July 11, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
21 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
Average ; y 
Day Day, _ JULY 11—17, 1878. Temperature near aoe Sun Moon rae n_| Moon’s belo ms 
Month Week ondon, ises. | Sets. Rises ets Age. Sun Wear 
Day. |Night. Mean.| h. m.| h. m.| h. m.} b. m.} Days, MSs 
11 TH Preston Show—Kilsby Show, 74.8 | 2.8 3 58 8 13 6 25 0 23 11 12 | 192 
12> | EF Preston Show continues. 75.6 | 60.7 | 63.1 3°59) 8 12) 7 22) 1 12 12 20 | 193 
13 |S Preston Show closes. 74.0 | 51.4 | 62.7 AS OMSL | 78) payin. 2) 15 13 27 | 194 
14 SUN | 4SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 76.4 61.1 63.8 Bye ak 8 10 8 34 3 28 @ 384 | 195 
145 |M Sr. Sv "HIN. 76.2 | 50.3 | 63.2 4 2) 8 9) 8 55) 4 46 35) 5 41 | 196 
16 TU Leek Rose Show. z 75.7 | 49.7 | 62.7 4 3 8 8 9 11 6) 4-2 16 5 46 | 197 
17 | W Tonbridge, Blackpool, Oundle, and Spalding Shows. 75.9 | 51.5 | 63.7 | 4 4] 8 7) 9 24) 7 16 17 5 52 | 198 
| 
From observations taken near London during forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 74.1°; and its night temperature 
0,0°. 
HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITIONS AND THEIR 
INFLUENCES. 
ORTICULTURAL exhibitions have done 
much for the art they are intended to pro- 
mote, both in this and other countries. Local 
shows and special shows have given an im- 
petus to cultivation in the districts where 
such shows have been established, and have 
brought to greater perfection particular 
Y flowers that the special societies have taken 
under their particular patronage. Exhibitions 
of greater scope and magnitude have similarly in a 
* broader and more general manner stimulated and 
encouraged. high-class cultivation, as well as having 
expanded the trade in all that pertains to horticultural 
pursuits. sigs 
It cannot be doubted that the bringing together for 
purposes of comparison the best produce of our gardens 
has had a most beneficial effect. Some cultivators by long 
practice, great perseverance, and close industry have ex- 
celled in some particular branch of their profession, and it 
is only meet that they should reap something more than 
amere private approval of their success: they have a just 
claim to a reward of a more public and tangible nature. 
Such rewards are provided by horticultural societies and are 
awarded at the several exhibitions that are held in different 
parts of the country. 2 f 
The public recognition thus officially recorded of promi- 
nent successes achieved by leading cultivators has had an 
important influence in raising the standard of horticultural 
practice throughout the country, has created a spirit of 
commendable emulation amongst cultivators large and 
small, and has raised British gardeners to the high and 
honourable position they now occupy as skilled craftsmen 
in the art which they so well adorn. In no country in the 
world is gardening conducted so thoroughly and well as in 
our own. Some nations may excel in some particular depart- 
ment of floral decorative art; but for solid excellence in 
the cultivation of flowering plants, for high achievements 
in the production of fruit, and for general success in vege- 
table growing, Great Britain is admittedly at the head of 
all the nations of the globe. Pre-eminent also is this 
country in the magnitude and richness of its nurseries and 
the admirable manner in which they are conducted. The 
seed establishments, too, are with very few exceptions simi- 
larly unrivalled; and equally prominent are the various 
manufactories and foundries wherein are fabricated the 
structures, heating apparatus, implements, machinery, and 
manures requisite for the maintenance of horticulture in 
the commanding position it now occupies. 
This position, as before observed, is in a great measure 
the result of the powerful influence exerted by horticultural 
societies and their exhibitions—aided, as will be readily 
admitted, by their natural ally the horticultural press. 
Thousands of cultivators who have not had opportunities 
for visiting the great tournaments of skill have yet been 
made familiar with their nature, and have thereby been 
imbued with an ambition to be participators of the rewards 
wu: NO. 902.—VOIn XXXVy NEW SERIES 
offered for skilful work. Thus are gardeners made—namely, 
by attentive reading, close observation, and unremitting 
work. 
Honours won by the successful exhibitors even at local 
shows are prized, and rightly so; still more cherished are 
the rewards won at metropolitan exhibitions ; but the most 
coveted of all honours are those bestowed by the Royal 
Horticultural Society —the natural and national repre- 
sentative of horticulture in this country. Had not the old 
Society had the warm sympathy of the leading horticul- 
turists, were not confidence reposed in its management, 
and were not its administrators trusted as loyal to the 
objects which the Society was designed to promote, the 
much-criticised—sometimes abused and sometimes com- 
mended—‘ R. H. 8.” would not have surmounted so well 
as it has done the many difficulties it has had to encounter, 
and would not now have been in a position to expand its 
influence and extend its usefulness both at its head-quarters 
and in the provinces. 
Catering, as it does, for all classes by giving official 
encouragement in domestic floriculture to “the million” in 
the metropolis ; distributing its medals over wide districts, 
and now and again instituting great exhibitions in the 
populous centres of the provinces, it is doing a large, com- 
prehensive, and important work—work fraught with un- 
alloyed pleasure and benefit to the affluent ; and benefit 
also, of an educational and substantial kind, to the indus- 
trial masses of the community, as well as giving an impetus 
to the great industry of which it is the exponent. 
The provincial exhibitions of the Royal Horticultural 
Society have always been popular and, as great horticultural 
displays, haye been successful. At Bury St. Edmunds, 
Leicester, Manchester, Oxford, Nottingham, Birmingham, 
and Bath horticulture has been represented in a truly 
national manner, and the good influences resulting from 
such gatherings of the cream of garden products, their pro- 
ducers and patrons, have a deep impress on the national 
mind which cannot fail being of great public advantage. 
Preston is now for the time being the great centre of 
horticulture. The Show is arranged in all its magnitude, 
and there is yet time for those who have not yet seen it to 
make an effort for visiting the great Show of the season, 
and deriving instruction from the many splendid examples 
of culture there so attractively displayed. Those, however, 
who cannot see the Show can do the next best thing—read 
about it, and we commend the report to their_notice. 
GRAPES WITHOUT FIRE HAT. 
Dovzriess Mr. David Thomson is quite right by suggest- 
ing that in a great extent of the “north countrie” it is 
useless attempting the cultivation of Grapes without the aid 
of fire heat. It is very important also, as pointed out by 
that experienced cultivator and accomplished writer, that 
unqualified expressions may possibly result in disappoint- 
ment. But while it is necessary to remember that Vines 
cannot be depended on in the north to ripen without fire 
heat, it is equally well that the fact be recognised that they 
wili ripen admirably over a considerably greater extent of 
NO; 1554,—VOu. LX., OLD SERIES. == 
