16 i 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 24, 1893. 
gardeners. The winner of the leading prize collection in the 
professional class may not be expected to acquiesce in this ; but 
there was not one dish of his produce that could not have been 
easily beaten by a dish of the same kind in the cottagers’ classes. 
His vegetables were too large. A critical on-looker described them 
as “ clumsy.” They represented unremitting cultural attention, 
no doubt, but also represented waste in labour and material. It 
is not suggested that those in other collections were better, for 
they were not. We had large and coarse on the one hand, and 
small and coarse, or inferior, on the other. Surely all the best 
vegetable judges know that too much weight is attached to mere 
size, and yet few appear to have the moral courage to place 
quality first, as it always should be for vegetables that are 
supposed to be grown for the dining tables of the affluent who 
desire to have such vegetables of the highest possible quality. 
Cottagers’ vegetables may be permissibly larger, as bulk is a 
point of moment ; but even then it should not be at the expense 
of good quality. 
It was observable in most of the cottagers’ classes that the 
largest Onions, Marrows, Beet, Kidney Beans, Carrots, and indeed 
nearly all other vegetables, did not obtain the highest prizes. High 
quality with useful size appeared to be what the judges had in 
mind in determining the relative merits of the cottagers’ produce. 
This should always be so, or coarseness and waste will be 
encouraged as is the case now in gardeners’ classes. Prizes are 
regularly awarded to vegetables that no first-class cook would 
accept for a first-class dinner. No one who knows what a first- 
class dinner is can deny that assertion, yet the absurdity of 
honouring the unwieldy and unacceptable, as judged by the final and 
conclusive test, is perpetuated. A gardener who has to supply the 
best that can be grown for a nobleman’s table remarked the other 
day that he thought the time had arrived when a limit should be 
placed to size, and that no vegetables should exceed certain 
stipulated dimensions. There is something in the idea, and perhaps 
in time he or others may put it into shape by suggesting a maximum 
size for vegetables grown by gardeners for the tables of their 
employers. It would result in the staging of produce of much 
higher quality than is now seen at shows, and to which leading 
prizes are awarded. 
But while the workers led the way by the excellence of their 
produce in the vegetable classes, the gardeners, as may be expected, 
were far in advance with fruit, though excellent specimens and 
dishes were staged in both sections. Cooking Apples were espe¬ 
cially fine, and sixteen growers competed in one class. Dessert 
Apples and Pears were also good. The Apples were of fair size 
and finely coloured. Pears were mainly represented by Williams’ 
Bon Chretien, or, as it was frequently named, “William.” Amongst 
the Grapes Alicantes were the best, though good bunches of 
Muscat of Alexandria were shown. Plums were finely exhi¬ 
bited both in the culinary and dessert classes. Amongst the 
Peaches Sea Eagle was perhaps the finest, though there were other 
very good fruits. Melons were not a particularly good feature, 
nor were small fruits, the Show being too late for them 
this early season. Brightness and sweetness were imparted by 
flowers of various kinds and in bewildering numbers, and 
altogether the Show in its entirety was a wonderful one consider¬ 
ing the season. 
The exhibits afforded practical and conclusive testimony of the 
great and growing interest that is taken in gardening by the 
community. The excellence of the products also denoted skill in 
cultivation and the exercise of thought and persevering work in 
bringing them together in such generally good condition. The 
Show was a credit to all, organizers and exhibitors. Co-operation in 
production is evidently growing. Whether anything like equal 
progress can be made by co-operation in distribution remains to be 
seen. Mr. Greening and his able associates have done much in one 
direction, and it is conceivable they can do something in the other, 
tending to the more profitable disposal of crops to the producers 
without any prejudice to consumers, but on the contrary to their 
advantage. 
Always on the look out for somethirg new and good, Mr. 
Greening said “ next year he should like to carry out a novel idea 
of his own, if he could only get the Judges to work with him, and 
that was to show in the centre of the Palace a model of a town 
garden, as it often was, with its bricks and pots, old kettles, and 
dead cats, and the other rubbish strewn within its boundaries, and 
to place side by side with it a town garden such as it might be by 
the aid of co operation and the improved resources and knowledge 
of working men.” If the great organiser can find the means and 
the Crystal Palace Company find a suitable space in the grounds, 
real gardens could be formed of the nature suggested that would 
be interesting, instructive, and attractive (without the cats), but an 
attempt to carry out the idea in the Palace would, it is feared, 
result in a burlesque, though no doubt something of a sensational 
nature might be provided—if there is room. 
COLOUR IN PEACHES AND NECTARINES. 
Undoubtedly this has been a very good season for the colour¬ 
ing of the above fruits. Some varieties naturally put on a higher 
colour even during the dullest seasons than do others. Whether 
for market purposes or for home dessert the colour of the fruit 
has a good deal to do with its acceptance, and affects its value 
materially. There is no fruit more tempting to the palate than 
a highly coloured Peach ; but it is to show how to get high 
colour in them during a comparatively dull summer that these 
notes are written. Sunshine is not the only factor which is 
required. Light is most essential. Exposure to light, air, and 
sunshine is generally advised, and often practised when the fruits 
have had the final thinning, and about the size of large Walnuts. 
But I maintain that this full exposure should take place earlier 
than at the stoning stage. The finishing of the fruit properly 
should be studied at the time of planting. A good distance—at 
least 15 inches from the glass—is the proper position in which to 
train the branches in the front part of the structure, and when 
trees are planted and trained upon the back walls those in front 
should be so disposed as not to obstruct the light from them. The 
trees must be kept healthy from the beginning, not fed so as to 
make them gross, but brought into good bearing condition as soon 
as possible—the result of a well-maintained state of the borders 
and thoroughly ripened wood. 
Setting the fruit is a very important point to consider. Those 
flowers which are on the upper side of the trellis, in the case of 
trees growing at the front and those which stand well forward on 
the back wall trees, should be attended to, whether setting be 
accomplished by means of the syringe, camel’s-hair pencil, or 
shaking the trees. The aim should be to get a good set of fruit 
well exposed to the light, and then there will be a fair prospect of 
having colour in the fruit. The crimson is not put on during the 
last stages of growth only, but is begun much earlier. I like to 
see the young Peaches well browned by the time they have stoned ; 
this betokens that deep crimson colour which it is so desirable to 
obtain. If left till later, just as the last swelling begins before the 
leaves are put on one side, the fruit, through the sudden exposure, 
is liable to scald, because being grown in semi-darkness the skin is 
tender, and unable to bear the sun’s rays without injury. Having 
trees in good health, the foliage kept free from red spider, early 
exposure of the fruits to sun, light, and air, even in the dullest 
of our summers fairly well coloured Peaches and Nectarines may 
be obtained.— G. Garner. 
ORIGIN OF THE BISMARCK APPLE. 
As a misconception appears to exist in England as to the origin 
of the Apple “ Prince Bismarck,” I beg to give you the following 
details concerning this splendid fruit, as I was present at the 
monthly meeting of the Horticultural Society of Victoria, held in 
the Athenaeum, Collins Street, Melbourne, where it was exhibited 
for the first time by a Mr. Clarkson, nurseryman, Carisbrook, and 
named by the Seedling Fruit Committee in June, 1873 :— 
At our gardens we kept a register of seedling fruits of merit 
raised in the Colony that came under the notice of the Committee, 
when we were under the control of the Horticultural Society of 
Victoria, and the practice is continued now that the gardens are 
under the control of the Government, and managed by a Board of 
Horticulture. Some of the gentlemen composing this Board were 
