JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 23,1882. ] 
485 
lent examples of Imported Sprouts, Major Clarke’s Celery, Yeitch’s 
Autumn Broccoli, Banbury Onions, Lapstone Kidney Potatoes, Orange- 
field Tomatoes, London Flag Leeks, Yeitch’s Red Globe Turnips, and 
Dell’s Crimson Beet. To Mr. Budgett was awarded the second prize, 
and Mr. Pease the third. 
Many of the foregoing prizes were specially offered by the leading 
inhabitants and nurserymen of the district, and it must be very 
encouraging to these liberal patrons to find they were so well 
competed for. 
MANCHESTER— November 21st. 
Manchester is noted for the magnitude and excellence of horticul¬ 
tural exhibitions. The spring shows held under the auspices of 
the Royal Botanical Society of the North are invariably successful, 
while the summer exhibitions have won world-wide fame. Less 
provision is made for the autumn shows; but there is no difficulty in 
filling the grand room of the Town Hall effectively, and packing it 
to repletion ivith visitors. 
The schedule only contained eight classes for Chrysanthemums 
—five for plants and three for cut blooms. The naturally grown 
and trained specimens of the incurved varieties were the feature of 
the Show. Finer cultivation was perhaps seldom seen than in the 
class for nine plants. The stems were dwarf and strong, ranging 
from 2 to 3£ feet high ; foliage large, leathery, of a dark bronzy hue 
indicative of rude health, and reaching to the soil and the blooms— 
five or six on each plant of exhibition quality. The first prize in 
this excellent class was won by Mr. Thos. Cash, gardener to C. S. 
Agnew, Esq., Prestwick, his plants containing better blooms than 
any in the stands. Mr. Fletcher, gardener to W. Scott, Esq., Higher 
Broughton, and Mr. Taylor, gardener to E. G. Potter, Esq., Rus- 
holme, followed somewhat closely, and secured the remaining prizes 
in this excellent class. In the class for four plants of the same cha¬ 
racter J. E. Best, Esq., Withington, and O. Schneider, Esq., Fallow- 
field, followed Mr. Agnew’s, all the plants being good. None of the 
stems were bent, and dwarfness of many of the plants in the above 
classes was remarkable—most creditable to the cultivators. Pompons 
were very far from being of equal merit, the plants being thin, too 
many sticks visible, and the tying had been done too late. George 
Cooper, Esq., Timperley Hall; T. Dickens, Esq., Higher Broughton ; 
and J. Blatter, Esq., Stand, were awarded the prizes in the order 
named. John Allen, Esq., Altrincham, secured the chief prize for 
six Japanese plants, similar in character to the incurved varieties— 
dwarf and with large blooms. The others in the class were too tall. 
For twenty-four cut blooms Messrs. Allen, Cooper, and Ken worthy 
were the successful exhibitors, the blooms being large enough, but 
too flat, yet broad in the petal and fresh. Mr. Allen was first also 
with twelve blooms, and Mr. Moorman of Coomb'e Bank, Kingston- 
on-Thames, second—neater, fuller, better-formed examples, but not 
large enough for the first position. For stands of twenty-four mixed 
blooms Messrs. Allen and Cooper were equal firsts, and Mr. Moorman 
second. A great number of blooms were exhibited in the above 
classes, but the majority were too flat and thin, the size of not a few 
being also further apparently diminished by the disproportionate 
paper collars ; in fact several stands were spoiled by the display of 
paper. 
Mr. Allen staged very good Primulas, 2 feet in diameter, but most 
of the other plants appeared to have been much shaken in transit. 
Roman Hyacinths from Messrs. Potter, Dickens, and Jones & Son, 
Shrewsbury, were excellent. Bouquets were good, Messrs. Jones 
and Son being in the position with which they are so familiar—first, 
securing also the chief prize for a vase of flowers. Table plants were 
very good indeed, the prizes falling to Messrs. Schneider, Potter, and 
R. A. ffarrington, Esq., Wigan. The plants arranged down the central 
table contributed greatly to the effect of the Exhibition. 
Messrs. Dickson, Brown, & Tait staged an effective group of 
plants, in which Calanthes were splendid, and were granted a first- 
class cultural commendation. Similar awards were made to Mi - . 
Leech for floriferous plants of his new Dendrobium Leechianum of 
the L. Ainsworthi type, and very beautiful; also for Davallia fiji- 
ensis plumosa with fronds 18 inches across. Several other groups 
were arranged, including a brilliant lot of cut Zonal Pelargoniums 
and Salvias from Messrs. Cannell of Swanley ; fine Chrysanthemum 
blooms from Messrs. Dickson & Robinson; plants and flowers from 
Messrs. Clibran & Son, with a good group also from Messrs. Hooley 
of Stockport. Mr. Pettigrew had supers of excellent honey ; and 
Mr. B. S. Williams changed his mode of showing by staging Onions 
weighing 4 lbs. each. This is necessarily a mere skeleton account of 
a really attractive and successful show, excellently managed by Mr. 
Bruce Findlay. 
Singlb Dahlias and the First Frost. —Within the past month 
the temperature has frequently been very close to the freezing point 
(32° Fahr.) in this locality, but until the 11th of November, with 5° of 
frost, my single Dahlias constantly afforded blooms for cutting pur¬ 
poses since last July, a month after I had obtained some of them 
from Messrs. Cannell, Swanley, and some other varieties from Messrs. 
Kelway, Langport—that is, four months. Now if I were to select the 
most floriferous, combined with the most beautiful, of the twenty 
varieties I had, I would decidedly put Paragon first, and Avalanche 
or White Queen next. I have seen Mr. Ware’s five acres and numbers 
elsewhere, and have raised a few good crimsons and magenta seed¬ 
lings myself; but what is wanted is that the numberless seedlings 
should undergo a careful selection so as to get the really good neat 
flowers.—W. J. M., Clonmel. 
WORK rofvnffi\x/EEK. 
HARDY FRUIT GARDEN. 
Wherever fruit trees make a quantity of wood and do not form 
fruit buds, the wood not ripening satisfactorily, an examination of 
the roots will be advisable, and should be attended to whilst the 
weather is favourable, as the soil will not yet be so cold as at a more 
advanced period of the season. Careful root-pruning and the raising 
of the roots when too deep will generally render over-luxuriant trees 
fruitful. Weakly trees may frequently be restored to health by 
having their roots brought nearer the surface, and encouraged by an 
application of turfy loam enriched with about a fifth of well-decayed 
manure, in which the recently disturbed roots should be arranged. 
If the soil be of a tenacious or heavy nature a portion of the road 
scrapings, lime rubbish, or other gritty material may be added with 
advantage. 
Bush, pyramid, espalier, and other forms of fruit trees in a limited 
space should, when growing too freely, be attended to in root-pruning, 
which, whilst lessening the necessity for summer-pruning, conduces 
to the fertility of the trees. Such as do not require attention in the 
respect above indicated should have the loose surface soil scraped 
off some distance from the stem all around according to the size of 
the trees, supplying some fre3h rich material, to which has been added 
about a tenth of charred refuse. 
Planting young fruit trees should be proceeded with as opportunity 
offers, it not being advisable to plant when the soil is very wet; and 
although most hardy fruits can be produced with success on most 
soils, yet the better the soil and climate the finer will be the fruit. 
But however good the soil, it will generally be necessary that it 
should undergo some preparation before the trees are planted. 
Draining in most cases will be necessary, and in heavy wet soil is 
absolutely essential. In the latter case a portion of light soil, 
road scrapings, old mortar rubbish, and charred refuse may be em¬ 
ployed with great benefit, and the trees in such soil may be ad¬ 
vantageously planted upon small hillocks slightly raised above the 
level of the surrounding ground. With soil of a light porous 
character upon a gravelly or limestone subsoil an opposite practice 
will need to be pursued; well-pulverised clay or strong loam should 
be incorporated with the original soil. 
In the selecting of fruit trees, especially of Apples and Pears, it is 
of the greatest importance to plant those which are known to succeed 
well in the locality, as many varieties are excellent in all respects in 
one locality, whilst in another they are found to be very unsatis¬ 
factory. 
A severe winter not unfrequently proves injurious to unprotected 
Fig trees against walls. The trees should be either unfastened from 
the walls, the branches tied closely in bundles, which should be 
encased in clean dry straw or fern kept together by mats, or the trees 
may be allowed to remain on the wall, the surface of which, should 
be lightly thatched with dry bracken, straw, mats, or similar material, 
and the border from the stem outwards should be well mulched with 
partially decayed manure. Mulch also between the rows of Straw¬ 
berries, employing partially decayed manure, which will be sufficiently 
further decomposed to allow of being pointed-in in spring. Any 
tender varieties, such as British Queen, may be mulched with littery 
manure. 
FRUIT HOUSES. 
Cherry House .—Pruning full-grown Cherry trees, which have had 
proper attention in regard to stopping the shoots during growth, 
will now be confined to cutting back the shoots of the current year 
to about an inch from the base or starting point, and the removal of 
decayed spurs. Young trees in course of formation will need the 
