply one bunch or cluster of Grapes. 

 — Henry Knight, Floors. 



I THINK there is only one way of deciding the difference 

 between a single and a double bunch of Grapes. I maintain that 

 a single bunch is one that has one clear stem from the wood, 

 and if that stem be only half an inch long and is round and 

 perfect it is really a single bunch, let it have as many shoulders 

 as it may below that. But, on the other hand, if there are two 

 stems issuing distinctly from the wood without being united 

 into one stem they are two bunches ; and if Mr. Curror's bunch 

 of Grapes at Edinburgh had, as Mr. Louden and Mr. Ingram 

 state, quite lA or 2 inches clear space between the stems, it 

 seems quite clear that it was two bunches, and as such I 

 should have felt justified in judging them. — Thomas Record. 



The substantial testimony furnished by Mr. Dickson in 

 support of his case has now renjoved the subject of dispute 

 out of the region of mere assertion. If the Edinburgh Society, 

 or those who may be responsible in the matter, now condone 

 ! by their silence and inaction what the public must at present 

 ! regard as a gross miscarriage of justice, they will court a not 

 ' very enviable reputation among horticulturists. It is not now 

 a controversy between two rival growers, but is a question of 

 public importance, which has increased in magnitude by offioial 

 silence. Are those who are responsible waiting and wishing 

 the fire to burn itself out, after being a nine-days wonder? 

 As the case stands at present such surmises are at least ex- 

 cusable. I hope, however, the subject will not be allowed 

 to drop. — A Grape-Grower. 



A bunch of Grapes should grow from a single eye on 

 the rod of last year's growth, and hang by a single stem 

 when exhibited ; but if from a double eye there will be two 

 distinct stems, which to all intents and purposes constitute 

 two bunches — alias twins or monstrosities. — W. McPherson, 

 Sneeston Hall Gardens, Ashbourne. 



[AU good authorities agreeing in the definition, no more 

 need be inserted upon the subject. — Eds.] 



We do not recollect any subject which has absorbed so com- 

 pletely the attention of the gardening world as has the dis- 

 cussion which has grown out of the Great Exhibition of fruit 

 at Edinburgh. The letters which we have published from 

 some of the first Grape-growers and most able gardeners of 

 the day, together with others which we have received on the 

 same subject, are a snflicient testimony of the state of the 

 horticultural mind on this question. 



It is not for us to express an opinion as to the correctness 

 or otherwise of the awards in the class for the heaviest bunch 



