494 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[{ November 28, 1878. 
on until society had ceased. As a matter of fact I can speak 
of the existence of the practice for upwards of fifty years, that 
period having elapsed since I first saw a Carnation show, and 
never before have I heard it questioned. If “A STAFFORD- 
SHIRE GROWER” will put away the vain fear which, as it 
appears to me, prompted his questioning, and will bring well- 
grown flowers to the next London exhibition, I will, if spared, 
undertake to obtain for him such aid in their preparation as will 
leave him little room for a grumble; but if, declining this, he 
will only enter into a competition in which, from his point of 
view, there shall be an equality of power, I ask him, How will 
he reply to the novice who, coming for the first time to the 
exhibition table, says to him, “ You have been by your own 
showing a grower and exhibitor at local shows for many years, 
and have been fairly successful ; [commence to-day only, there- 
fore bring the flowers you first brought and dressed as you first 
dressed them and pit against mine, or I cannot compete upon 
equal conditions?””. Probably the “STAFFORDSHIRE GROWER” 
would feel and express much amazement at the pretension of 
the novice, and he must pardon my saying that most experi- 
enced florists will regard his proposition with the same feeling. 
If Mr. Douglas had been guilty of obtaining illegitimate aid 
in the preparation of his flowers at the late exhibition of the 
National Carnation and Picotee Society the complaint should 
have been made to the executive of the Society, who would 
know how to deal with and repress irregularity.—H. 8. Dop- 
WELL, 11, Chatham Terrace, Larkhall Rise, Clapham, SW. 
GARDEN FENCING. 
Mr. LAxTOoN asks for suggestions with regard to a cheap, 
durable, and reasonably safe fencing. As he mentions wooden 
walls I will venture to give my experience. As the ground 
has depth of soil I should recommend, if stone is easily to be 
procured, to place the wooden posts for the fencing on large 
stones, fastening them by iron dowels, there is no necessity then 
to useoak ; good red deal 3} by 24inches—that is, a 7 by 24 
batten cut in half and set edgeways, is strong enough. Posts 
to be placed 7 feet apart and boarded horizontally with inch 
red deal, each board about 7 inches wide, 21 feet long, and not 
jointed too close, so as to allow for expansion by wet. Use 
neither paint, gas tar, nor anything to surface the boards for at 
least two years, and even then itis better to avoid it if possible. 
Ihave known an unpainted wood palisading last nearly thirty 
years, when the posts had quite perished in the ground. 
I presume that as the boarding is to be used for protection 
it is also to be economised as a fruit wall. I put up one 
six years ago when taking in some extra kitchen garden. 
Wanting a protection from the north I made the fence 8 feet 
high, and trained on it Plums. In two years the Plums had 
covered the boards, and the second year were covered with 
fruit. This year again the fruit was hanging in ropes. Stays 
should be placed from every third post—that is, 21 feet apart, 
sloping to the south, fixing each postin a stone about 5 or 6 feet 
from the boarding ; put a half-rounded top rail 3} by 2 on 
the top of the upright posts, and if the position is much ex- 
posed board up by means of a top and bottom rail every other 
stay, so as to break the force of the wind, protect the trees, and 
make a warm border. I do not think the fruit wall, if I may 
call it such, which I have made nearly on these measurements 
is any worse now than when first put up. The treesare trained 
on galvanised wires. 
It is not generally known that the best and most lasting wood 
for posts is Robinia pseud-acacia, and that even young shoots 
will last longer than oak or Spanish chestnut. Unless oak is very 
full of heart it does not last much longer in the ground than 
a good piece of well seasened red deal, and the comparative 
cost of working and the first outlay is great. A good Onga 
post will last out two larch posts; but if the ground is moist 
elm is preferable to either, provided all sap is taken off, and 
the post is well saturated in gas tar mixed with paraffin or 
creosote with sulphate of zinc. It is cheaper in the end to cut 
elm posts out of well-seasoned wood rather than use limbs 
only squared up and put in undressed, as is so often the case 
with rough oak posts, &c., for common fencing. 
If on one side of the experimental garden a protection 
against cattle is all that is required, nothing is more inexpen- 
sive than a well-constructed wire fence ; and I may say instead 
of expensive wrought iron straining posts I haye found that 
4 or 3-inch cast iron pipes, such as are used for hot water, cut 
in half, 12 by 9 feet lengths and fastened into large stones with 
Portland cement, and properly stayed, form as good straining 
posts and as cheap as anything that can be used. Two-inch cast 
iron pipes are enough for most places, but I have had them 
4 and 83-inch in the south straining wire fences against covers, 
and in a park, and have never found them broken by horses or 
cattle, though a slight 2-inch one in my lower kitchen garden 
was broken not long ago by a horse being driven against 
it when playing with another, haying been let loose accident- 
ally from a field. But this was in a position where it would 
not, except under quite unforeseen circumstances, be exposed to 
such hard treatment. The stays should be of double bars of 
wrought iron, with an opening for the wires to go through 
between them, bolted into the cast iron post just under the 
top wire, and set in large stones. The stone in which the up- 
right post is fixed, and that which supports the stay, should be 
connected together by means of a strong iron bar leaded into each 
stone. I am only speaking now of the straining posts ; as iron 
is cheap now the intermediate posts may be of wrought iron. 
Note one thing, the top and second wire should be strong and 
hard drawn, and ayoid as a rule contract work with wire fence 
makers ; this, perhaps, is a bold thing to say. Should’ a wire 
fence be undesirable, and post and rails, or a palisaded fence 
preferable, split larch, avoiding that which is too young and 
quickly grown for rails, and good red deal posts, if acacia or 
Spanish chestnut are not to be procured. But the posts need not 
betoo thick. Let the strength be laterally, so as not to weaken 
the post too much by making holes for the rails.—C. P. P. 
I HAVE put up many hundreds of yards of continuous flat 
bar fencing which can be erecte | 4feet high, with five flat 
and one round top bar, and standar Is 3 feet apart, for about 
2s, 3d. per yard, or 5-feet fence for 2s. Cc. This fence—if well 
painted in two coats of Hill & Smith’s varnish, which should 
not be put on until six months after the fence is erected, and 
the first black iron scale rusted off—will last twenty years 
without repair—i.e., mine has. A Holly hedge, or, if speed is 
required, a Spruce Fir hedge well clipped inside, will afford as 
much shelter asa wall, and look neat. Or if you wish to make 
an impervious fence, a good Thorn hedge trimmed 2 feet higher 
than the iron will keep out an apple-stealing schoolboy, and 
that is a good deal; or if he gets in he cannot get out again, 
as you can neither get through nor over (if the Thorn fence is 
really well done) from the Thorn side. 
Every bar of my fence in each standard is keyed, and 
each bar riveted to the next. If the fence is well put up the 
heaviest cattle cannot stir it. It is elastic, and stiff as a wall 
at the same time.—T. J. LEVETT. 
MANETTI versus SEEDLING BRIAR STOCK. 
Your correspondent, “ W. C. A.,” asks, How is it the Manetti 
stock has fallen into such disrepute? I answer for myself— 
and I believe many others will say the same—because I obtain 
better blooms on the seedling Briar. My soil being naturally 
thin and hot I excavate beds about 2} feet deep, putting a 
layer of stiff clayey soil on the bottom about 6 inches deep, and 
then fill up with good loam taken from a neighbouring bullock 
pasture, adding but little manure to the soil at the time of 
planting, but giving a good mulch of cow and pig manure 
when the beds are finished. In the spring, about March, this 
is pricked in with a fork, but not deep enough to disturb the 
roots of the Roses. I followed this plan with the Manetti for 
about ten years, but my blooms were always thin and did not 
stand well in a hot tent. I then heard of the seedling Briar, 
and sent to Mr. George Prince for a bundle, and they came— 
grand robust-looking fellows. I subjected them to the same 
treatment, and my blooms are now much better and haye won 
many prizes this year. If we could only procure the seedling 
Briar at the same price as Manetti are offered at im your 
columns I feel sure the Manetti would sink into the shade. I 
have tried to bud the seedling Briar, but with very partial 
success, and I prefer sending to Oxford for plants. I wonder 
whether “WyLD SAVAGE” has ever tried them. I commend 
them to his notice. Mine have never suffered much/from frost. 
I always plant them just like the Manetti, covering the worked 
part with soil about 3 inches. Another objection to the 
Manetti with me was that when I planted a bed I always 
found a number of gaps in the following year ; this has never 
happened with the seedling Briar. 
I haye never tried Briar cuttings. Will some of your corre- 
spondents kindly tell me how to manage them? Are they 
budded on the main stem or on the side shoots like the hedge 
Briar? One thing more about the Manetti. Singular to say 
