THE 



GARDENERS 



t 



MAGAZINE. 



SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1898. 



NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS. 



over the whole of the United Kingdom, considerable breadths of 

 potatos have yet to be planted. As our readers were fully informed in 



Owing to the continued increase in circulation, the " Gardeners' the autumn, the home-grown crop of potatos was last year indifferent in 



Magazine " will in future go to press earlier. No advertisement can be — * ! » . , 



guaranteed insertion, or altered, unless received before Four p.m. on 



Wednesdays. 



quality and below the average in quantity, and the prices that have ruled 

 throughout the winter have clearly indicated that the deficiency was con- 

 siderable. From the official returns we now learn that this deficiency 



.000 



Notes of the Week. 



THE GHENT QUINQUENNIAL. 



The opening of the great horticultural exhibition at Ghent on the 16th 

 inst. is as usual, anticipated with an immense amount of interest 



_ & _ 



year. This decrease in quantity was due in part to a shrinkage in the 

 acreage, and in part to a lower yield per acre, the area under potatos being 

 504,914 acres, against 563,741 acres in the preceding year. With the 

 exception of 1894, this is the smallest area that has been devoted to the 

 potato crop during the past thirteen years, and this decrease in the area, 

 coupled with the fact that the yield per acre was the lowest during the 



000 tons as compared witn ^,;o2,ooo 



throughout Europe, and horticulturists, without regard to nationality, will period, is sufficient to account for the comparative scarcity of home- 

 learn with something more than an ordinary degree of satisfaction that grown supplies of potatos. The estimated total produce of potatos in 

 the gathering has the promise of surpassing in extent, in attractiveness, ------ — - 



and in interest the most successful of the previous quinquennials held by tons in 1896, or a drop of nearly one-fourth. The average yield per acre 



the Royal Botanical Society of Ghent. The schedule is more compre- is stated to be 5*38 tons for England, 5*10 tons for Wales, and 4*55 tons 



hensive than on any previous occasion, and contains upwards of seven for Scotland; giving an average for the whole of Great Britain of 5*17 



hundred classes, and these are so arranged as to ensure an adequate re- tons, as compared with 632 tons in 1896, and a ten years' average of 5-97 



presentation of every phase of horticulture, as far as it is possible to tons. From these figures it will be seen that the yield per acre was last 



represent it at this season of the year. As becomes their importance and year 1 # i 5 tons below that of 1896, and o'8 tons below the decennial average, 



interest, new plants remarkable for the beauty of their flowers or the The cultivators in Scotland suffered most severely from the unfavourable 



ornamental character of their leafage have the first division devoted climatic conditions that obtained during the period over which the growth 



to them, and as this section includes twenty-four classes the novelties of the potato extended, and in no year since the produce statistics were 



should form a large and highly interesting feature. The enormous first collected has there been so low a yield north of the Tweed. The 

 development which the cultivation of orchids has undergone of late years 



890, 



is strikingly exemplified, for whereas ten years ago orchids formed but a acre, or four and a half cwts. in excess of the average yield obtained last 

 very small part of the show, no less than seventy-two classes have been year. On the other hand, the yield per acre of the 



Welsh 



provided for these fascinating plants, and the importance of this section siderably above the minimu 



890 



is indicated by the fact that in the chief class, that for one hundred the average was only 4*43 tons, and in 1888 it was 4*5 tons. The highest 



plants, the gold medal presented by the King of the Belgians is offered recorded average for England is 675 tons per acre in 1895 ; the highest 



as the premier award. In a second class for the same number of plants average for Scotland, 6*56 tons per acre in 1887 ; and the highest average 



the premier award is an object of art, of considerable value, presented f or Wales is 6 '96 tons per acre, also in 1887. As the result of the 



by Comte de Germiny ; and in the other classes upwards of deficiency in last year's crop prices much above the average have ruled 



twenty gold medals are offered. Turning to the other sections, we ; n t h e market and these have attracted enormous supplies from abroad, 



find that there are twenty-nine classes for anthuriums and other the imports for the past three months amounting to 91,973 tons, as com- 



aroids which enjoy so high a degree of popularity in Belgium and other pare d with 5,500 tons imported in the corresponding period of last year, 



of the Continental countries ; fifty classes for palms, which constitute T h e j r j sh CY ' op was even mor e deficient than that of Great Britain, and 



an important feature of commercial horticulture at Ghent ; twenty j t mav be assume d that the shrinkage in the Irish supplies has helped 



classes for collections and single specimens of ferns ; thirty-six classes 

 for forced shrubs and herbaceous plants, and in these much that is in- 

 structive should be found ; thirty classes for greenhouse and hardy 



materially to enhance prices, for in consequence thereof Ireland has had 

 to buy large quantities of potatos both for eating and planting. It is not 

 _ . surprising that the high level of prices should have induced many 



azaieas, which are grown in such immense numbers in the Belgian cultivators to determine to plant a larger area than usual with potatos ; 

 nurseries. The more important of the other sections are those devoted but we trust the gen eral body of growers for market will proceed 

 to stove plants, cycads and pandanads, greenhouse plants, New Holland caut j ous i y j n this matter, for an undue extension of the area, which so 

 Plants, alpine and hardy herbaceous plants, bulbous and tuberous plants, eenerallv f 0 n ows a high range of prices, will have the effect of glutting 



trees and shrubs, agaves and yuccas, bouquets and table decorations, and 

 fruits. As will be gathered from the brief enumeration of its more salient 



down 



enor- 



margin for profit. 



THE AURICULA. 



The first of the special floricultural societies to hold an exhibition in 

 London is that which fosters the cultivation and exhibition of the 



features, the exhibition should not only be highly interesting and 



mously attractive, but it should afford object lessons of much value to 

 horticulturists. There is usually a goodly muster of Britishers at the 

 ' ent Quinquennial exhibitions, but it must be confessed that those of our 

 compatriots interested in horticulture have not as yet taken full advan- 

 ce of the opportunities they afford for becoming acquainted with the 



natioTf Wh,Ch ° btainS in Bel & ium > which has been aptly termed the 

 hort' n f* gardeners - The misapprehension which so generally exists in 



has TTu CirdeS as t0 the cost of a visit to the historic city of Ghent 



a , exercised a deterrent effect upon many, and it is therefore P rimula woum 36 maa ^ZZmV'n^mmT °The auricula is just now 



P- tiCal i~ Ce « be — • SSm It begins to be J active in 



auricula. While making this fine old-fashioned florists flower the 

 leading feature, other and varied representatives of the genus are invited 

 and so many beautiful and some rare species are placed before the pub he 

 Were it not for the action of this society many charming form of the 



because 



are several routes between London and Ghent, but those who 



~ y S , * = forwani with stately steps in March ; and early in 

 April, .hough sometimes earlier in tune, it commences to unfold tts 



exquisitely beautiful flowers. Meanwhile they have developed then 

 fol^e the leaves gaining in size and vigour dai y. Some leaves are 



ionagre, tne leaves — - « - 



green some have a slight powdering of white meal ; others are densely 

 covered with a snowy farina ; and the rosette of leaves becomes a striking 



by w av °f u™ g econom y with comfort may be advised to travel 

 the servic ch and Antwerp. The splendid steamers performing 



return tick tl Unsur P assed in comfort, and the cost of a second-class 

 Eastern Ra^ Ll verpool Street and other stations on the Great 



Ascribed as " about . twen ty-seven shillings, a sum that may well be 



^sit durind Very Sma11 in P ro PO r tion to the educational value of the ~ , . -^\^ 



h " long be «£T? ^ ° f thC " hibiti0 ° '° the of Ghe "'' which i ea ' Ure - ^ g TL hil 2^L»*ti™-«. destitute of meal 



.he ch,ef centre of commercia, horticulture in Be.giun, because « toso ^J^^^^b. the tube , the grey 

 Tin. . • " THE POTATO CROP. 



1 Ml "- Statistics rol 



57 recently j ss * atin S to the yield of potatos in Great Britain in 

 ne of murh "- e by the Boar <i of Agriculture, are at the present 



type 



save xnai zuuc ui , . 



edges have in some instances mealed foliages of greater or lesser density ; 

 the white edges are mainly mealed, the leaves of some very heavily ; 



of the selfs have leaves largely sprinkled with farina; 



many 



others have foliage destitute of it 



What particular purpose 



advanced 



oincrs nave lunagv, — — — — L - 



this silvery meal serves in the economy of Nature, is a matter not easy ot 



