JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 7, 1870. 



For Cherries Mr. Miles, gardener to Lord Carrington, is first with 

 beautiful fruit of Bigarreau Napoleon ; Mr. Widdowson, Chorley Wood 

 House, being second, and Mr. Ross third. For Black kinds Mr. Pottle 

 is first with Black Tartarian, and Mr. Miles second with May Duke. 



Only one dish of Plums is shown, and that is Orleans, by Mr. 

 Miles, and excellent they are. The same exhibitor also sends the best 

 four dishes of Strawberries, magnificent fruit of Admiral Dnndas, 

 Dr. Hogg, Sir C. Napier, and Mr. Radclyffe, the first two being the 

 finest. Mr. Widdowson is second, Mr. Douglas, Loxford Hall, third, 

 both with excellent dishes. Mr. Miles also sends an excellent dish of 

 Bicton Pine. 



Of table decorations there is a tolerably extensive display, as well 

 a3 of bouquets, hanging baskets, and Fern cases. Some are tasteful 

 enough, bat none very remarkable. Miss E. Blair, New Wandsworth, 

 was awarded H.R.H. Princess Mary's gold medal for a group of plants 

 and flowers, and arranged for table decoration. Mrs. Green, Crawford 

 Street, Grosvenor Square, and Misses Harris & Hassard were also 

 successful exhibitors in several of the classes. 



Groups of new and rare plants come from Messrs. Yeitch and Mr. 

 Williams ; of bedding and other plants from Messrs. Lee and E. G. 

 Henderson ; and plant cases, horticultural implements, &c, from 

 Messrs. A. Henderson & Co. , Deane & Co., and others. 



Her Royal Highness the Princess Mary distributed the ladies' prizes 

 on the first day of the Show. 



AMERICAN POTATOES. 



I have often seen in your Journal different accounts about 

 the new sorts of American Potatoes, but I have never seen 

 where they have been dug earlier than I might have dug them 

 if I had liked. I left them, however, until they were dead ripe. 

 We should have had much finer Potatoes had there been rain, 

 hut I am sorry to say there has not been any rain here for the 

 last eight or nine weeks, and then for only about three hours, 

 and there has not been four hours' rain for this last four 

 months. The Potatoes were as follow : — 



Climax, planted February 28th, three Potatoes cut into fifteen 

 sets. Fit to dig Jane 7th ; dug June 30th ; weight G lbs. 5 ozs. 

 Early Rose, planted February 28th, six Potatoes cut into thirty- 

 eight sets. Fit to dig June 16th ; dug June 30th ; weight 

 14| lbs. On the same border was Hyatt's Ashleaf, planted the 

 same day and dug May 20 th. On another border with the same 

 aspect was Bresee's Prolific, planted March 15th, but it is quite 

 green and a long way from being fit, but when I dig up the 

 tubers I will state how they turn out. Bresee's King of the 

 Earlies, planted March 15th, was fit to dig June 7th, and was 

 dug June 30th. Two Potatoes had been cut into six sets. 

 Weight of produce 2| lbs. Myatt's Ashleaf, planted March 

 15th, was dug June 1st; the sample was not large but beauti- 

 ful, clear, and clean. The earliest of any of the American 

 sorts, you can see, is the King of the Earlies, and it is the 

 smallest cropper, but I think none so early as Myatt's. I dug 

 up some Potatoes out of doors as early as May 15th ; but they 

 are a round sort taken when half ripe for market, not a good 

 sort for table. The variety is here called the French White, 

 but I do not know if the name is correct. 



There is a beautiful specimen of the Agave americana throw- 

 ing up a flower spike in a gentleman's garden by the side of the 

 road. The place is called The Grange. Tne spike is now about 

 G feet in height. American Aloes are quite hardy here ; that 



referred to has had no covering to my knowledge this winter. 



J. Dawson, Gardener to W. H. Smithard, Esq., Sommerville, 

 Guernsey. 



NEW BOOK. 



Handbook of the Sulphur Cure as applicable to the Vine Disease 

 in America. By W. J. Flagg. New York : Harper and 

 Brothers. 



One of the most decisive examples of needless book-making 

 we ever saw. The whole of its practical contents may be com- 

 prised in one sentence — Apply flowers of sulphur either by the 

 aid of a pair of sulphurator-bellows or a dredger. 



Weae and Teak of the Woeld. — In a paper in the Bulletins 

 de la Societe Vaudoise, No. 62, Dr. C. Nicati gives a resume of 

 various researches respecting the peculiar red snow which occa- 

 sionally falls in the Grisons. Some of this snow fell, mingled 

 with common snow and rain, during a violent storm from the 

 south-west on the morning of January 15th, 1867, in various 

 places. The chemical analysis of the melted snow demonstrated 

 the presence of minute quantities of sulphate of lime or gyp- 

 sum, sulphate of magneBia, organic matterB, chlorine, and iron ; 



and microscopic examination detected vegetable fibre, pollen, 

 spores, with here and there diatoms and small crystals. The 

 colour varies from brick red to a pale yellow. This snow is 

 quite distinct from the red snow of the upper Alpine regions, 

 which owes its colour to the presence of the minute plant 

 Protococcus nivalis. After discussing various theories respect- 

 ing its origin, Dr. Killias expressed his opinion that it is the 

 dust of the Desert of Sahara, transported by a sirocco, which 

 gives the colour to the Bnow of the Grisons. Dr. Nicati gives 

 many interesting particulars, with analyses, of the Algerian 

 sirocco dust, and of the mud-rain in Naples and Sicily ; and 

 Professor C. Cramer states that he has discovered, both in the 

 sand of the Sahara and in the red snow of the Grisons, particles 

 of vegetable organisms (especially polythalmia) and minute 

 fragments of animal origin, such as wool, hair, &c. He con- 

 siders the presence of gypsum in the red snow an incontestable 

 proof of its containing matter conveyed from the Desert of 

 Sahara. — (From our weekly contemporary, Nature.) 



GARDENERS' ROYAL BENEVOLENT 

 INSTITUTION. 



On the 29th tilt, the twenty-seventh anniversary festival of the above 

 Institution was held at the London Tavern, the Rt. Hon. The Earl 

 of Derby in the chair. His Highness The Nawab Nizam of Bengal, 

 attended by Colonel Layard, honoured the Institution with his pre- 

 sence upon this occasion. After the usual loyal and patriotic toasts 

 had been proposed and duly received, Lord Derby proceeded to the 

 toast of the evening, " Success to the Gardeners' Royal Benevolent 

 Institution." He said that he should propose that which was the 

 toast of the evening in very few words, for whatever they might agree 

 upon, or whatever they might disagree upon, there was one thing in 

 their hearts in which they would all be of one mind, and that was that 

 the sight of flowers, accompanied by music, was much more suitable 

 to after-dinner hours, and more conducive to enjoyment than anything 

 else. The Institution at the end of 1869 carried over a balance of 

 £1400, and had invested in the funds nearly £8000, the number of 

 pensioners at the present time being fifty-four. Since the establish- 

 ment of the Institution upwards of £15,000 had been expended in 

 giving relief in accordance with the conditions laid down by their 

 rules. So far, the position of the Society had been one of steady and 

 unvaried prosperity, not, indeed, so much as they might have hoped or 

 desired, but still, upon the whole, satisfactory. Their chief difficulty 

 had been that, extending their operations as they did over the whole 

 of the country, the list of subscribers still remained much smaller 

 than they wished to see it ; but certainly when he looted at the num- 

 ber of persons employed in the profession of horticulture, and at the 

 support which had been given by the leading men in the profession — 

 men known all over England, he could not help thinking that with 

 better organisation they might contrive to extend their operations far 

 beyond their present range. He thought there was no need to argue 

 in defence of the principle on which the Institution was organised, 

 that principle being one partly of charity and partly of insurance. 

 Nearly every occupation existing in this country had found it to their 

 interest to adopt this principle. Their rule for giving assistance was, 

 first, that the fact of the distress should be proved, next that the 

 character of the claimant shonld be ascertained, and then, without 

 absolutely excluding non-subseribers, preference should be given to 

 those who had during fifteen years contributed to the funds of the 

 Institution. This preference was only fair, because, in point of fact, 

 those whom they were assisting were merely receiving back that which 

 they had subscribed in days of prosperity. He conceived that this 

 kind of charity was the best for several reasons ; first, because persons 

 who follow the same business have means of ascertaining the condition 

 of the applicant for relief which others do not possess, and thus there 

 is a check upon imposture ; and next, because the fact of previous 

 subscription excludes mere recklessness and improvidence, and so calls 

 into play those principles which are the most pure. He ventured to 

 think that if every trade and every profession had an institution such 

 as theirs, and if it became a sort of social law that every member of 

 every trade should subscribe to it, a great blow would be struck at that 

 pauperism which now affects England so much, and we should get rid of 

 the increasing number of cases of pitiable and preventible misfortune. 

 He need hardly say that of all those — and, unhappily, there are many 

 — who come to a state of destitution in this country, none are so much 

 to be pitied as those who previously held a good position, because the 

 better their position was in former days, the more they shrink from 

 contact with the lowest and coarsest of those among whom pauperism 

 exists. In the present day we live too fast, and too often we live in 

 such masses that hardly anybody would like to say what his next 

 neighbour was ; hut those who are engaged in the same occupation 

 should hold it a duty to assist their poorer brethren. It gave him 

 great pleasure to preside over a gathering such as that, when the 

 members -of the same trade were brought together, not in profes- 

 sional rivalry and antagonism, but with a common desire to assist the 

 afflicted. He often thought that a good garden was the prettiest thing 

 on the earth. A man might walk through a picture gallery and see a 



