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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
t April 13, 1893. 
-A Contest in Flobal Akbangements at Chicago. —One 
of Mr. Thorpe’s latest plans for the horticultural department of the 
World’s Fair is for a contest in floral arrangement during the month of 
August. Of course the difficulties in making the contest truly national 
in character will be numerous, but he believes they can all be overcome. 
The month of August has been selected mainly because at that time so 
many florists will be sure to visit the Fair, and can take part without 
making a special trip for the purpose. Mr. Thorpe believes that many 
of the eastern florists will be sufficiently interested to have their 
material sent on from the east for the purpose, but all can enter and 
use material obtained in Chicago or within easy reach. Certainly such 
an important department of the trade as the arrangement of flowers 
should not be entirely omitted from a display intended to represent the 
progress of floriculture, and such contests always prove great attrac¬ 
tions to the people. Mr. Thorpe believes that the rules to govern such 
a contest should be largely devised by those who will probably take 
part .—(^American Flovht.') 
-Late Queen Beoccoli.—T his fine variety is certainly worthy 
of extended cultivation, for according to my experience it is one of the 
hardiest of Broccoli ; and, moreover, is ready for use at a time when 
small white heads are particularly acceptable—viz , from the middle of 
April till June. It is the only variety which has wintered well with us 
this season. During severe winters thousands of midseason Broccoli are 
killed, and under the circumstances it is well to consider if it is desirable 
to plant midseason varieties so largely as heretofore, seeing how very 
precarious a crop they have been during the last few years. No mistake 
can, however, be made by having good breadths of Late Queen, for 
should the following winter prove mild this variety will be invaluable 
when the bulk of others are over. If, on the other hand, a severe 
winter is experienced. Late Queen comes to the rescue again by reason 
of its thorough hardiness. This is well worth bearing in mind now that 
the time has arrived for sowing the main batches of vegetables for 
winter and spring supply. I find the last week in April is early enough 
to sow this variety. The plants resulting therefrom are then ready to 
plant between rows of Potatoes at a convenient time—viz., after the 
haulm have completed their growth.—H. Dunkin. 
- Seed Potatoes. —I have often had occasion to remark as to 
the exceeding baldness of sorts of Potatoes for seed purposes offered in 
some provincial districts. Still further, how much residents in such 
localities owe to those more enterprising traders who distribute their 
Potato lists broadcast, as it is only through such energy that many 
varieties of Potatoes would get heard of at all. I have been looking 
through the lists of seed Potatoes that are issued in a considerable out¬ 
lying town, and also taken stock of what is offered in seed shops or other 
ways, and have been surprised at the very meagre fare. One Ashleaf 
does duty for Myatt’s, and Veitch’s Early Rose does also for Early 
Vermont. Then there is Beauty of Hebron and its late ally. White 
Elephant, also Magnum Bonum, Schoolmaster, Imperator, and some¬ 
times The Bruce. This is a fair representation of the sorts of Potatoes 
open to the grower whether rich or poor to select from. It is all very 
well to aver, as some critics who are wondrously wise will, that we have 
far too many sorts of Potatoes ; but who complains of too many ? In such 
a case as this, where is the enterprise of the local trader who thus drones 
on from year to year and makes little or no addition to such a poor stock 1 
What wonder if the local trade is in a muddled and meagre condition. 
But whilst having no sympathy with such traders one may reasonably 
have some with that portion of the public who may not purchase of 
sorts new varied and good they would desire to do,but under ordinary local 
conditions can only of sorts they do not want. Even when they meet, 
as sometimes they do, with a list of sorts that affords ample selection, 
their wants are so moderate that they hesitate to order, and hesitating 
are lost. Did but a few combine to order, or would but one local trader 
resolve to invest in the purchase of some of the finer varieties for sale, 
great good to the Potato seed trade might be effected.—A. D. 
REVIEWS OF BOOKS. 
Th-e Garden Manual. E. H. May, 171, Fleet Street. 
Wb can, with the utmost propriety, allude to the re-issue of this 
work, as it embodies the teaching of practical men who have contributed 
to the pages of this Journal and iis predecessor, the Cottage Gardener. 
Some of the writers whose work is cherished have been called away, 
while others happily remain. The teaching in the Manual is the out¬ 
come of ripe experience, and covers a wide field of practice in the various 
departments of gardening. It may be said that practically all kinds 
of fruits, flowers, vegetables, and herbs are included, and their cultiva¬ 
tion described. This applies to those which are grown both under glass 
or in the open air ; in fact, we may say the Garden Manual provides 
information for everybody who needs it on the management of gardens 
and the cultivation of crops, and it also tells the readers in advertise¬ 
ments where they may obtain what they require. The work consists of 
256 pages of closely printed matter, and though nearly 50,000 copies 
have been sold Mr. May says he wishes to sell more because it is such an 
useful handbook for amateurs, and contains more information for 
Is. 6d. (Is. 9J. post free) than is to be found in any work that has 
been issued from the gardening press. 
The Wild Rabbit. By J. SiMPSON. William Blackwood & Sons, 
Edinburgh and London. 
We direct attention to this new book, not because it has any 
connection with gardening, but because it is written by a gardener 
whose duties, however, extend far beyond the garden walls. Mr. 
Simpson is a believer in rabbit warrens, and is convinced that with 
good management they may be made to pay. They used to pay very 
well in England, and it may be presumed that rabbit rearing pays 
elsewhere, or hundreds of tons of them would not be imported. The 
author points out why in one important respect rabbit wairens have 
failed—starved land—and his remarks on the value of gas lime and 
salt for pastures are worthy of attention. 
The late Professor Lindley, the eminent plant physiologist, wrote that 
many years ago “ the pastures of Cheshire, exhausted by continual removal 
of grass by the animals that grazed upon them, recover their fertility when 
dressed with bones.” Now this exhaustioa is exactly what takes place in 
rabbit warrens from which large numbers of rabbits are removed annually 
and no bones or other manure ever put back in return. The Cheshire 
dairymen were quite right in concluding, in their common-sense way, that 
in putting bones on their pastures they would be putting back what their 
cattle took out of them ; but, as Dr. Lindley showed, it was the combination 
of phosphoric acid and 1 me in the bones, otherwise phosphate of lime, of 
which the bones of animals are mainly formed, that restored the fertility of 
the pastures. “ Hence arose the manufacture of superphosphate of lime by 
Mr. Lawes, now so indispensable to cultivators.” 
What the rabbit-warren farmer needs to realise is that the flesh, bones, 
and blood of a rabbit consist of from 65 to 60 per cent, of phosphate of 
lime ; that the pasture on which it feeds consists in large part of the same 
elements ; that the rabbit gets its nourishment out of the grass that it 
eats ; that the grass gets the phosphates out of the soil; and that when the 
soil becomes exhausted of these, both pasture and rabbits must of course 
perish. This is the secret of the whole matter. 
Of course, it is not, needful to supply bones direct to rabbit warrens in 
j alt circumstances. In very many cases warrens are laid out on old pasture, 
I where the food exists if only it were unlocked. We have applied no bones 
I or phosphates yet, but only gas lime and salt; but we bad a tbi kly matted 
i old pasture full of fibre, humus, rabbit droppings, &c., to begin with, and 
I which will take a good deal of decomposing and conve ting into plant food. 
Much of the pasture near the wood, where most rabbits were, was also what 
would be called taint' d or rabbic-sick. This of course indicated lime, and as 
gas lime is j net as good for gra-s as fresh lime, if not better, it was used pretty 
freely on the wortft spots—put on in November, the right time—followed by 
a sprinkling of salt in spring. Tuel me acts upon ihe croppings and humus 
of the turf, converting both into the food of plants, aided by the salt, and 
both are energetic purifiers of the ground even on a limestone soil, which 
ours is not. The effect w s at once apparent, by the improvement in the 
pasture and the eagerness with which the dressed parts were attacked by 
the rabbits. Salt, as is well known, has a marked in^uence on the health 
of animals, and promotes fertility So noticeable was this, that a large 
quantity of gas lime and salt was also applied to the old de r park with the 
same results, the deer patronising the dressed land the whole summer. 
The prejudice against gas lime—a prejudice entertained even by some 
noted and professed y scientific agriculturists—arises from ignorance. Dr. 
Voelcker, chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society, has pronounced 
emphatically in its favour, and especially recommends it for permanent 
pasture deficient in lime. But more is to be said about it than this. Gas 
lime is supposed to be obnoxious to animals on account of its smell; but 
that is not the case with cattle, horses, or rabbits. Gas tar w 11 stink 
rabbits out of their holes, and is used for that purpose; but gas lime they 
will burrow in, and will live and breed in a fresh heap of it, as they have 
done here. They simply revel in it, and are on to it as soon as it is spread. 
Horses I have seen rubbing their noses in it with apparent pleasure, and 
cattle have no object ous whatever to its presence. It thonld be well 
pulverised with a malht or spade, and spread evenly on the pasture, but 
should never be applied after tne tender grass begins to grow in spring, as 
it burns it off. Salt should be given freely to almost all pistures, especially 
when far from the sea. “ The effects of salt,” says Dr. Lindley, “ a'e not to 
force plants and give them a dark colour like ammonia, but to consolidate 
their tissues and render them crisp as well as succulent,” and no doubt more 
nourishing. 
A thing happened here during the past summer worth mentioning in 
connection with this subject. As in mo-t places, the young pheasants here 
have suffered more or less from cr^mp, that disease never being quite 
absent at anytime till this year, when the coops were put down in the 
warren on a spot recently limed and salted. Last year on the same ground, 
close by, where no ra't or lime had ever been put, rramp was bad; this 
year it was wholly absent, and similar dressings will be given where the 
pheasants are to be in future. I merely offer this hint to those whom it 
may concern. 
The above remarks are suggestive and generally useful in their 
tendency, while the main subject of the work is practically treated in 
detail by the author. The volume will sustain the fame of the 
/ publishers by its excellence in production. 
