110 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 11, 1873. 



shops being diluted with six times its balk of water. Various insect-de- 

 stroying compounds are also used successfully. 



Manuring Roses (A. B. A.).— We should, in November, give a good 

 mulching over the dressing of manure, which may be 2 or 3 inches thick, 

 and a few inches of dry litter would keep all safe from frost. Every 

 winter we have our Rose beds mulched nearly a foot thick, and we never 

 knew an eye decay. In spring remove the loose portion of the litter, and 

 point the manure neatly in with a fork. There is no necessity to go so 

 deep as to interfere with the roots. Liquid manure is very serviceable 

 when plants are growing, but not when the plants are at rest, and is not 

 to be recommended in preference to manure in a solid state. Both are 

 useful. 



Forming Rhododendron Beds (Idem). — The soil where the beds are 

 to be made should be taken out to a depth of 2 feet, and the space filled 

 with the sandy soil and the peat from the meadow in about equal pro- 

 portions. The peat is best used fresh, but that exposed to the atmo- 

 sphere during the summer will answer very well. The ground should be 

 drained, for if stagnant water lodge in the soil even American plants, 

 which delight in moistnre, will not thrive. The peat should be chopped 

 up, but need not be made very fine. 



Forming a Lawn (Idem).— Tnrf being scarce, you may sow grass seeds 

 instead. Fill up all holes and take down the hillocks, so as to form an 

 even surface, and dig or trench the ground so as to give the turf or grass 

 seeds a chance of growing, becoming established, and making uni- 

 form growth throughout. For your soil wo advise Festuca duriuscula, 

 3 lbs. ; Cynosurus cristatus, 6 lbs. ; Festuca tenuifolia, 8 lbs.; Poa nemo- 

 ralis, 2 lbs.; Poa trivalis, 2 lbs. ; Poa nemoralis sempervirens, 2 lbs.; 

 Trifolium repens, 8 lbs. ; Trifolium minus, 4 lbs. ; Lotus corniculatus 

 minor, 1 lb. ; and Lolinm perenne tenue, 24 lbs., in mixture for one acre. 

 You may sow this mixture in September, the ground being in good tilth 

 and free of weeds, especially Dock, Dandelion, Plantain. Yarrow, and 

 Couch. The finer the surface the better for the seeds. Roll well after 

 sowing. If the ground is not in good order do not bow until next April. 

 Your Carnation we shall notice next week. 



Heating a Small Greenhouse (Q. Q.).~- Your case is just one of those 

 frequently referred to by Mr. Fish. As the house is 20 feet by 15, one of 

 the best arrangements would be a narrow platform all round, except at 

 the doors, a walk all round, and a platform and stage in the centre. Then 

 you could place your furnace deep enough at the most convenient 

 corner, and take your flue all round, or rouud three sides, but sunk so that 

 the top of the flue would form part of the pathway. By this mode you 

 would have no difficulty with your doorways, as the flue would be beneath 

 their level. Yon would have also a pleasant pathway in cold weather. 

 Your having to raiBe the chimney 8 or 10 feet would make the flue draw 

 all the better. (C. Y. C, Bedford).— You do not give ns sufficient data, 

 especially as to levels, to enable us to help you. We do not think tank- 

 heating would suit you as to expense, nor yet as to the doorways, as the 

 tanks must be level. Then we have no idea how the level of the chimneys 

 in the hall and the drawing-room agree with the level in the greenhouse. 

 It is very difficult to make heat descend; it has a natural tendency to 

 rise. There are exceptions ; for instance, in a large parlour we lately saw 

 an iron stove in the middle of the room with an open grate, but a close 

 bevelled top, and underneath that an opening for the smoke to go down, 

 which it did beneath the floor, and also beneath the floor of a large 

 kitchen, but then the smoke flue terminated in a high kitchen chimney, 

 and the draHght was the cause of snccess. It was here altogether an 

 exceptional case. It is always expensive to heat such houses as yours, 

 11 feet by 14 feet, by hot water, if the apparatus has to be erected on 

 purpose. Then there is an objection to a chimney being seen; and, 

 again, there are the doorway3 in the greenhouse. If in the hall chimney 

 you could fix a little boiler, so that the top of it should be about 6 inches 

 below the level of the floor in the hall, and at least as low as the floor in 

 the greenhouse, then you could cross the floor of the hall under the level, 

 and have the pipes above the floor in the greenhouse, entering on the 

 hall side, going as far as the doorway on the west side, and returning. If 

 you could Bink low enough under that hall chimney, you might take a 

 flue from it all round the greenhouse under the floor level, and let it 

 terminate at the chimney above the furnace. Again, if you could make 

 a small furnace outside on the west side near the doorway, you might 

 also have a small flue below the floor level, crossing the hall into the 

 chimney. If none of these suit, the simplest plan would be to have a 

 metal stove, with a flat top to receive an evaporating basin, and take a 

 4-inch pipe from it outside the roof of the greenhouse. The stove will 

 be rarely wanted from April to the middle of October. Is there no 

 kitchen not bo far off on a lower level than the greenhouse, from 

 which you could borrow heat ? Level in these matters cannot be dis- 

 regarded. 



_ Mildew on Peas (Mrs. H. Thring).—Tbe way to prevent Peas becom- 

 ang mildewed, is to give them copious supplier of water. 



Berberis not Flowering (Norwood).— The plants will flower as soon 

 as they are old enough, if not interfered with. 



Discolor (R. G.).~ This word is applied to parts having one surface of 

 one colour, and the other of another colour ; also to green altered by a 

 mixture of purple. The leaves of Cisbus discolor are green mottled with 

 white on the upper surface, and purplish red beneath : hence the appli- 

 cation of the word. Tricolor, as applied to variegated zonal Pelargo- 

 niums, has before been objected to, but it is sanctioned by use, and gene- 

 rally understood, and the leaves of such Pelargoniums contain three 

 colours in various degrees of intensity. 



Cabbage Caterpillars (Subscriber).— Those you complain of appear 

 to be the larva? of Pontia brassies, for which hand-picking is the remedy. 



Plants for Exhibition (C. R.).—We should decidedly prefer the Fern. 



Wasps.—" J. P. H." says that he has noticed for years that however 

 abunaant wasps are throughout England, it is a very unusual thing to 

 meet with one in the town of Southampton. It cannot be on account of 

 the sea air, as he has noticed in other seaport towns the grocers' and 

 other windows full of wasps at this season." If Southampton is so 

 exempt, we can assign no valid cause; but we remember the story of 

 Charles II. and the Royal Society. 



Insects (E. S. P., jun.).— The bees sent are Andrena pilipes, one of the 

 solitary nest-making species. The smaller ones are the males, which, 

 like all male insects, are destitute of a sting. (J. H).— Your Cherry 

 leaves are infested with the slimy larvae of a small black-winged species 



of saw-fly, Selandria sethiops. They may be killed with dusted lime or lime- 

 water. (E. S., Liverpool). — Your Ash trees are attacked by the small 

 and not-uncommon little beetle named Hylesinus Fraxini. Its habits 

 are quite like those of the Scolytus destructor which attacks the Elm, the 

 female depositing her eggs in the bark, and the young larvie burrowing 

 into the inner bark. If very numerous the trees might be partially 

 barked, the baik being burnt. — I. O. W. 



Names of Fruit (Sir Percy Burr ell). —The Plum is evidently a wild- 

 ing, and not referable to any cultivated variety. 



Names of Plants (Ch&teau Vallon). — We cannot say exactly what 

 your plant is from the leaf only, but suppose it to be some Anthemoid 

 Composite, some ally of the Feverfew. Cannot you send us a flower ? 

 (J. G. S.). — 1, Veronica Teucrium ; 2, 4, 5, 6, Y. longifolia and its varieties, 

 differing only in colour or variegation; 8, V. gentianoides variegata; 

 8, Some epecies of Teucrium, send when in flower ; 7, Pentstemon 

 glaucum. (Subscriber). — 1, Rhus Cotinus; 2, Hypericum chinense ; 3, 

 Geranium sanguineum. (Tyro). — Apparently Anchusa sempervirens. 

 (Foxgrove).— One of your shrubs (that in fruit) is Rhamnus Frangula, the 

 other is very doubtful, probably some' Prnnus ; send a better specimen, 

 if possible, in flower or fruit. (A Constant Reader). — 1, A narrow-leaved 

 variety of Sweet Bay, Laurus nobilis ; 2, We suppose it to be some 

 Acacia, but do not recognise it. (R. Jameson, Gargrave). — Ornithogalum 

 alliaceum. (Short Grass) — Bromus secalinns. The idea of its being 

 degenerated Oats is, we find, widely spread, but is utterly unfounded ; a 

 like fallacy in supposing Lolium temulentum to be degenerated Wheat 

 also prevails. ( S. Brierley). — Seedling state of Pteris aquilina. (Amateur). 

 Colutea arborescens. 



poultry, bee, and pigeon chronicle. 



PREVENTION OF FRAUDULENT PRACTICES 

 AT POULTRY AND BIRD SHOWS. 



The pioeeaa of incubation being completed, and the ad- 

 monition not to study one of the simple rules of arithmetic as 

 applied to poultry being removed, breeders will be legitimately 

 engaged in counting their chickens. 



In prospect of the approaching exhibition season, let me take 

 time by the forelock, and call the attention of committees to 

 the importance of legislating on the above question. Muoa 

 has been said about it, and many suggestions made with a view 

 to putting a stop to the dishonest (there is only one word for it) 

 practices of certain exhibitors. I cannot now refer to the 

 articles, for though I have the index to the last volume of the 

 Journal, unfortunately that is all I have, as I either give away 

 my weekly numbers, or lend them, which amounts to the same 

 in the end. But if my memory serves me correctly, nobody 

 seems to have prescribed a specific for this loathsome form of 

 moral disease, while those who do recommend some mild kind 

 of medicine, either do it as if with a desire not to hurt the sen- 

 sitive feelings of their patients, or administer it in such a way 

 that its effects are not felt. Cautions and hints are only gentle 

 aperients, and the disease can only be met by strong purgatives. 



One correspondent, taking what I think is a correct view of 

 the matter, suggested that action should commence with the 

 committee of management, and said he should hail with satis- 

 faction the appearance of a schedule with stringent rules affect- 

 ing the subject under consideration. A prize list with regu- 

 lations worded in general terms, implying that specimens must 

 be shown honestly, is issued, but no special punishment for an 

 infringement of this necessary requirement is attached. On 

 this head all is vague, and in many cases the extreme penalty 

 is the disqualification of the single pen or specimen in the 

 quietest manner possible, not to alarm intending purchasers, 

 and so spoil the market, and when any disagreeable work has 

 to be done, the judge is expected to take it on his shoulders. 

 It is no part of hiB office. When any case of more than ordi- 

 nary barefaced impudence occurs, when a manufactured bird 

 appears in borrowed plumes, or minus his surplus plumage, or 

 daubed up to such an extent that the paint " comes off in 

 lumps," as I once heard it remarked, then comes the ory that 

 the judge ought to do this, and the judge ought to do that, and 

 the judge ought to do the other thing. It is quite a mistake. 

 The judge should do nothing of the sort. It is his duty to 

 award prizes and detect frauds, and nothing else. He has no 

 right even to put " disqualified" on a pen, or as much as to 

 mark with his pencil a card or a label. His awards and re- 

 marks should be handed in to the committee, and it is for them 

 to infliot the punishment which the rules say shall be inflicted. 

 Then let the rules be stringent. It is the pusillanimity of com- 

 mittees which alone is to blame for the demoralised state of 

 things existing in our shows unchecked, which allows exhibit- 

 ors convicted of fraudulent doings still to carry on their ne- 

 farious trade in the most unblushing manner, and I grieve to 

 say, that in discussion with men in whom I might have ex- 

 pected to find a higher tone of exhibitionising morality, I have 



