333 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November 17, 1S70. 



Cherries succeed well on a south wall. Rose Celine Forestier would thrive 

 well against the east side of your house if planted in good soil and watered 

 well both at the root and overhead in dry weather. The varieties of 

 Gladiolus gandavensis in heavy soils should be taken up now and be 

 planted again from March to May. but so soon after the middle of March 

 as the soil is in good condition. We know of no Apples that do well on a 

 north wall. The Morello Cherry does exceedingly well on that aspect, 

 and so do Currants. We think 10 feet quite high enough for pyramid 

 Pear trees, for when higher they are not only difficult to prune, but the 

 fruit on the upper part is liable to be injured by wind. In exposed situ- 

 ations we consider bushes preferable to pyramids. 



Fumes of Coke and Charcoal (H. F.).— They will in j ure all your plants, 

 and probably destroy some. 



Wintering Plants rs- A Room (Saint Georae).— We do not know of 

 anything for keeping out frost that would serve you so well as the fire 

 grate. You might safely have a fire all night by using a fire-guard. 

 There is no apparatns that would suit the room and he available for a 

 greenhouse. When you have the greenhouse we would have a small 

 boiler, and two 4-ineh hot-water pipes along the front and one end, with 

 a stokehole outside. 



Guernsey Lilies nor Flowering {A. F.).— It is unusual for these to 

 flower the second year, for the roots suffer considerably on being taken 

 up. You did right to keep them growing last winter after flowering, but 

 it was a mistake to keep them quite dry in the pots. You should have 

 set them on pans filled with sand kept wet, even after the foliage was all 

 gone, not, however, giving any water by the surface, but from the wet 

 sand the pots would have derived some moisture. In August vou shook 

 out the bnlbs and potted in fresh soil— that was a mistake ; they ought 

 not to have been repotted, but kept in the same pots until the bulbs'bad be- 

 come so large as to burst them, and should have been kept on a shelf in 

 the greenhouse constantly. We advise you to try them that way after this. 

 ^ Gesnera splendens Shedding its Flower Buds (O. J. B.).— It is apt 

 to do so when the plants have been grown in a dry heat, and in a moister 

 one the pUnts are excited into growth, and the "buds drop, for the buds 

 being formed in a drier atmosphere, they are incapable of the expansion 

 consequent on the moist one. It is a common error to start these plants 

 in spring and grow them all through the summer, and very often in 

 vineries, where they are brought into a semi-ripened state "just when 

 they are forming their flowers, so that when thev are placed in the stove 

 for flowering, from the moist genial atmosphere, they start again for 

 growth ; the cause is, therefore, a check. We have known it caused bv 

 allowing the plants to become too dry, also from too much water, and 

 irom sudden changes of temperature. The only wav to obviate it is to 

 noi start the plants too early. May is soon enough for winter flowering, 

 and they should have a moist genial temperature, with abundance of 

 light mail their stages. 



Poinsettia Losing its Lower Leaves (Hem).— It is due to the wood 

 ripening. The only way to keep on the lower leaves is to grow the plant 

 in a good temperature, and not have any shoots hut those made after 

 June. Dwarf plants, and kept so by growing them near the glass, are 

 less liable to lose their leaves than tall plants. The plant being decidu- 

 ous, it is not possible to flower it without its losing a portion of its leaves, 

 at least we have not seen it so flowered, except in the case of small plants. 



Creeping Plant for Covering a Bank (d Hampshire Highlander).— 

 We do not think you could have anything better than Cotoneaster micro- 

 phylla; it is a neat, close-growing evergreen, producing pretty white 

 flowers in summer, and bright red berries in autumn and winter. 

 Rcegner's Ivy would also answer well, having fine large leaves. Vinea 

 elegantissima is also excellent. It has variegated foliage. 



Select Herbaceous Phloxes (B. B.).— Comtesse de Chambord, Ange 

 Gardien, L'Avenir, Madame Domage, Madame Barillet.Liervali, Madame 

 Froment, Madame Lemort, Madame La Marquise de Meronet, Madame 

 La Comtesse de Malart, Monsieur Delamere, Monsieur Domage, Monsieur 

 Linden, Monsieur Marin Saison, Monsieur Veitch, Monsieur W. Bull, 

 Queen \ictoria, Eoi des Roses, Souvenir de Berryer, Vierge Marie, Ama- 

 Mis, Aurautiaea superba, Due de Montebello, and Admiration. 



Anemone -flowered Chrysanthemums ildem). — Empress, Flenr de 

 Mane, Handel, King of Anemones, Lady Margaret, Lonis Bonamy, Mar- 

 guerite d'Anjou. Marguerite de York, Miss Eyre, St. Margaret, Nancy de 

 Sennet, and Mrs. Pethers. The training a standard Chrvsanthemum 

 requires is to remove all the shoots except one, or cut them away, and 

 Keep the plant to one stem until yon have the height required, and then 

 jataout the point of the shoot. When it makes new shoots remove all 

 but tne three uppermost, and stop them when 6 inches long,-tyin~ down 

 the shoots, but be careful not to break them. They should again be 

 stopped, but not after the middle of July. 



Names of Fruits (Centurion).—!, Much like Passe Colmar ; 2, Duchesse 

 dAngouleme; 3, Glou Morcean: 4, Conseiller de la Cour : 5, Easter 

 Beurre ; 6, Belle de Noel. (E. Jones).— We have no fruit from vou, if with 

 your own signature, or merely " J." attached. 



POULTRY, BEE, AND PIGEON CHRONICLE, 



AWARD S— TRIMMING. 

 Whatever shortcomings may fairly be urged against Mr. L. 

 VVngnt, everyone will give him credit for his unvaryin" persist- 

 ency; and though I have the well-known axiom before me as to 

 _ a man convinced against his will," I once more take up mv pen 

 m reply to his last letter. It is not difficult to reconcile his 

 first and his second correspondence. On the 20th of October 

 lie wishes "an award of very highly commended should be 

 given to all pens, and to those only, which in any ordinary 

 show would be thought worthy of a place in the orize list," 

 adding, " if, besides this, the pens highly commended were 

 arranged in their order of merit, I think all that is necessary 

 woula be done," &c, &c. ; and on November 10th he proceeds 



to say, "that if I will read his remarks again I shall see that 

 his chief suggestion was for a distinct award to be given to all 

 pens, and to tho?e only which in an ordinary competition, or 

 by intrinsic merit, deserved a prize, and that this was the point 

 on which he laid stress, and on which he wished to ask my 

 opinion, and on this Mr. Hewitt says nothing." Evidently 

 finding his ground as to the highly-commended pens untenable, 

 he now leaves them out of the case altogether. 



I should myself have been really much pleased if Mr. Wright 

 had carried out his original intention, as stated on October 10th, 

 of asking my opinion privately before mentioning it in these 

 columns, as it would have avoided a vast amount of recapitu- 

 lation and a rushing into print, contrary to my customary 

 habits and desires. I, however, give every credit that Mr. 

 Wright cannot possibly know the fall amount of my poultry 

 correspondence, for it is legion, and ofttimes when I have even 

 written for twelve consecutive hours without scarcely a moment's 

 intermission, and without desire of fee or reward — how fre- 

 quently, I say, has the very next post delivery placed me in 

 exactly the same fix in respect of poultry querists as that from 

 which I had thus laboriously extricated myself ; in fact, it is 

 not long since our postman, when delivering my letters, said 

 half playfully and half earnestly, "If the master's letters go 

 on in this way I shall soon have to bring them to him in a 

 wheelbarrow." S i ill, as Mr. Wright seems to have started a 

 new transatlantic suggestion, I purpose to give the requested 

 honest opinion as succinctly and plainly as I can do, so as to ad- 

 mit of no misconstruction. I cannot see much difference as to 

 whether pens are very highly commended or simply highly 

 commended, so long as he wishes them " arranged in their 

 order of merit," for, if these words have a meaning at all, any 

 practical judge will at once reply that this is not only awarding 

 the customary three prizes, but also the additional very highly 

 commended and the highly commended pens in " their order 

 of merit " — a task infinitely more difficult and time-taking 

 than the prizes themselves. If the intention of these avowed 

 introductions is simply to give a sufficiently close idea of the 

 state of the competition in the respective classes to would-be 

 purchasers, surely this is as f ally met by a glance at the number 

 of pens highly commended. If they appear in numbers the 

 competition is of necessity good, and if the prizes only are 

 awarded, it is equally significant that the competition was at 

 best scanty, or possibly that the prizes themselves were only 

 reluctantly awarded by the judge to the best birds present. I 

 repeat, from conviction, to carry out this new arrangement in 

 the time is utterly impossible. 



The American diploma Mr. Wright now substitutes for his 

 former designation is simply placing the same facts under fresh 

 colours. The honorary diploma card, which Mr. Wright sug- 

 gests should in print state " that in an ordinary competition 

 this pen would be worthy of a prize," will, I fear, meet with 

 as little favour at the hands of committees as at my own, 

 simply from the indisputable fact that poultry judges are 

 already far too overtaxed, and cannot bear the additional 

 feather that to a proverb destroys the powers of endurance of 

 even the camel itself. 



Not to recapitulate, I must give one other very cogent reason 

 why increased labours in the same time are most unadvisable. 

 If so many extra adjudications are to be made in the same 

 time, the far more important awards for the customary prizes 

 must of sheer necessity be proportionably hurried over and 

 slighted, which, in my humble opinion, should never for an 

 instant be entertained. 



Mr. Wright then reverts to his old theory, " trimming," and 

 states with " the results of his labours he is abundantly satis- 

 fied." If he is " abundantly satisfied," far be it from me to 

 interfere with his self-complacency; but still on " trimming " 

 he goes on to say, "Mr. Hewitt will, I think, admit there is 

 some difference, however small, between the present time and 

 two years ago." My admission is complete; some years back 

 I disqualified, and by name published the full particulars of a 

 very cobbling job by sticking in the tail feathers of a Bantam 

 cock with cobbler's wax. In the present day we have, on the 

 contrary, quite a scientific refinement on this very primitive 

 mode of procedure : it is now the manipulation of an artist, 

 the desired tail feathers are fixed to a nicety in the barrel of 

 the natural quill with quick-drying varnish. The progress we 

 have made seems to be this, as the eyes of amateurs generally 

 are specially directed to the subject, the really exquisite work- 

 manship of the trimmers of the present time is far more 

 difficult to discover, and afterwards prove to conviction, than 

 that of former days, but the intentions of those who prac- 



