20G 
GRAFTING OF OLD TREES. 
moisture, ff thoy do not bloom, but show 
signs of growth, by all means encourage 
them; and if no action is perceived by a 
fair and reasonable time in the spring, submit 
lliem to the same treatment, and get, if 
possible, a good crop of haves, as the most 
likely precursors of bloom in the following 
season. The bulbs should be potted in light 
sandy loam, and the pots, of course, must be 
well drained. 
STANDARD FOR JUDGES. 
PROPERTIES OF CUCUMBERS. 
There never was, at any period, a more 
general disposition to judge flowers and plants 
by some given standard ; and, although inter- 
ested in the consistency of the papers which 
have appeared on the subject in the Gardener 
and Practical Florist, we have a great desire 
to see any improvement that ingenuity and 
experience can suggest, in any of the standards 
laid down ; because all well-wishers to the 
science of Floriculture must agree that it is 
perfectly unimportant whether Mr. A. or 
Mr. B. has the credit of founding a system : 
the grand object is, and should be, to get the 
best standard adopted. For this purpose, we 
court discussion in all Societies, as to the 
proper standard to be adopted, and we shall 
be glad to meet the wishes of anybody who 
will take upon himself to improve what has 
been already written ; but objections must be 
founded on principle, and reasons assigned for 
differing. But Societies ought, without delay, 
to consider whether any change for the better 
can be made from that which has been already 
laid down, and let us have the benefit of their 
objections; but if not, — if they find that there 
can be nothing suggested different from the 
present standard, that ivould be at the same 
time an improvement, then the Society should 
at once announce, as many respectable ones 
have already done, that their productions 
shall be judged thereby. If there could be 
any objections urged, it would lead to dis- 
cussion, and discussion would lead to a con- 
clusion, which conclusion should be manifest 
in the Society's rules. It is a curious circum- 
stance, that almost all rules for the judgment 
of productions made before the set published 
in the Practical Florist, were indefinite. Take 
an instance, even, of more modern legislation, 
if we may call it so. The Ipswich Society 
put forth a standard, as it was called, for a 
cucumber ; a standard which enabled the 
showers to put forward specimens (without 
offending against the rules of taste therein 
adopted) both ugly and preposterous. What 
was this standard ? " Length." Length the 
standard of beauty ! A more indefinite, mis- 
taken notion was never propounded ; a more 
monstrous fancy never was indulged. Imagine 
a cucumber six feet long, if it were also equal 
and straight : these, so far as form was con- 
cerned, were beauties ; but as unconditional 
length was and is their standard, a twelve- 
feel cucumber would beat a six-feet specimen. 
Thickness ? Never thought of. A six-feet 
cucumber, as thick as one's finger, was to 
beat a five-feet one as large as one's wrist ; 
for, among the qualifications which accompany 
this said length, the diameter is never men- 
tioned : no, " length," combined with colour 
and equality, and various other points — some, 
by the way, very ridiculous ; for instance, as 
if it were desirable to waste as much of the 
rind as possible, they require it to be 
slightly ribbed. Now, what arc the points 
laid down in the standard now universally 
followed ? Length, nine diameters; skin, 
smooth; spines, black, and the thicker the 
better ; colour, dark green ; bloom, perfect ; 
shape, round ; equal the rvhofo length, except 
half a diameter for the neck, and half a 
diameter for the nose ; the flower remaining 
on the fruit, and the fresher the better. 
These are points which nobody can mistake ; 
the handsomest fruit that has been seen, and 
thousands have been measured, were nine 
diameters long ; and even the Ipswich Society, 
which has committed such an error in th^ir 
unlimited length, without a word about thick- 
ness, has actually been betrayed into awarding 
prizes according to the standard we have 
quoted, instead of judging by their own. We 
have conversed with some of these Cucumber 
gentlemen, and they see and admit it was an 
oversight, and that nine diameters in length 
is much more handsome than eight and a half 
or nine and a half could be, and that brings 
us pretty close home to correctness. "We have 
only mentioned this circumstance to show that 
even experienced growers can overlook essen- 
tial points, which one who makes properties 
of such things his study does not, and that 
the sooner we have but one standard the 
better. 
THE GRAFTING OF OLD TREES. 
Majs t y people are indiscriminately cutting 
down old trees, to graft them with new 
varieties. Now, it is possible to be wrong in 
this ; for one of the first requisites is a healthy 
stock; and in nine out of ten cases the fruit-tree 
fails on account of the root, and not on account 
of the branches. In other words, the cankered 
branches and blighted fruit, or the failure of 
fruit altogether, is the result of something 
wrong below. We do not mean to say that 
there are not cases of unhealthy varieties in 
healthy stocks ; but this may chiefly be known 
by the stock itself making vigorous efforts to 
grow, and being healthy and sound in its 
