4 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
r July 3, 1884. 
cultivation, and properly attended to your readers will fee I do not 
condemn it. Some of your more temperate correspondents have given 
some good practical information on this subject, and this is more what 
readers want than suegestions of untruthfulness and indulgences in hair¬ 
splitting. — J. E. Waiting, Grange-orer-Sands. 
LIQUID MANURE. 
Now is the time to use this with advantage. There is no plant in the 
garden which it will not benefit if properly applied at the right time. All 
plants in active growth and with abundance of roots may have supplies 
with good results, but plants in pots should receive none while there are 
only a few roots in the soil. It should never be used to force young 
plants into growth, or to make sickly plants healthy, as in nine cases out 
of ten it will have the opposite to the desired effect. It can, however, be 
applied most favourably in the case of all plants bearing heavy crops of 
fruit or flowers, as then it assists to mature and develope what would 
for the want of nourishment be unsatisfactory. Our Peach trees in 
pots, for instance, had no liquid manure given them before or during 
the time they were in bloom, nor during the time the fruit was small 
and stoneless, as forcing then might have caused a collapse; but when 
the fruit began swelling freely liquid manure was given, and the fruits 
became much larger than they would have been without such assist¬ 
ance. Our Tomatoes are treated to the poorest of fare until fruit 
has formed freely, then liquid is given unstintingly. Pelargoniums 
in pots have only clear water while they are small and the pots not 
filled with roots, but when larger proportions are gained and feeders 
are plentiful liquid manure every alternate day or twice weekly pro¬ 
duces a profusion of flowers long beyond their natural time of bloom¬ 
ing. When large plants are wanted in very small pots, as they often 
are for room-decoration, it is a difficult matter to produce them, and 
liquid manure will make them larger and better than anything else 
which can be tried. 
Pine Apple plants never receive liquid manure when they are only 
suckers or small successional plants, but immediately the fruit appears 
assistance is given with advantage. Cucumbers would be induced 
to make much superfluous growth if supplied with liquid from their 
earliest stages ; but if this is withheld until a quantity of short-jointed 
wood has been formed, and many young fruits are visible, it will then be 
productive of a very heavy crop, many fine fruits, and a long succession 
of them. 
Onions if freely supplied with liquid when they are only a few inches 
high, and before there are any signs of bulbs forming, will grow rapidly, 
but only soft leaves and thick necks will follow for a long time ; but 
it is different altogether if no liquid is given until the bulbs are well 
formed. Then liquid manure will cause the bulbs to increase rapidly, 
and a good and early crop will be the result. This rule applies to every 
plant, and cultivators will benefit by paying regard to it. 
As to the best kinds of liquids, this must depend to a great extent on 
the plants to be treated, and its strength should also be governed by 
this. Liquid produced from steeping cow, horse, or pig manure in 
water is always nourishing and not dangerous to use, as it is not so hot 
and burning as some of the artificial manures which are dissolved in 
water. Drainings from cattle houses or manure heaps are excellent, 
and cf all aitificials b nes are safer or more efficient than guano. I 
rarely use anything else, and there is one particular which mu-t be 
rigidly observed, and that is never to give the liquid too strong. If this 
is done all benefit is lost, and injury or perhaps death follows. Giving 
any kind of liquid weak and often^is much better than applying it strong 
at long intervals.— A Kitchen Gardenek. 
JUDGING MELONS. 
It will be seen on reference to the report on page 516 of the Fruit and 
Vegetable Show of the Royal Horticultural Society that there was a 
“ new departure ” in the method of judging Melons. Fur the first time, 
probably, in a similar competition none of the fruit were cut, the Judges 
being of opinion that they could select the best fruits by the test of smell 
and appearance. As might have been expected, the exhibitois who failed to 
win prizes were far from being pleased with this style of judging, and for 
once they had good reason to grumble. That Melons must be cut and 
tasted before a right docis-ion is arrived at most of us will admit; it is a 
necessary evil, becoming more difficult to avoid in proportion to the increase 
in the number of new or so-called new sorts introduced. If the Judges 
were conversant with every sort, as in the case of Grapes and Pine Apples, 
the case would be different, but even then it is doubtful if they could 
always determine which are the best without cutting. 
If it were previously intimated that the Melons would not be cut, then 
exhibitors would stage accordingly. Some varieties, notably Blenheim 
Orange, the best of all scarlet-fleshed sorts, is very strongly scented and is 
most attractive in appearance soon after being cut, but it really requires to 
be kept three or four days before it is ripe up to the rind. The heavier the 
fruit and thicker the flesh the greater need of kcepmg ; fput at Kensington 
I observed that kept fruit found no favour w.th the Judges, and I, as a 
consequence, concluded they knew hut little about the varieties before 
them. As a member of the Fruit Committee remarked, the best-looking 
fruit, or which would be seb cted for a representative collection of fruit, 
are frequently inferior in quality, and this was strongly exemplified among 
the Melons submitted for certificates the same day. There are times when 
it is really unfair to cut Melons, as an experienced judge is usually com¬ 
petent to decide between three or four fruits ; and I have oPen thought it 
wrong that Melons should be cut when staged in pairs, especially ^ the 
early Royal Botanic shows where paltry prizes are offered, one fiuit being 
then worth more than the first prize to be gained.— Exhibitor. 
THE NATIONAL ROSE SOCIETY. 
July 1st. 
L T H 0 U G H the dry 
weather of the past 
month has given rise to 
some fears respecting the suc¬ 
cess of the Great Rose Show 
of the season, it was found on 
Tuesday last that there was 
little foundation for such 
fancies, as though, perhaps, 
there were a few stands less 
than at some previous exhibitions, the 
Show generally was a satisfactory one. 
There was a preponderance in some 
of the classes of small blooms, but the 
exhibitors had in most cases gathered theii 
blooms as young as possible to insure their 
standing the trying ordeal they were to undergo in the 
conservatory. In an hour or two a great difference was 
produced in the appearance of the exhibits, and many W'ho 
saw them late in the day would have a difficulty in understanding 
the awards. This was very strikingly shown in the amateurs’ class 
for forty-eight, in which the third-prize collection appeared much the best 
about the middle of the afternoon. Tea Roses were^ extremely well shown; 
indeed in several collections, notably those in Division C, they were magni¬ 
ficent. There seems to be an annual improvement both in the quality and 
numbers of these lovely Roses, and certainly they are always amongst the 
most admired. Light Roses were also generally good, though the Devon 
blooms w'ere remarkable for their rich bright colours. 
The silver medals for the premier Teas and Hybrid Perpetuals in the 
Show were gained by the following exhibitors In the nurserymen’s class 
by Mr. Prince, who had the best Tea, Jean Ducher, a beautiful substantial 
bloom in his third-prize collection of eighteen Teas, and by Messrs. Curtis, 
Sar ford A Co., who had the finest Hybrid Perpetual, Gbn6ral .^cqueminot, 
Tgrandly coloured bloom, in their first lot of forty-eights. The prernier 
Hybrid l^rpetual in the amateurs’ classes was Mane Linger in Mr. Girdle- 
stone’s third stand of forty-eight— a magnificent bloom, well built and clean 
and the premier Tea was a massive Souvenir dElise Varden in the Rev. Page 
Roberts’stand of eighteen blooms. 
There were six rows of boxes arranged the whole length of the conser¬ 
vatory, and it can be imagined from this and the number of competitors given 
in the notes following that the display was a large one. 
NURSERYMEN’S CLASSES. 
The majority Of these were well filled, and the blooms were in several 
cases very satisfactory, though there was much diversity in the merits of the 
various collections. In most of the larger classes the blooms were somewhat 
irregular, and there were, with a- few exceptions, an absence of massive 
'^^'^The principal class was that for seventy-two blooms, in which the Chal¬ 
lenge Trophy and £5 constitute the leading award. These honours Messrs. 
Paul & Son, Cheshunt, succeeded in obtaining with bright fresh bloom , 
Lme perhaps, rather small, but their neatness evidently gained ^em favour 
vMh thrJ&es. The varieties represented were as follow :-Duchesse de 
Caylns Victor Verdier, Senateur Vaisse, Madame Therese Leyet, Charles 
Darwin, George Moreau, Ubich Brunner, Devoniensis, Pierre Rotting Madaine 
Hinnolvte Jamain Dr. Andry, Madame Lacharme, Prince Arthur, Edou.yd 
Mo^r?e/ Reynolds Hole, La France, Charles Lefebvre, Souvenir 0 Elise 
Yardon’ EtiLne Levet, Duke of Edinburgh, Francois Michelon, Margueiite 
de St. Amand, Madame Isaac Perriere, Madame L- Giron, Comtesse d Oxford, 
Niiihetos, Alfred Colomb, Capitaine Christy, Abel Carriere, Jean Dioher, 
Duke of Teck, Maiechal Niel, Louise Van Houtte, Boieldieu, Due de Rohan, 
Co„„leL oriloseb.,y.M,s.Cb„le» Wood, John Hoppej Edo.arf Andrd, 
Souvenir de Malmaison, Mrs. Baker, Madame Camille, Stai of Waltham, 
Merveille de Lyon, Horace Vernet, Elie Morel, Mane Baumann, Pride of 
Reiaate Nardy’Fi eres, Alba Rosea, Sultan of Zanzibar, Mons. Noman, A. A. 
wXms HeLi Ledeebaux, Alfred Dumesnil. H. Schultheis Mons E Y. 
Teas, Queen of Queens, Jean Surey, Lady M. Fitzwilliam, Grandeur of Ches¬ 
hunt Madame E. Verdier, Mrs. G. Paul, Abel Grand, f f 
Jardins, M. Bernardin, Innocente Pirola, Antoine Ducher Pride of Waltham, 
Comte de Raimbaud, and Madame Prosper Laugier. Mr. H R. Cant Col¬ 
chester, won the second prize with good examples of A. K. Wilhan^, Wuke 
of Teck, Madame Ducher, Catherine Mermet, Eisher Holmes, and Madame 
Gabriel’Luizet, amongst other smaller blooms. Messrs Keynes, \\iiliams, 
and Co." Salisbury, were third with a lather inegn’ar collection, biR iool«a. 
ing some good blooms, and Messrs. Cranston & Co., King s Acre, Hereford, 
were fourth, these being the only exhibitors. -r n hpirir 
Six collections of forty-eight triplets were staged, Mr. B. R. Cant being 
first with large blooms, rather full, but of good colour, Mons. Noman, Souve¬ 
nir d’un Ami, Boieldieu, Fran 9 ois Michelon and Baronne de Rothschild being 
especially noteworthy. Mr. C. Turner, Messrs. Cranston & Co., and Messrs. 
Keynts, Williams & Co. followed in that order with bright and fresh, though 
slightly weaker blooms. 
