138 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTtTEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEfi. 



r August 1G, 18G4. 



Heating a Vinery {D.P.B.). — If we understand you a-right, your house, 

 90 feet long, is nut built on the level, but on the slope, of the ground, and 

 that the difference in direct level, irom the one end to the other, is 8 feet. 

 If so you must piace your boiler at the lowest end, and allow your pipes to 

 rise to the other end just as your ground slopes. You need no particular 

 boiler. You will need an open cistern, higher than the pipes, at the 

 farther end, or else an open nir-pipe there. Fill the boiler and pipes, and 

 light your fire, and you will find that the rise of the pipes will cause the 

 circulation to be more rapid. For keeping out frost two four-inch pipes 

 would do. For early forcing you would need three or four pipes. Of these 

 we would only have one return, and the oiher flows; and they may all be 

 on the same level, except where they issue from and join the boiler, tbe fluw 

 proceeding from the top, and the return going to the bottom of the boiler. 



Vegetables Running to Seed {A Subscriber).— If you read " Doings of 

 the Last Week," you will most likely find out the reason — namely, hot 

 weather and deficiency of water. Many times such plants are starved in 

 the seed-beds, and are likely to bolt, after planting, even though you can 

 give them water. When plants cannot grow freely, so as to make leaves 

 and leaf-buds, in self delence they resolve to perpetuate their kind by 

 throwing up flower-uterus and buds. 



Kitchen and Flowed. Gardening (A Constant Reader). — Reading, 

 without practice, will never make you a gardener. You should place your- 

 self under the tuiiion of some competent person before you venture to 

 manage an establishment for yourself. 



Orchard-house Peachks Failing— Evergreen Climbers [W. L.). — 

 Perhaps the wood of the Peach trees was imperfectly ripened. Are you 

 sure the roots were not too dry when the tops were in bloom? The heat 

 Ircm the flue will do good in autumn. The various Ivies would look well 

 against such a wall and so would the ^Magnolias, if you are warm enough, 

 and would wait for them to grow. 



Books {A Clifton Subscriber). — A new edition of the "Fruit Manual" 

 will appear ere long, but we cannGtyet say when. {E. !£.). — The '• Cottage 

 Gardeners' Dictionary" gives directions for the management of stove and 

 greenhouse plants. For full instructions on the management of particular 

 species, consult the pages of this Journal and the " Florist and Pomologist. 1 ' 

 There is no special work on the subject which is up to the times. 



Names of Fruit {J. F. N.)— Your Gooseberries were too much bruised 

 for determination, but they appeared to be Crown Bob. 



Names of Plants. — Although happy to oblige our correspondents when- 

 ever possible, they often send such miserable scraps as to render the deter- 

 mination of tbe species very difficult, if not impossible. {S. A. P.).— No. 5, 

 Zebrina pendula, named last week, is better known as Cyanotic* vittata. 

 (P. Selby, Birmingham).— A Portulacaceous plant, but it is impossible to 

 determine its name without a proper specimen in flower. ( iV. L-). — 

 Stuartiapentagynia; Cladrastristirictoria is a native of Kentucky and Tennes- 

 see. {Chemicus). — Both Todea pellucida and Lomaria falcataaxe exotic Ferns, 

 the former being from New Zealand and the hitter from Tasmania. As far 

 as we can judge from the immature frond sent, the latter is correctly named. 

 (Nos a Dolez).— The Aloe, we presume, is A. americana var. variegata, but it 

 is hard to say from the tip of a leaf aloue. 



POULTRY, BEE, and HOUSEHOLD CHRONICLE. 



JOTTINGS. 



(Continued from page 118.) 

 Aptek the steady and anxious have left the town, the 

 streets and show-yard are occupied by a different class. 

 Shops are closed, and the young men swell the numbers of 

 spectators ; the country people after a certain time are ad- 

 mitted gratis, and then begins the hurry of the show-yard. 

 It is half-past four, and it closes at six. The band of the 

 200th is fagged, or, as a matter-of-fact countryman said, 

 "tired of too-too-rooing." The real middle-class agricul- 

 tural element has disappeared, and Sponge's Lovior, the 

 country-town swell, has taken the place — no improvement. 

 The hearty quarrels of the herdsmen, many under the in- 

 fluence of John Barleycorn, come quite refreshing on the 

 ear. They do not go the length of the two-year-olds and 

 three-year-olds in Ireland, but they are very pretty little 

 feuds as they stand. " Giles woant tell all as he eood about 

 that whoite bull as has fust, but he cood an he wood ; " 

 and Tummas answers, "Speak up, and speak out mun; 

 ye've been telling all you knows for years, and you's thinner, 

 and yer children wuss fed." Then Giles whispers to two or 

 three, and they all inspect the white bull, and many shake 

 their heads ; and then one points to a particular mark, and 

 Tummas sees it, and says, " I knows he's bad there, and he 

 looks older, but he yaint." Then there's a sort of murmur- 

 ing, and one of the young men from the town comes up 

 with friends, or, as " Immortal Will " has it, " accompanied ;" 

 and after knowingly handling the bull (we got sadly kicked 

 at that exercise once), he says, with a grave air, and all the 

 aplomb of an authority, "A first-prize bull should, like 

 Csesar's wife, be above suspicion." " Gie us your hand," says 

 Giles, but our townsman is wise, and had " skedaddled " as 

 soon as he delivered himself of the oracle. " What did'n 

 say ? " says Tummas, who was not deaf, but what they call 

 "hard of hearing," which means he would not know he was 

 in danger from a goods train till he felt it. " What did'n 



say, and whose wife was he talking about ? " "Tours," said 

 a bystander. " He makes a mistake," says Tummas, " for 

 I never was married." 



It is wonderful how towards the close of the day the 

 eloquence of the men in charge increases, and what faults 

 they find with the winners. The contest runs between the 

 youth of the town and the matured wisdom of the country. 

 " Brahmas beat everything in the way of fowls," says a 

 poultryman. " Do they lay twice a-day ? " says a townsman. 

 "Always," is the answer, "except Sundays and holidays."' 

 Townsman evaporates. 



Then the time comes for removing the stock. Little 

 knots form round the prize animals, and many a hardly- 

 earned sixpence is spent to decorate the prize bull or horse 

 with ribbons, that his success may be apparent to all. " I 

 hope," says a beaten man, " you have made your great coarse 

 animal fine enough, with all your bows and rosettes. I 

 never did like him, and I don't." "Never mind, don't be 

 jealous; go and borrow a hat-band, and put round yours." 



Without any disorder, or ill feeling, the scene is entirely 

 changed from what it was a few hours before. The masters 

 are gone, the Committee men are at the dinner. The ladies 

 went with the band. Here and there animals are seen 

 moving across the ground. Carts are admitted to fetch 

 poultry and sheep. Implements are being packed prepara- 

 tory to removal. The task of keeping order devolves on the 

 policemen, who do it well, and give notice to clear the 

 ground. 



The crowds are now scattered over the town — harvest for 

 the inns and public-houses. The countrymen are growing- 

 more demonstrative, and such groups as many of those in 

 Wilkie's inimitable "Village Festival" are to be seen every- 

 where. It is, however, inoffensive, and remains strictly 

 agricultural. The merits of crops, animals, and ploughing, 

 form all the conversation. Daucing-booths, rifle-galleries, 

 photographic studios, fortunetellers, present their charms 

 to the lads and younger men, and the recruiting sergeant 

 plies a good trade. When we were young there were such 

 things as ballads. We recollect that close to Harewood 

 Gates, in Oxford, a man used to decorate the whole of the 

 dead wall with rows of ballads, pinned on strings. In 

 London such things have passed away, to make room for 

 the *■ Darkie's Album," "The Songster's Companion," &c. ; 

 but in the country there is still a sale, and a man and 

 woman singing an old song to an old tune find a ring of 

 listeners, and flocks of customers. From the public-houses, 

 choruses, wherein the " Bold Drag-goon," and " Delight of a 

 Shiny Wight " play a principal part, are heard. The men 

 leading home the prize animals are treated wherever they 

 go, till at last they are obliged to admit " they never knowed 

 that horse go so crooked afore ■„ why he went right across 

 the street, and stumbled ever so many times ! " 



Peace gradually creeps over the little town, and save that 

 now and then some " wildish fellows " gallop down the 

 streets, and a distant noisy chorus is heard, nothing would 

 remain to remind one of a busy day. 



The improvised avenue looks sadly the next morning ; the 

 flags seem out of place without crowds. It is with the town 

 as with a moderate family after the annual "party," it is 

 putting-away day. 



THE AGRICULTURAL HALL POULTRY SHOW 

 AND THE POULTRY CLUB. 



I see in your Journal of last week that Mr. Tudman invites 

 your correspondents to "communicate directly," and they 

 shall have all the information he can give. 



In the middle of last month I wrote to Mr. Tudman 

 asking him for the rules and regulations of the Poultry 

 Club, with the view of becoming a member, adding some 

 questions so like the suggestions put out by " Egomet " 

 that they would appear to come from the same person. 



The answer I received was to the effect that the rules and 

 regulations of the Poultry Club are available to members 

 only — that the Club finds judges only for poultry shows, 

 and that " they are not in any way responsible for the prize 

 list, nor do they get up shows." 



If the Poultry Club are not answerable for the prize list, 

 nor do they get up shows, how is it that the prize list of 



