530 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 30, 1881. 
vendors like to hear their goods have given. As it is, it can only 
be through careful management that plants purchased in early 
summer will get established in the south at all; and as to blooms 
either like or in the least approaching to the same varieties when 
well grown, that is simply out of the question. Those who have 
purchased so late ought not therefore blame the vendors where 
such Pansies have not succeeded to their expectations.” 
- We regret to have to record the death of Mr. S. M. 
Carson, formerly gardener to Mr. T. Farmer at Nonsuch Park, 
Cheam, where he attained much celebrity as a plant grower and 
exhibitor. He was a native of Gatehouse of Fleet, in Kirkcud¬ 
brightshire, and after filling several positions of varying import¬ 
ance he took charge of the Orchids and stove at Messrs. Lod- 
diges’ Hackney nurseries ; thence he proceeded to Nonsuch in 
the capacity of head gardener and bailiff, which duties he per¬ 
formed until 1872, when he retired on an annuity generously 
allowed him by his employer. Mr. Carson was sixty-seven years 
of age at the time of his death. 
- “G. H.” writes—“ Will any correspondent of the Journal 
of Horticulture kindly give the experience as to the best methods 
of exterminating wireworm from a garden ? ” Possibly some 
of our readers can give the information desired. 
- Cauliflowers seem to thrive at the Cape, where, accord¬ 
ing to the Cape Argus, a seedsman has been exhibiting three 
which weigh together 80 lbs. 
- The Ipswich Horticultural Society's Summer Show 
will be held on July 5th in Christchind Park, Ipswich, and the 
Autumn Show at Holy Wells on September 2nd. There are 
seventy-four classes in the schedule, apart from cottagers’ prizes, 
and sixty-four in the latter. Among a long list of donors of 
special prizes we observe that Mr. Kingdon offers a silver cup, 
value £5, in the amateurs’ class for twenty-four Roses. In the 
open class for forty-eight Roses the chief prize is £5. 
- Messrs. J. Carter & Co. have now an extremely fine 
display of Petunias at Perry Hill, where in several long span- 
roofed pits between twelve and thirteen thousand plants are 
flowering. Very careful selection of seed has been made, and as 
the result the flowers exhibit a greater diversity and brightness 
of colours than we have yet seen. From the above large number 
of plants the least promising are being removed, only the most 
distinct and beautiful being retained for yielding seed, so that the 
strain is likely to become an unusually good one. The single 
varieties are particularly notable for the rich tints they represent, 
some of the crimson and purple hues possessing a remarkable 
depth and clearness, in some cases approaching maroon in inten¬ 
sity. Rose and white seifs are also included, others being striped 
with crimson or pink on a light ground, the markings very evenly 
defined, or in still other instances the corollas are covered with 
a delicate lacing of purple and crimson on a pale lavender or 
white base. Doubles are similarly good, very full, substantial, in 
some cases having deeply fringed margins, and in others, more 
peculiar but less pretty, the edge is green and the body colour 
pink or crimson. Such an extensive and admirable collection of 
these plants is rarely seen in the neighbourhood of the metropolis. 
- The “ American Cultivator ” has the following relative to 
the Apple Crop of Massachusetts: —“Respecting the great 
Apple crop of Massachusetts last year the town of Shrewsbury 
stands high in quantity of Apples produced. Having a soil 
specially adapted to Apple culture, and a population that has 
given the subject much attention, the Farmers’ Club recently 
through a committee canvassed the town for facts and figures. 
The committee’s report gave as the product for 1880, 30,000 barrels 
of marketable winter Apples exclusive of the fall fruit; also 
15,000 to 20,000 bushels which went to the cider mills. There 
are about thirty farmers in town who produce 400 to 500 barrels 
of Apples each per annum. A few raise a larger quantity, say 
COO to 800 barrels, but none as high as 1000 barrels. Of the 
30,000 barrels noted above nine-tenths were Baldwins.” 
-In Mr. Birbeck Hill’s volume, recently published by Messrs. 
De La Rue & Co., entitled “ Colonel Gordon in Central Africa,” it 
is stated that the wealth of one of the districts referred to consists 
of Fig trees, which are owned by individuals, and eighty of them 
make a very rich man. The trunks get hollow, and storms fill 
them with water. Some of the trees will hold a ton and keep it 
pure and fresh. They are the reservoirs of a thirsty land. Ants 
too, which are very numerous, contribute to the water supply by 
forming hollows with means to conduct the rain into them, and 
so keep reservoirs of water in dry seasons. 
- Relative to growing Mushrooms in caves, the 
following appears in a daily paper :—“ An enterprising French¬ 
man, remembering what is done in underground Paris in the way 
of Mushroom cultivation, has proposed to take a lease of a 
portion of the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky with the view of 
raising regular crops of the nutritious and delicious fungus. As 
the cave contains many square miles of underground passages, 
none of which are shown to visitors because there is nothing 
attractive in them, the authorities will probably accept the 
Frenchman’s offer, and lease the “ Great Bat Room ” to him for 
the purpose of growing Mushrooms. This passage, formerly 
known as Audubon’s Avenue, was not long ago a resort of “con¬ 
sumptives,” who resided in cottages built near the entrance, the 
pure air and the equable temperature being supposed to com¬ 
pensate for the absence of sunlight and the sights and sounds 
of the busy world. A very short time sufficed to explode that 
fallacy, and it is now probable that the uninteresting portions of 
the cave will be devoted to the culture of Mushrooms, for which 
they are admirably adapted.” 
- A correspondent of the “ Irish Farmers’ Gazette ” has 
submitted the following dimensions of Conifers at Wood- 
stock, Kilkenny :—Araucaria imbricata, height 52 feet, diameter 
of branches 29 feet, girth of stem 3 feet up 7 feet 1 inch ; Crypto- 
meria Lobbii, height 44 feet, diameter of branches 18 feet, girth 
of 6tem 4 feet 2 inches ; Cupressus macrocarpa, height 58 feet, 
diameter of branches 48 feet, girth of stem 8 feet 6 inches ; Picea 
cephalonica, height 58 feet, diameter of branches 44 feet, girth of 
stem 8 feet; Pinus insignis, height 66 feet, diameter of branches 
43 feet, girth of stem 8 feet 10 inches ; Pinus strobus (Weymouth 
Pine), height 65 feet, stem clear of the branches 57 feet, girth 
7 feet 7 inches. The largest common Silver Fir is 107 feet in 
height, diameter of branches 59 feet, girth of stem at 4 feet from 
the ground 14 feet 9 inches. 
ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
June 28th and 29th. 
The annual Rose Show of this Society being held in conjunction 
with the Exhibition of the Pelargonium Society produced, as was 
expected, a display of considerable beauty and extent. Not only 
was the long tent occupied as last year with the Roses and Pelar¬ 
goniums, but the large marquee employed at the recent Show was 
also called into requisition, and though this was not crowded yet 
sufficient was contributed to produce an admirably effective display. 
The Fruit and Floral Committees’ duties were comparatively light, 
but several interesting plants and some fine Melons were submitted to 
their consideration. 
Fruit Committee. —H. Webb, Esq., in the chair. Six Melons were 
exhibited, a fine example of Highcross Hybrid being shown by Mr. T. 
Hopkins, The Gardens, Highcross, Framfield, Sussex, for w’hich a 
first- class certificate was awarded. It is a green-flesh variety, very solid, 
of good flavour, and wmll netted, the fruit being above the medium 
size. Mr. C. Howe, The Gardens, Benham Park Newbury, sent a 
scarlet-flesh seedling, the result of a cross between Queen Emma and 
Read’s Scarlet-flesh ; it was of good form and colour. Mr. G. Abbey, 
gardener to C. N. Palmer, Esq., M.P., Grinkle Park, Yorkshire, had a 
fine fruit of a green-flesh variety superbly netted. Mr, Carmichael, 
