March 19, 1885, ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
231 
Bristol, Yeovil, York, Chelmsford, Canterbury, Dorset, and Lincoln 
Chrysanthemum Societies have already become affiliated with this one 
on the terms we have previously announced. 
- “ D.” writes—“At the Royal Gardens at Kew we lately noticed 
that two large borders had been specially set apart as an Agricultural 
Experiment Ground. Plots of ground a yard or two square, and twelve 
in each border have been sown with what are generally known to be 
twelve bad and twelve good fodder Grasses. The following is a list as 
copied from the labels :—Bad: Holcus lanatus, Hordeum pratense, 
Lolium italicum, L. perenne, Anthoxanthum Puelii, Triticum repens, Poa 
pratensis, Bromus mollis, Aira flexuosa, Aira csespitosa, Alopecurus 
agrestis, and Molinia coerulea. Good : Poa nemoralis, Avena flavescens, 
Anthoxanthum odoratum, Cynosurus cristatus, Dactylis glomerata, 
Festuca elatior, Festuca duriuscula, F. pratensis, Phleum pratense, Poa 
trivialis, Agrostis stolonifera, and Alopecurus pratensis. We sadly want 
experiments with not only Grasses but other plants that are likely to 
prove valuable for fodder, and that in such a way, too, as will leave no 
doubt as to their relative values for the purpose.” 
- In the notice of the Hull Chrysanthemum Society last week 
the Chairman’s name should have been Mr. George Bohn, not Bond, as 
it was accidentally printed. 
- A correspondent, “ F. T. L.,” informs us that he has a Grand 
Maitre Hyacinth growing in water, which has thrown up ten flowering 
spikes, the effect being very fine, and he asks for our opinion. Our 
opinion is that there are as many spikes as could reasonably be expected 
from one bulb, and we are glad “F. T. L.” is so well satisfied with his 
specimen. 
- The Wimbledon Royal Horticultural Society’s thirteenth 
annual Exhibition will be held in the grounds of Cannizaro, Wednesday, 
July 8tb, 1885, when prizes will be offered in eighty-four classes in 
addition to special prizes in thirty-one classes. 
-In Notes and Queries Mr. Francis K. Munton, North End 
House, Twickenham, calls attention to some Old Limes and Elms at 
Twickenham as follows :— “My father-in-law’s, (the late Henry G. Bohn) 
well-known garden at Twickenham has often been referred to in journals 
devoted to such matters, but I have not found any notice of the exceptional 
size of the Limes and Elms. The avenue was planted about 120 years 
ago. I recently had some of the trees measured, and found that several 
exceeded 100 feet in height. Are there any trustworthy statistics on this 
subject?” 
-- The Lincoln Chrysanthemum Society’s third annual Exhibi¬ 
tion is announced to be held in the Corn Exchange, November 17th 
and 18th of the present year. The Society is making very satisfactory 
progress, the balance in hand being £59 133. 8d., as compared with 
£29 19s. 9d. in the preceding season. An open class for forty-eight 
blooms (twenty-four Japanese, and twenty-four incurved) is provided 
this year, in which the prizes are £10, £5, and £3, and in another open 
class for twenty-four blooms (twelve incurved, and twelve Japanese) 
the prizes are £4, £2, and £1. Substantial prizes are also offered for 
groups of plants. 
- At the ordinary meeting of the Royal Meteorological Society 
to be held at 25, Great George Street, Westminster, on Wednesday, the 
18th inst., at 7 p.m., the following papers will be read :—“ Notes on Sun¬ 
shine Records,” by Robert H. Scott, M.A., F.R.S., President; “Results 
of Meteorological Observations made at San Paulo, Brazil, 1879-1883,” 
by the late Henry B. Joyner, M.Inst.C.E., F.R.Met.Soc. After the 
reading of these papers the meeting will be adjourned, in order to afford 
the Fellows and their friends an opportunity of inspecting the exhibition 
of sunshine recorders and radiation instruments, and of such new instru¬ 
ments as have been invented and first constructed since the la 3 t exhibition. 
The exhibition will remain open till Thursday evening, the 19th inst. 
-The question Whether Horticulture should be Taught 
in Public Schools? was discussed, says the American Gardeners' 
Monthly, by Professor Wickersham, late Superintendent of Public In¬ 
struction of the State of Pennsylvania, at the late State Horticultural 
meeting. Objection was made that studies were now too numerous for 
the six hours a day, and six or eight months in the year, of public 
schooling, but the Professor explained that he did not recommend the 
introduction of this and similar studies in addition to those already in¬ 
cluded, but in the place of some others. He contended that, as the result 
of a careful study of public education, that a large proportion of time 
spent on geography, grammar, examples, and so forth, was absolutely 
thrown away ; that the aim of public education should not be so much to 
educate, as to place children on the path to educate themselves. Public 
school teaching should simply furnish children with the tools by which 
they could cleave their own way as circumstances should arise, and not 
to fit them for any particular way. Children should be taught to ob¬ 
serve, to think, and to judge. He would have a garden attached to 
every public school, and take the hour spent on geography or grammar, 
and, with the children in the garden, with the living plants before them, 
and a teacher capable of explaining things, do more good than the book 
studies of a whole week. 
- A largely attended meeting of growers was held at the Pheasant 
Hotel, Broad Street, Sheffield, on Monday, the 9th inst., when a resolution 
that a Chrysanthemum Society for Sheffield be at once formed, and the 
necessary steps be taken for organising a satisfactory open show in 
November next, was carried unanimously. The necessary officers and 
Committee were elected, and a meeting for drawing up the rules and 
arranging a schedule was fixed. A good number of subscriptions are 
already promised, and there is every promise of success for the new 
Society. Open classes will be arranged and liberal prizes offered. 
Schedules will be advertised as soon as ready. 
- Referring to the popularity of Orchids, an American 
paper gives the following paragraph :—“ What is the latest rage among 
the finest specimens of plants?” asked a reporter of a florist. “The 
Orchids are, decidedly. They are coming into favour on account of their 
many shapes and varied shades of colour. They are plants which grow 
without any soil, being usually tied to a block of wood or a cork suspended 
in the air. They require nothing but water to nourish them. The plants 
are very unattractive, but the flowers which grow on them are beautiful 
beyond comparison. They are parasites and grow well in South America. 
In Europe one large horticulturist with acres of greenhouses employs 
fourteen German naturalists to do nothing else but experiment with 
Orchids and produce new varieties (?). In the United States the universal 
love for plants has not reached a high enough plane to justify such an 
enormous expense. A single specimen of the scarcer kind costs 
1000 dols. Mrs. Pierrepont Morgan has a greenhouse filled with the 
largest variety of Orchids specimens in the United States and among 
private people not in the business perhaps in the world. They could not 
be bought for a hundred thousand dollars. She employs several naturalists, 
and every three or four years new specimens are produced. They grow 
slowly and very delicately, and for that reason horticulturists do not give 
much attention to them.” 
VINERIES, VINE BORDERS, AND VINES. 
In continuation of my notes on these subjects (see pp. 24 and 46) I 
now come to the question of which is the most suitable compost in which 
to plant Vines with the object of securing the best permanent results 
with moderate expense. The top 3 inches of a sheep or deer park, 
when to be had, or a down which has been grazed by sheep, is the 
best possible soil in connection with the addition of small quantities 
of ingredients named below fur the growth of the Vine. Turf, if 
taken off a down, will be necessarily fibry from its being almost 
continually grazed ; and in consequence of the soil being, as a rule, 
shallow and calcareous, it will be rich in consequence of the sheep 
being pasturaged on it. To five cartloads of this loam, which must 
be cut and stacked at least six months previous to use, add one load of 
wood ashes, one load of lime rubble, one load of fresh horse droppings, 
and about an ordinary-sized garden barrowful of fresh soot. Turn the 
whole over a couple of times prior to wheeling it on to the border when 
dry. Make the border in sections 6 feet wide from the front wall (the 
arches and side being built up with turves), and the same distance from 
the back one. These spaces will afford ample scope for root-action to the 
two sets of Vines for two or three years, when the intervening 5 feet 
space should be filled with a compost the same as indicated above. In 
preparing the border due allowance should be made for the loosely thrown - 
together soil subsiding 6 or 7 inches within as many weeks from the time 
of°making it. The border must, therefore, be made 6 or 7 inches above 
the top of the arches supporting the front wall, whence it should slope 
towards the pathway. The loam having been cut down in breadths of 
3 or more feet from the stack with a spade when the weather and the 
ground are dry, it may afterwards, if very fibry, be broken up a little 
with a steel digging-fork. The ingredients indicated may then be added 
and well mixed, placing it in the house in a moderately dry state ; the 
Vines may be planted in it a few days later. 
Planting the Vines. —Assuming that young Vines have been raised 
and tended during the interval, as advised at page 46, they will be ready 
for planting next month. I find from experience that it is a mistake to 
plant young Vines before they are sufficiently high to show a few inches 
