Ireland. 95 



plished by using hypnum moss in place of straw ropes^ the former material being 

 preferable, as communicating no bad flavour to the cardoon. The Society's 

 premium for the best collection of seeds of evergreen trees and shrubs saved in 

 Scotland was given to Mr. John Street, gardener at Biel, who sent a parcel con- 

 taining considerable quantities of common laurel, Portugal laurel, and laurus- 

 tinus, with small quantities of the seeds of Chinese arbor vitas and sweet bay. 

 Very fine bunches of black Hamburgh and white muscadine grapes were then 

 placed on the table, the produce of a flued wall at Erskine House garden, 

 without the aid of glass, and gathered on the 4th inst. (See VIII. 671.) 

 A letter from Mr. George Shiells was read, mentioning that the family had 

 been supplied with such grapes since the end of October, and that there were 

 still about thirty bunches remaining. — The committee, lastly, called the 

 attention of the meeting to several excellent articles, both fruits and roots, 

 the produce of the Society's experimental garden, which did great credit to 

 Mr. Barnet as a cultivator ; and to a collection of Chrysanthemum indicum in 

 flower, remarkable for the dwarfish size of the plants, grown in this way by 

 Mr. Handasyde of Fisherrow. There was also a cluster of sweet oranges 

 from the garden of Count Flahault, at Tulliallan, where six had been pro- 

 duced on a plant 2 ft. high. A communication was read to the meeting on the 

 forcing and blanching of Buda kale, by Mr. James Mackintosh, gardener at 

 Archerfield. The kale are planted in boxes, which are introduced successively 

 into the mushroom-house, where the kale are at once forced and blanched 

 (light being excluded), while the production of mushrooms is not interrupted. 

 {Weekly Dispatch, Dec. 16. 1833.) 



Stirlingshire. — The agricultural exhibition of Messrs. Drummond of 

 Stirling, noticed in our preceding volume (p. 447.), is continued annually, and 

 goes on prosperously. Similar exhibitions have been opened at Edinburgh, 

 by Mr. Lawson, seedsman there; and at Perth, by Messrs. Dickson and Turn- 

 bull. The local benefits which will result from these exhibitions are immense. 

 We should think they will be found to have as great an effect on the agricul- 

 ture of their vicinities, as the publication of the Farmer's Magazine, in the 

 beginning of the present century, had on the agriculture of the Lowlands of 

 Scotland generally. 



IRELAND. 



Battinasloe Horticultural Society. — Aug. 14. For fruit, flowers, and vege- 

 tables : the latter were remarkably fine. There were several cottagers' 

 prizes ; Martin M'Niel, and Dalton Kelly were the most successful among 

 the cottage competitors. {Dublin Evening Mail, Aug. 26. 1833.) 



Connaught Horticultural Society. — Oct. 12. This show was principally for 

 fruit and vegetables. Among the latter were 12 heads of celery exhibited by 

 Mr. Johnstone, gardener to the Earl of Clancarty, which weighed 54 pounds. 

 One of carrots, exhibited by the same gardener, weighed 4 lbs. 2 oz. {Galway 

 Advertiser, Oct. 19. 1833.) 



Cork County and City Horticultural Society. — Dec. 16. A very numerous 

 meeting of the nobility and gentry of the neighbourhood assembled to establish 

 this Society. Major Beamish concluded an eloquent speech as follows : — 

 " I trust that the country gentlemen, that the landed gentry of the county, 

 will come forward with enlightened minds and liberal pockets on this occasion. 

 They are, of all classes of the community, the most interested in the pro- 

 motion of horticultural societies. By these means it is that the cultivation of 

 land and the breed of cattle are improved, old and injudicious practices 

 abolished, good systems of farming introduced, and the farm brought, as it 

 ought to be, as nearly as possible, to the condition of the garden. By these 

 means, also, are order, cleanliness, and industry, which are inseparable from 

 good farming, induced among the small holders and peasantry ; agricultural 

 profits increased, and the wealth and happiness of both the owner and occu- 

 pier of the soil promoted ; while the scientific investigations to which the 



