396 



JOURNAL OF HOBTIOULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ November 22, 1877. 



inserting some stout poles or battens at intervals of the length, 

 or nearly so, of roofing laths — " rock lats," my old handy man 

 cals them. Let the uprights be 2J feet from the base of the 

 trees slanting to a foot from the hedge at the top, or rather a 

 little above the top, to secure head room. Secure the tops of 

 the uprights together by cross pieces ; now from upright to 

 upright fasten the long light roofing laths, and the skeleton is 

 complete and ready for the net. I have always employed old 

 fish nets, wlL'h are both cheap and strong, and I have had no 

 difficulty in obtaining them 18 feet wide. These placed over 

 the framework before the fruit shows colour remain there until 

 it is gathered. The birds are thus baffled, no loss of time 

 occurs in netting and unnetting daily, and Cherry-picking 

 becomes a pleasure. 



Now that the time of fruit-tree planting has arrived, and 

 since Cherries are scarce in so many gardens and birds nu- 

 merous, it may be opportune, perhaps, to mention what I con- 

 ceive to be the best, method of growing this much-esteemed 

 fruit ; at any rate if any cultivator can propound a better 

 plan — one more easy, certain, and enjoyable, I shall be glad to 

 hear of it. Morellos do excellently as espaliers, and require 

 little or no protection from birds ; at least our birds do not 

 appear to like them.— A Nobthebn Gabdexee. 



HOSE SHOWS. 



WHY DO NOT KOBE SHOWS PAY? CAN KOSE SHOWS BE MADE 

 TO PAY? 



These questions are often in people's mouths, and engage 

 interest and amuse many besides rosarians, and as I believe 

 them to be questions for the purse-string-holding public to 

 have a voice in, though, as I intend to show, by no means to 

 answer, kindly open the columns of the Eose Journal to a fair 

 discussion and better understanding than now appears to exist. 



As one of the public I have always had a fancy for Bose 

 shows, and rejoice to know that I am by no means singular 

 in this respect. Ladies young and ladies not quite young 

 vow Rose shows to be their pet exhibitions. Most men of 

 refined tastes and the least capacity for quiet enjoyment affect 

 them, and yet Bose shows are not sufficiently popular, with 

 hardly an exception, to keep a balance on the right side. Oar 

 modern Jupiter is aware of this feeling, and published to the 

 world last July how consistently it went with the times, by re- 

 porting in three lines and a half the event of the Great 

 National Bose Show in St. James' Hall, at the foot of a 

 paragraph detailing at length the proceeding of two general 

 London exhibitions. It is easy to say, " Do not be in a hurry ; 

 give the public good permanent Bose shows and they are certain 

 to pay. Does not a good article always create and keep-up a 

 market ?" Has this been the case as yet with Bose shows ? 

 Ugly facts say not. Bose shows of undoubted excellence have 

 existed at Birmingham, Manchester, Wisbech, &c. Some for 

 years made a struggle for existence — notably Birmingham. 

 "Where are they now ? Consigned to that limto, alas ! where 

 many others in a moribund condition (he would be a bold 

 man indeed to particularise), must descend, who are now pub- 

 lishing, as I once read in the Journal " Wild Savage " in 

 grim humour stated, only " id. balance " sheets. As a humble 

 unit of tli9 public, and I confess at once I do not belong to 

 that favoured coterie who write grandiloquently about " the 

 fair denizens of Flora's court," or " the roseate majesty of the 

 queen of flowers " (it is the clerical element which comes out 

 so remarkably strong in this line I cannot help noticing with 

 a smile), but as one who haa formed a tolerably strong opinion 

 on the present state of Bose shows in a financial aspect. 



I hold that Bose shows with the present large prize lists 

 cannot pay. This is my solution to the first question, and 

 until such exhibitions become popular with the masses, edu- 

 cated as conservative working men to the Dizzy heights of 

 floricnltural as well as political refinement, and inhabiting Dr. 

 Richardson's new City of Health, I respectfully submit they 

 ought thus organised never to be expected to pay. It was 

 Wisbech, if my memory be true, which took the sad initiative 

 some six or seven years ago in offering a big prize of £20 to 

 big nurserymen, and which Bose show has since succumbed, 

 like the venal and too confiding maid in clastic lore, under the 

 fatal weight of her own golden bribe. Other provincial Rose 

 shows have teen compelled ever since to bid in equally high 

 terms to insure competition, courting eventually sooner or 

 later the same inevitable doom. Analogous examples are not 

 wanting out of the pale of floral enterprise. The provinces 

 also afford a cjeo in point in the Wtst Midland Festival of the 



Three Choirs, where from a similar cause — unavoidably large 

 expenses in the management, an annual undertaking, though 

 hallowed by the sacred object of charity, would be in a pecu- 

 niary point of view an annual failure, unless by unwritten law 

 a large guarantee fund were handed over to the credit of a 

 debtor exchequer, simply because the leading artistes know 

 their value and ask such exorbitant sums that pecuniary success 

 is well-nigh impossible. 



Disagreeable subjects, as a rule, cannot be forgotten too 

 soon, but it is not very long ago that this great clamour 

 for big prizes crippled the career of the Royal Horticultural 

 and Botanical Societies' exhibitions, which, now revised and 

 encouraged with fair reasonable prize lists, far outstrip the 

 former palmiest efforts, and are year aftar year a source of 

 credit to the management, of pleasure to our home and foreign 

 visitors, as well as of well-deserved pride and satisfaction to 

 our leading exhibitors, who can now read in each group of 

 plants they stage the least expensive, widest distributed, and 

 most remunerative advertisement. Why, then, cannot Rose 

 exhibitions be made to pay by adopting this successful prece- 

 dent ? — (1), By Rose nurserymen agreeing to exhibit — because 

 no Rose show is worthy of the name as a school of art both 

 attractive and improving without their exhibits; (2), and ex- 

 hibit for considerably reduced prizes — because no Rose show 

 in town or country can pay its way unless they consent to do 

 so. I grant that great differences, obstacles, and inequali- 

 ties exist, and some private sacrifices must be made in the 

 cause ; but granting that in the season for Rose shows being so 

 short, distances often so long, and railway trains and service to 

 and from the provinces so tortuous and unaccommodating (to 

 metropolitan Rose shows there never was or will be lack of 

 exhibitors), we find a reason; still I fail to allow these as 

 an excuse for so few nurserymen exhibiting at provincial Rose 

 shows. If Rose nurserymen hold the key of the position, and 

 I as one of the public Effirm they do, then they have the game 

 in their own hands — e.g., the whole future of Rose shows, and 

 with them it lies to unlock this well-worn difficulty which has 

 hitherto baffled the efforts, however persevering or judicious, 

 of every energetic honorary secretary, and under the present 

 system of prizes must continue to do so. It is not often that 

 public patriotism and private interests go hand in hand ; in 

 this case they do. 



The present enormous and yearly increasing sale of Roses 

 mainly oweB its origin and continuance to Rose exhibitions. 

 Shall the parent unnaturally be done to death by its own 

 offspring, and that in the Rose nurseries of England ? Rather 

 let their fosterfathers take the question in their own hands 

 and answer in the affirmative courteously and successfully, as 

 they know so well how to do, the long-vexed question, Can 

 Rose shows pay ? asked by — One of the Public. 



NOTES ON VEGETABLES. 



The summer just closed (if it deserves the name), has been 

 most remarkable for the dearth of fruit. The kitchen garden 

 crops also have been considerably affected by its peculiarities, 

 and while my memory is fresh I will notice a few of its effects 

 upon the different crops. To begin alphabetically : Artichokes 

 have been abundant and good, the older plantations lasting in 

 bearing to the present time ; and this is fortunate, for the 

 spring-planted roots on which we depend for the late-autumn 

 supply have this season done nothing. Asparagus, which 

 promised in February to be very early, was, after all, very late, 

 and the season consequently short ; many of the heads also 

 were injured by frost, and altogether it was not up to the usual 

 standard. There was a danger of the crowns not getting ripe 

 this autumn, but the fine September did an immense amount 

 of good for this crop as well as for many others. Some roots 

 placed in the forcing house are starting very freely. French 

 Beans and Scarlet Runners were late, but were good and 

 abundant when they did come. In this respect we were mora 

 fortunate than many of our northern friends, some of whom 

 indeed have not been able to gather a dish outside at all. 



Spring Broccoli was good, and the autumn crop (Snow's 

 and Veitch's Autumn Protecting), which at one time lagged 

 behind, as did, indeed, all the Brassicas, has commenced turn- 

 ing-in and is very fine. The first-named has been a good old 

 friend, but I think it must give place to Yeitch's Autumn Pro- 

 tecting, which turn«-ii at the same time, or it may be a few 

 days earlier, is larger "and of equally good quality. Probably, 

 too, it will prove hardier. Brussels Sprouts, sown in February 

 in a Potato frame, were fit for gathering in September, and 



