August 25, 1881. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
109 
2otU 
% 
2Sth 
Th 
Manchester International Exhibition and two following days. 
27 DU 
F 
Craven Agricultural Show. [Reading Show. 
2StU 
S 
SUN 
ll th Sunday after trinity. 
29th 
M 
Crystal Palace Fruit Show. 
30th 
TU 
1st 
W 
Sherborne Horticultural Show. 
THE MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL SHOW. 
EFORE these lines are in print the Inter¬ 
national Jubilee Exhibition will have opened 
in the Royal Botanical Gardens at Old Tratford, 
and horticulturists from every part of Great 
Britain will have met and inspected the greatest 
fruit show of the year. In no other country 
of the world could an exhibition of equal magni¬ 
tude and quality be arranged ; and foreign visitors, 
we feel sure, will be the first to acknowledge the 
superior skill of British gardeners in the cultivation of 
fruit. There are, no doubt, many gardeners who have not 
been offered the opportunity of visiting the Show in question 
because its importance has not been appreciated by their em¬ 
ployers ; and it may be well, therefore, to remind all those 
whom it may concern that the Show does not close until 
Saturday night, and there is, consequently, yet time for ar¬ 
rangements being made for a visit. 
Nothing has a greater stimulating effect on the mind of a 
gardener than such evidence of the skill of others as a really 
great show affords, and there can be few men who would not 
benefit considerably by a close and intelligent inspection of the 
products, not only in the fruit classes, but also in those for 
plants, flowers, and vegetables. There are gardeners who 
seldom have the opportunity of travelling beyond their county 
or district, who rest firmly in the opinion that they have the 
best of its kind that is producible ; but a visit to a great 
gathering of the kind indicated will in all probability take 
the conceit out of them, and leave them the gainers, impelling 
them also to greater efforts, and thus rendering their services 
the more valuable. 
An event such as the one under consideration is not of 
yearly occurrence. It is exceptional by its scope and magni¬ 
tude, and it will be to the advantage of all who are interested 
in maintaining the high position of British horticulture if the 
fewest possible number of those to whom the care of our gar¬ 
dens are entrusted are prevented from enjoying a day at 
Manchester during the present week. In any case little can 
be lost by a day’s cessation from labour, and in most instances 
much would be gained in consequence of the instruction that 
an intelligent and earnest man would inevitably gather by a 
critical examination of the exhibits in this great Show. 
The period of the year, too, is favourable for a short holiday, 
and it is easy, even in small gardens, to make provision so 
that nothing can suffer during the gardener’s absence. During 
the spring and early summer the case is very different, and 
hourly watchfulness is then necessary for the prevention of 
accidents that might, if the}’’ occurred, have serious results. 
There is no such danger now. Any garden may safely be left 
for a day or two in the charge of an intelligent apprentice or 
an obedient painstaking labourer, and if these carry out their 
instructions there is no risk whatever of anything sustaining 
even temporary injury. We mention this because we know 
there are proprietors of gardens who are animated with the best 
feeling towards their employes, but who fear something may 
be neglected when they are absent from their duties. An oc¬ 
casional break in a long period of monotonous labour is desir¬ 
able both in the interests of master and man. This is the best 
time for a gardener to have a short holiday, and the great and 
variedly interesting Show that is now being held affords one of 
the best opportunities that can occur to enable him to employ 
a leisure hour enjoyably, instructively, and profitably. 
We learn by a telegram that has been sent to us since the 
opening of the Show that the Exhibition is one of extra¬ 
ordinary magnitude and merit, and we strongly advise all who 
have the opportunity of doing so to inspect such a display of 
garden products as may not soon occur again in a position so 
easily reached from various parts of the country. 
THE FRUIT CROP. 
At last we are once more blessed with a year of great abun¬ 
dance. Crops of all kinds have thriven ; premature decay, 
blight, and disease are almost unknown, our only complaint 
being of some untimely fruit-shedding, caused by the drought 
of early summer, which in some instances seriously thinned 
a good crop of Cherries, but generally did good by usefully 
relieving Pears and Apples of a small proportion of the super¬ 
abundant fruit, which even now appears likely to be some¬ 
what undersized—another and more serious result of the 
hot dry weather. Peaches and Nectarines on open walls are 
pictures of health, and almost all of them have a full crop of 
fruit, of which Early Beatrice upon various aspects was finished 
by the second week in August. Early Rivers will soon be over, 
and Lord Napier Nectarine is fast approaching maturity. 
Later varieties will form an admirable succession to the trees 
under glass. 
Of Plums many varieties have a heavy crop, notably Early 
Rivers, Prince Engelbert, Victoria, Mitchelson’s, White Mag¬ 
num Bonum, Gisborne’s, Pond’s Seedling, Lafayette, and Coe’s 
Late Red, all which are large pyramidal trees in an orchard. 
Early Rivers has been in use about three weeks, and there is 
enough good fruit of it remaining to last till the end of the 
month. It is a very useful sort, being highly valued as much 
for all culinary purposes and for the excellent jam it makes 
as it is for its earliness. No garden should be without this 
Plum, and growers for market must assuredly find it a very 
profitable investment. There are four pyramids 12 feet high 
of it here side by side, and they are remarkable for uniformity 
in vigour, general appearance, and fruitfulness. Since they 
came into bearing they have not failed, and last year the crop 
was as abundant as it is now. 
Pears are perhaps more abundant than any other fruit. 
Cordons, palmette venders on walls and fences, and pyramids 
are with few exceptions fruiting well. Citron des Cannes and 
Summer Doyenne are already over ; Beurre Giffard is now in 
use ; Jargonelle comes next, followed by Williams’ Bon 
Chretien and Beurre d’Amanlis. I am glad to say very few 
traces of cracking are perceptible among the delicate-skinned 
No. Cl.—'V ol. in., Third Series. 
No. 1717.— Von. LXVI., Odd Series, 
