JOUENAIi OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAitDEKEE. 



[ July 12, 18&1 



Melon Plants Shedding their Fruit (J. M. Gileanach).—Vfe think 

 extra luxuriance i3 the cause of your Melons dropping, and so early. 

 Lessen luxuriance by giving less bottom heat, no more water than will 

 juEt keep the leaves from flagging, and plenty of air day and night, if at 

 the latter period the atmospheric temperature dn not fall below 65° and from 

 that to 60°. No doubt the roots run too freely in your rich turf and cocoa- 

 nut fibre. We are obliged by the information about Broom and caterpillars. 



Musa Catendishii Culture (Z>. 67.).— Your Musa Cavendishii is doing 

 well. Eighty fruit is a goodly number to swell well, and Nature seems to be 

 doing what she expected to get some help in doing. A higher temperature, of 

 from 75" to 85°, will not cause more fruit to set, but thinning them much 

 may do so. "When your plant has fruited, it is best to encourage it to make 

 a sucker or two; then take it up, detach the young plant, plant it in new fresh 

 soil, and ere long it will rival its parent. This is a better plan than keeping 

 the old stumps. It is not common yet to have fruitful cones on the Welling- 

 touia. 



Names of Fruit (Thomas Record) .—The Strawberries we should sayare 

 both Keens' Seedling, but it is impossible to tell from a few fruit only, 

 particularly as there are now so many sorts very similar to that variety. 

 The Grape is Black Prince. (John Crofts).— No 2, Elruge Nectarine; 

 3, Barrington; 5, Royal Goorge. We got in confusion with Nos. 1 and 4 

 That which is quite pale at the stone is Noblesse, and that which is red is 

 Red Magdalene. 



Names of Plants [W. S. Mayne\— The white flower is a Watsonia. not 

 a Gladiolus, but we cannot say which species without seeing the plant. 

 The Bhrub is Ozotbamnus thyrsoideus, D. C. (Y. Z.). — I, Lastrea decurrens, 

 J. Sm. ; 2, Lastrea dilatata, Presl., perhaps the variety Standishi ; but the 

 specimen is too young to enable us to speak with certainty ; 3, Erinus 

 alpinus ; 4, a Begonia, we cannot say which species, for there are up- 

 wards of 350 known to botanists, and none of them can be accurately named 

 from a single withered leaf; 5, Litobrochia vespertilioriis, J. Sm. ; 6, Sela- 

 ginella cuspidata, Link. (S. S. IF,, Heading) . — 1, Lastrea spinulosa, Presl. ; 

 2, L. Filix-mas, var, paleacea, Moore. You will find Lastrea rigida in the 

 "British Ferns," published at our office. L. quinquangulare is not in 

 either of our Fern books, and we cannot refer you to any English description 

 of it. It is said to be from West Africa, and is allied to L. deeomposita, of 

 "which, indeed, some authors consider it a variety. It was first named and 

 described by Kunze in the volume of the "Linnsea' 1 for 1850. (S. A. P.). — 

 I, Impossible to name the Lobelia from such a miserable scrap ; 2, Farsetia 

 suffruticosa, D.C. ; 3, Cerastium tomentosum, L. ; 4, Phlox maeulata, var. 

 Candida, Bth. ; 5, Helianthemnm, sp. (Marple).-l, Polystichum aculea- 

 tum (both) ; 2, too young to be recognised; 3, Alcheniilla, vulgaris, L. 

 (TT. i.).— Cladrastis tinctoria, Raf. 



POULTRY, BEE, and HOUSEHOLD CHRONICLE. 



POULTRY CLUB JUDGES. 



1 have a letter before me from Mr. Hewitt, stating that 

 lie communicated to you privately respecting his being a 

 judge to the Poultry Club, and how you can justify the way 

 in which you have published the correspondence I am at a 

 loss to know. The whole tenor of your remarks appears to 

 have no other object in view than to attempt to injure the 

 proceedings of the Poultry Club, in proof of which, I beg 

 to quote the following extracts from Mr. Hewitt's letter to 

 me, dated 30th June : — 



"I can assure you that it is impossible for any one to feel 

 more annoyed than I do at the paragraph in question, nor 

 could any one be more astonished. About the date of your 

 first letter I received from Mr. Dolby two letters, requesting 

 me to aid the proposed Islington Show, by a notice in The 

 Journal oe Horticulture. I wrote one, as customary, 

 sent it in a separate letter; but even then, well knowing 

 there was a good deal of ' ear-wigging ' going on from the 

 rear against the Club, I wrote another letter to the Editors, 

 explaining privately that in my case the restrictions of rules 

 were removed. This letter was itself headed ' private,' 

 twice dashed, and even the envelope similarly endorsed. 

 By the next morning's post I received so very extraordinary 

 and extreme a reply of disapproval, that I actually went up 

 to London. I wrote a second, very much shorter, simply 

 stating particulars of the prize list. This, too, was virtually 

 refused, and in lieu of it eventually the paragraph appeared 

 in print that is justly complained of." See The Journal 

 OF Horticulture of the 28th of June. 



Such an uncalled-for publication of a private and confi- 

 dential correspondence appears to me to be a great breach 

 of faith. 



Wishing to secure the services of such an upright Judge 

 as Mr. Hewitt, I was anxious to make any sacrifice to meet 

 his views, and the offer to waive the rules was merely a 

 tribute to the great ability and acknowledged experience of 

 the greatest poultry judge in the world — a tribute which no 

 other judge may ever expect. 



Allow me finally to state that three members of the Club 

 have consented to act as judges, who have been the most 

 extensive breeders and successful exhibitors in the kingdom ; 

 bo that you will find, probably, not as you imagine, that the 



rules of the Club are inoperative, and their application an 

 impossibility, but the reverse. — Edwd. Tudman, An Son. 

 Sec. to Poultry Club. 



[We very readily insert this communication. It is quite 

 true that Mr. Hewitt's letter was marked " private," but as 

 we had seen him subsequently, and stated the substance of 

 what we should say in the first notice of his appointment, 

 and to which he did not object, we considered it only due to 

 him to state what we did in our second notice. We think 

 the Club quite right, as you say, in securing the benefit of 

 his great ability and acknowledged experience, and we are 

 quite sure he will act independently. 



So far are we from wishing to injure the Poultry Club, 

 that we hope it may succeed in establishing many exhibi- 

 tions, and that the awards of the judges it appoints may be 

 satisfactory. What we object to is any competent judge (and 

 no other should be appointed), being bound to adhere to 

 rules rather than to the dictates of his own experienced 

 judgment.] 



HEAPING CHICKENS AND DUCKLINGS. 



I sympathise with " A. K. C." as to the loss of his Dork- 

 ing chickens. The boundless range and over-feeding are 

 most likely the cause. I have found, in breeding poultry, 

 that the Dorking and Spanish are the most difficult to rear. 

 " A. K. C." will do well to confine his chickens, with the 

 hen, in a coop, away from old dead rotten wood, and not 

 where fungi and worms abound. Feed them upon rice boiled 

 in milk, and, as a change, give sharps and oatmeal mixed 

 with milk, the milk to be sweet ; skimmed milk will do. 



" A Farmer's Wife" will do better to keep only one drake 

 to six Ducks. Kill one of the drakes, and if she likes keep 

 one of the young ones of this year's brood. I have one drake 

 to four Aylesbury Ducks. My troops of young Ducks range 

 from sixteen to thirty-two ; ninety-nine in all, out of 132 eggs. 

 All are fed with boiled rice and meal. — J. D. 



POULTRY" JUDGING. 



Who is not glad to see "Wiltshire Rectos," whether it 

 be in his practical remarks, or his New Tear's Eve Dream? 

 I read, and read again, and, on seeing "Wiltshire Eector" 

 at the end, am generally disposed to agree to all he writes ; 

 but in his " Pules for Poultry Judging," I cannot go with 

 him. I have thought this subject over once and again, but 

 I do not see how you are to make the living individuality 

 which goes to make up the judge merge into the machine, 

 which he must. become if he is to judge by a certain code of 

 rules, with which, possibly, he may not agree. 



On a matter of opinion, it is difficult to force any person 

 to act contrary to his own notions. But, go further — frame 

 your rules, place them in the hands of every poultry-breeder, 

 and it must still rest with the judge to determine : it is his 

 individual opinion which must decide the merits — whether, 

 for instance, that pen which is evenly matched is not more 

 entitled to the coveted honour than that which has one or, 

 perhaps, two perfect birds, agreeing to the "code of laws " 

 in every particular. 



Again, the value of the points in each separate bird must 

 be considered as minutely as the Chinese painter measured 

 the distance between the small-pox marks on the old gentle- 

 man's face, that he might transfer them to the canvas in- 

 tended for presentation to his lady love. What reception 

 will this minuteness receive at the hands of unsuccessful 

 exhibitors ? Why, very much like that bestowed on the 

 poor Chinaman, who was unceremoniously kicked down 

 stairs by his rather testy sitter when the discovery was 

 made. It is "agin natur," as Sam Slick would say, for 

 others to discover faults in birds, whose faults, by constant 

 glossing over, we the owners have learnt rather to like than 

 otherwise. This, perhaps, applies much more closely to 

 " exhibitors in a small way ; " we have not the unlimited 

 means to buy the perfect specimens, and must in some 

 measure be content with what we can produce. 



When "Wiltshire Eector" says, "I have heard an 

 exhibitor remark, ' I do not know whether I shall take any 

 prizes at this show; they depend upon who is the judge. 

 Mr. A likes my sort of birds, &c.' " This may be so ; but 



