September 13, 18S3. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
225 
various plants of Primulas pulcherrima, casbmeriana, Ac., and 
Omphalodes Luciliae is fourisliing. Dianthus neglectus and 
alpinus are also well established, and Androsace sarmentosa has 
made a large plant quite a foot square, but has disappointed 
me by not dowering this year, although nothing can be more 
vigorous than the plant itself. Dianthus deltoides is somewhat 
too vigorous as it spreads itself all over the rockery, but is very 
P}’ e tty when in flower. At the back of the rockery Myosotis 
dissitiflora has established itself and requires very close watch¬ 
ing; it seeds itself all over the place, and must be pulled up or 
it would overrun everything. 
I have, in giving a description of these parts of my 
garden, not done so because I flatter myself that there is 
anything peculiarly excellent in my culture, far from it; but I 
wish to show how in a limited space much real enjoyment may 
be had by those who prefer this style of gardening. Had I been 
addicted to bedding-out what would have been the state of 
things ? I should have filled my greenhouse with bedding-out 
plants, which would have deprived me of the pleasure that it 
lias afforded me all through the year; my garden would have 
been bare for eight months at least, and then I should have had 
a blaze of colour to be dashed by the first heavy rain and cut 
up by the first severe frost. As it is, there is hardly a day in 
the year that I cannot find something in flower and at most 
times something to cut; and one great feature in it is that you 
are continually coming upon something fresh, something that 
you had forgotten was there, and which all at once has revealed 
its beauty. I may add that I have other pieces of rockwork and 
other herbaceous borders, but these are the principal ones ; and 
although I have not enumerated anything like the whole of the 
plants that I grow, yet 1 have given the names of the principal 
ones, and of such as I am pretty sure would give satisfaction. 
—D., Deal 
THE GREAT STORM OF SEPTEMBER 2nd. 
So calm and bright was the morning of “ Partridge Day ” that one 
might suppose the barometer had risen to “set fair,” and that the soft 
balmy air of that smiling morn was an augury of the month’s fine 
weather for which we were longing to crown the growth of fruit and 
grain with ripeness and full maturity. Much corn was still out in the 
fields, Apple trees were bending beneath a heavy crop of fruit, hop¬ 
picking was only just beginning, and the hops were so abundant and 
so fine that the growers were confidently looking forward to rcouping 
themselves for the losses of last year. But as the day wore on clouds 
from the south-west gradually overspread the sky, rain began to fall 
and wind to rise as evening closed in ; it blew harder and harder through 
the night. On Sunday morning there was a great storm. The barometer 
had fallen in parts of the country as low as 28'44 ; the pressure of the 
wind was 17 lbs. to the square foot, which indicates a velocity of sixty 
miles an hour. The storm continued till noon on Monday, doing in¬ 
calculable mischief. In hundreds of orchards most of the fruit was swept 
from the trees, and that which was left on the branches is so battered 
and bruised that its speedy decay is inevitable. Hops suffered severely, 
for the heavy crop had just reached maturity. Many of the heavily 
laden poles were dashed to the ground, and upon those which were not 
blown down the branches were dashed about violently, and the bulk of 
the crop so much bruised that an inferior sample and low price must 
follow. 
In the flower garden the beds have just reached the perfection of 
summer beauty, and were all aglow with colour rich and unblemished. 
Much colour still remains, but all the freshness and much of the beauty 
passed away on the wings of the storm. Not a perfect truss, hardly 
a perfect flower, was left behind. A huge Gloire de Dijon Rose, that 
has reached a height of full 30 feet upon the west side of a lofty building, 
had several dozen magnificent blooms clustering among the large hand¬ 
some foliage before the storm. After it not a flower remained upon the 
tree, which is a wreck of broken branches and lacerated foliage. To 
show how powerful and searching the wind was, I may also mention an 
Aristolochia Sipho covering a trellis in a snug south-east corner, appa¬ 
rently quite screened from the south-west by lofty buildings, yet its 
foliage is quite spoilt. 1 need not enumerate further details of damage 
that is painfully visible on all sides. Some good may come of it if its 
baneful effects arouse attention to the importance of shelter for growing 
crops as thorough as is possible. No mere hedge or narrow belt is of 
much use to break the force of such a storm, for it blew with such 
violence that the foliage of a belt of Hazel some 30 or 40 feet wide is 
shrivelled and dry as though it had been scalded, the side farthest from 
the wind having suffered equally with that which was fully exposed to 
it.— Edward Luckhurst. 
JUDGING AT COUNTRY EXHIBITIONS. 
I am rather an old judge at country exhibitions. I have 
judged at one village horticultural show for twenty years, 
except one year, and then I could not possibly go, and so 
badly did the officers and my usual co-judge get on with the 
substitute in my place, that I was appealed to n»t to let 
anything, except a life and death affair, interfere again with 
my attendance. I may say, then, without any affectation, that 
I must have given satisfaction. In the twenty years, of course, 
I have had a good few colleagues, and some rather difficult to 
deal with—viz., the uncertain, or weak-minded man ; he who 
took such a long time to make his mind up, who “liked to be 
qu're sure, you know;” the narrow-minded, or one-class man 
who was great in one thing, say Potatoes, but little in every¬ 
thing else; the bumptious man, the solid man, the know-every- 
man, a village shopkeeper, or publican, perhaps, who looked 
down upon you over his spectacles as much as to say, “Young 
man, don’t you think to take me in, I know all about it; ” the 
crotchety man, the judge with a fad or idea, to which every¬ 
thing must square or he cannot pass it. These men are all 
difficult to deal with, but the best way is to appear not to see 
these oddities, and get them to talk over their different standards 
and try to arrange a common ground of agreement as to certain 
points before judging, with the understanding that an arbitrator 
shall be called in on any point of strong disagreement. I find it 
the best plan again first of all on going into the show to take a 
general survey of the whole and set up in your mind the standard 
of judgment from what is exhibited. Make a local standard of 
judgment, and work up to it, rather than fix before you go to the 
show an ideal standard in your mind and expect everything to 
come up to it. I like to begin with the lowest class, the labourers, 
and judge upward, through the tradesmen’s class up to the 
amateurs’ and gentlemen’s gardeners. In the labourers’ class, 
of course, quality is not insisted upon to such a degree as 
quantity is, and food exhibits are encouraged more so than 
anything else, and the standard of judgment is gradually raised 
up to the highest, the gentlemen’s and gardeners’ class. In 
judging, it is wise for the judge, in case of an exhibit looking 
as if should have the first prize, to expose to view the blemishes 
that have put it down, to turn up the decayed portions to the 
light, or to cut open, or otherwise display to anyone who looks 
at it, what it is that has caused the judgment to go in the way it 
has ; or, if that cannot be done, and the judge is not a good one 
at taking a mentagraph of the special exhibits, to make a note of 
it, and either give in the note to the Secretary, or keep it liunself 
for reference if he is pulled up about it. One of the be t things 
a judge can do is to clear out of the place as quickly as he or 
they can. If they stay, and they are men that are easily ap¬ 
proached, they will most assuredly be “ called over the coals ” on 
something in their judgment that does not suit some exhibitor. 
I forgot to say, in speaking of the difficulties of judging, that 
officers that are themselves exhibitors are dreadful people to 
have to do with. If they are men of strong opinions, as in my 
experience I have generally found them; if their exhibits are 
not adjudged first, or very nearly first, they can be, and often 
are, uncommonly unpleasant to the judges. No officer who is 
himself an exhibitor ought to have anything to do with the 
judges. Sam Slick says that “ there’s a deal of human natur 
in men,” and a man must be a very unselfish and gene ous man 
indeed who can see his productions put down and his neighbours’ 
put up, and that under his very eyes, and be satisfied. We all 
cry out more or less in our several ways when we are trod upon ; 
but of all the virtues required in judging at country exhi¬ 
bitions there is no virtue so necessary as plain common sense, 
added to quick discernment and rapid judgment. These will 
settle most things timely and satisfactorily.—H. 
BATH FLORAL FETE. 
In some of the principal cities and towns in Belgium there is a formal 
alliance of music and flowers. Societies of harmony and of horticultuie 
combine, each strengthening the other, and concerts and flower shows, not 
necessarily in combination, are held in the gardens of the twin organisation. 
Something of the same kind would appear to exist in Bath, Sydney Gardens 
forming the head-quarters of the Floral Fete and Band Committee. Horti¬ 
cultural exhibitions under the auspices of this Committee have been held for 
upwards of a quarter of a century, the one to be noticed being the third of 
the present year, and another has yet to be held. The Gardens referred to 
are most enjoyable, and a better position for a floral fete could scarcely be 
imagined. The ground is boldly, almost abruptly, undulated, and beautifully 
timbered. A railway in a deep cutting runs through them, also a canal, these 
being spanned by a series of fine bridges. The marquees containing the 
exhibits are placed in different parts of the grounds, being almost hidden by 
the overhanging branches of the trees. Quite a promenade, and in fine 
weather a very agreeable one, is thus involved in inspecting all the products. 
These floral fetes, as they deserve to be, are evidently much appreciated 
not only by the inhabitants of the “ Queen of the West,” but by those of 
adjacent towns, special trains being provided for their accommodation, and 
the weather being fine, as on the present occasion, visitors are very numerous. 
In honour of these f§tes flags are seen here and there. Very conspicuous 
was one floating from the tower of the grand o'.d Abbey, the bells of which 
rang merrily in honour of the occasion, while the horse3 of the tramcar3 
were gaily decorated with Sunflowers and Dahlias, and now and. then a 
conductor decorated himself by wearing a fine specimen as a boutonnier. 
