November 27, 1881. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICVLTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
491 
the Show wa? more creditable to any of the exhibitors than the 
stands of Chrysanthemums and foliage; and of hardy shrubs, Ferns, 
and Grasses, staged by Miss Flight, who was the premier exhibitor in 
both classes, the tasteful association of the fruit of Iris fmt dissima, 
Arbutus, Privet, Briars, with the flowers of Laurustinus and Jasminum 
nudiflorum being especially commendable. Splendid specimens of Euchaiis 
were exhibited by Messrs. Bowerman and Weaver (gardener to W. W. 
Beach, Esq., M P.), who were awarded equal prizes for them. 
The prizes for three bunches of black Grapes were won by Messrs. F. 
Kne ler (gardener to W. Harris, Esq., Steveuton Monor), Weaver, and 
Be<t fgardener to Chaloner W. Chute, Esq.) for highly creditable examples ; 
and for white Grapes by Messrs. Bowerman, Weaver, and Kneller with 
excellent Muscats. Apples were of good average merit, and that is all we 
can say aboiit them. Vegetables were very good indeed, the prizes going 
to Messrs. Kneller (Malshanger), Bowerman, and Dawucey in the order 
named. A beautiful group of plants arranged by Mr. Beach’s gardener 
was highly recommended for a special prize, and a mark of commendation 
was granted for Christmas Roses exhibited by W. P. Stark, Esq. Very 
worthy of notice in the Show was a collection of ornamental flower pots 
and various other articles made from the waste slag of iron-smelting 
furnaces exhibited by Mr. Hilton of Southampton. As an example of 
artistically utilising waste matter we have seen nothing to surpass this 
peculiar ware, which is quite unique. This is a mere outline of the bright 
and well-arranged Show of a Society of which Mr. Holdaway is the 
able and courteous Secretary. 
PLANTING SMALL FRUIT BUSHES. 
Those who may wish to transplant Gooseberry, CuiTant, and Rasp¬ 
berry bushes from one part of the garden to another, buy in fresh lots and 
make new plantations, may begin at once and get the work finished as 
soon as the weather will allow, November is one of the best of all 
months for shifting fruit bushes, or it may be performed in the early 
part of December. When planting has to be done we always determine 
its extent in the autumn, and when we can finish the work by this time 
we feel comfortable on the subject, as we know the bushes will be all 
right in the spring, and do well the following summ r and onwards. At 
this season we can always be quite certain that the buds are perfectly at 
rest, and this is a great advantage. From January onwards, should the 
weather be mild, the buds may begin swelling and grow before the fact is 
known ; then a rush is made to get the planting done before they become 
green, but it is too late, as no deciduous fruit bush can be transplanted 
after growth has commenced without being checked and injured to an 
extent which will not be recovered from for one or moie seasons. It is 
the alsolute certainty of escaping thA which renders autumn or early 
winter planting so desirable. 
It is astonishing the amount of ill usage a Gooseberry or Currant bush 
will bear when the buds are perfectly at rest, but when once they begin 
growing it is the reverse. When dormant in autumn the 8m:ill bushes 
may be lifted, the soil shaken entirely from the roots, and the plants 
sent hundreds of miles on a week’s journey without failure, but in spring 
they cannot be shifted with the utmost success, even including a large 
ball of soil to the roots. Let us settle, then, that autumn is the right time 
to plant, and let us plant so long as the weather is suitable in autumn. 
Annual planting is superfluous, and never allowing them to remain undis¬ 
turbed for more than two years or so is just as bad. We like to deter¬ 
mine where our fruit bushes will be now and for the next ten or a 
dozen years, and prepare the ground accordingly. All soil for fruit bushes 
cannot be too well prepared. It should be from 18 inches to 2 feet deep 
at least, free from lai'ge stones, and rich. Deeply trenching is an opera¬ 
tion which may be done with advantage on bush fruit ground before 
planting. Light, sandy, shallow soil is not so good as medium heavy soil, 
although clay is no gain ; but whether the ground be good or bad, it will 
always be benefited by being trenched and enriched before planting it 
with fruit bushes which are intended to remain in it for many years. 
In ground rich on the surface but poor underneath we would trench 
all the surface down, bring up the poor subsoil and dig plenty of manure 
in after trenching. Where the soil is poor throughout a quantity of 
rough manure would bo trenched to the bottom, and when trenching was 
finished more substantial soil would be dug into the surface. Some may 
think that rich ground will produce too much wood and too little fruit, 
but fins bushes and large juicy fruit will never be produced on poor soil. 
And then it must be remembered that when once the bushes are planted 
nothing more can be done in the way of manuring under the trees. 
Where all the bushes a e to be put together the whole of the quarter 
should be prepared from end to end, but where the plants are only put 
in h>"re and there, such as is often done with Currants and Gooseberries, 
in putting them at stated ‘ntervals along the sides of walks, a station 
should be formed for each bush. This may be done by trenching a piece 
about 2 yards square or so, manuring it well and planting in the centre. 
As a rule it is seldom necessary to put new soil in for bush fruits, as none 
of them are so difficult to grow that they cannot be cultivated success¬ 
fully in every gariien soil. In getting new bushes from nurseries it is 
quite impossible to secure them with much earth attached to the roots, 
and, as 1 have said before, this is of no importance in the autumn ; still 
no bush loses anything by being lifted with a ball of soil attached to the 
roots, and where they are only being taken from one part of the garden to 
another a ball of earth may as well be taken with each. In planting this, 
and in all cases, the hole for its reception should always be made larger 
by some inches all round than will admit the roots freely, and no attempt 
should be made to cram them into a small space. 
Deep planting has no advantages, but firm planting is vei’y beneficial. 
Planting them deeply to keep the wind from moving them is not to be re¬ 
commended, and staking should be resorted to in preference. Pure manure 
being placed against the roots will not insure substantial growth. Wet 
puddly soil is ruinous, and must be avoided. The distance to plant must 
depend on the size of the bushes, but no plant which is intended to grow 
free should be put nearer its neighbour than will admit of thi^; 3 feet, 
4 feet, and 5 feet apart are distances we plant Gooseberries and Currants. 
Raspberries are mostly put in rows from 8 inches to 1 foot apart in the 
rows, and 5 feet asunder. Old Gooseberry and Currant bushes which 
have become crowded or exhausted the ground, may be shifted with little 
or no loss at this time, and if carefully done they will improve afterwards, 
but as a rule it is cheaper in the end to deal with healthy young bu-hes.— 
A Kitchen Gardenee. 
ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
The first monthly meeting of this Society' for the present session was 
held on Wednesday evening, the IDth inst., at the Institution of Civil 
Engineers, 25, Great George Street, Westminster, S.W., Mr. R. H. Scott, 
F.R.S., President, in the chair. R. Aitken; N. E. Ballow, M.D., Ph.D.; 
F. C. Bayard, LL.M. ; G. W. Brenan, A.M.Iust.C.E. ; H. T. Burls ; A. 
Chadwick, M.D., M.R.C.S. ; R. Cooke ; P. H. Emerson, B.A., M.R.C.S. ; 
S. Johnson, M.B.,C.M., L.R.C.P., F.R.A.S. ; G. J. Lee, R. M. Mercer, L. P. 
Muirhead, J. D. W. Vaughan, and J. B. Wilson were elected Fellows of 
the Society :— 
The following papers were read ;— 
1. “A New Method of Reading the Direction of the Wind on Exposed 
Heights and from a Distance, by H. Leupold,” F.R.Met Soc. The author 
has devised a very ingenious and simple electiical anemograph, which 
records both the direction and velocity of the wind on an ordinary Morse 
printing telegraph paper. 
2. “ Description of a Component Anemograph,” by A. N. Pearson, 
F.R.Met. Soc. 
3. “On the Injury by Lightning (April 28th, 1884) to the Monument to 
the first Duke of Sutherland at Lilleshall, Shropshire,” by C. C. Walker. 
4. “ On the Mechanical Characteristics of Lightning Strokes,” by Col. 
the Hon. Arthur Parnell. The main objects of this paper are :—First, To 
attempt to show that lightning is not a sort of electric fluid that descends 
from the clouds, injures buildings and persons in its course, and dissipates 
itself in the earth, but that it is a luminous manifestation of the explosion 
caused by two equal forces springing towards each other simnltaneously 
from the earth and the under surface of the inducing cloud, and coalescing 
or dying out nearly midway between the two plates of the electdcal con¬ 
denser formed by the earth and the cloud. Secondly, To demonstrate that 
of those two forces it is the earth-spring or upward force alone that injures 
buildings, persons, or other objects on the earth’s surface, and that con¬ 
stitutes tangibly what is rightly known as a lightning stroke. The author 
gives the details of 278 instances, the records of which are intended to 
demonstrate with more or less precision the existence of an upward direc¬ 
tion in the force of the stroke. 
HARDY FRUIT GARDEN. 
Soil .—Sweet fertile loam is the soil above all others that is recom¬ 
mended for fruit trees, and the form in which it is most liked is that of 
top spits with the turf from an upland pasture. It can be so had by a 
few favoured persons, the remainder having to provide the best substitute 
for it they can. It may lighten the efforts of m.any in this important 
matter to explain that loam consists of about half clay and a mixture of 
silicious sand, vegetable matter, and sometimes carbonate of lime. It 
cannot, therefore, be difficult to prepare a compost sufficiently hke loam 
to answer well for fruit trees. One of the best substitutes we ever used 
was pond mud mixed with lime, and so thoroughly sweetened by frequent 
turnings and exposure to the air that it would be shovelled up almost 
like a heap of ashes. A compost, of which we are seldom without a large 
heap, consists of weeds, turf trimmings, road scrapings and sidings, and 
all the ordinary garden refuse, with stable dung, coal ashes, lime, and 
wood ashes, is turned several times so that the ingredients are thoroughly 
mixed. It is then ready for use at any time, and is either used alone or 
mixed with ordinary garden soil for new stations for fruit trees, or to 
renovate soil exhausted of fertility about the roots of established trees. 
We consider our compost preferable even to the ideal turfy upland loam, 
because, in addition to all the elements of fertility necessary to successful 
fruit culture, it has thorough mechanical division, and never cansetJe 
down into a compact heavy inert mass. Turf sods, on the contrary, do 
frequently so settle down as the herbage, crowns, and roots of the grass 
decay, and be it remembered that it is precisely this decaying vegetable 
matter which often imparts a fictitious fertility to the soil in which it 
grew ; and when the nutriment which it affords to the tree roots is 
exhausted, then the soil is comparatively worthless, and the tree soon 
gives signs of incipient debility. When turf sods are used for stations 
they require no preparation whatever, and should be carted from the 
pasture, chopped to pieces, and used at once, so that the tree roots may 
have the full benefit of the decaying plants. Quite one-third part of coal 
ashes should be mixed with the chopped turf to render the soil porous 
