46 
[• jnly 21,1887. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
of this blind method of procedure. If it is right there 
must be some occult reason for it that is not apparent to 
ordinary visitors, and on this point perhaps the Council 
might vouchsafe a little information. 
1 am not writing to praise or to blame anyone whether 
in an individual or corporate capacity. There has been 
perhaps more than enough of that sort of thing, but I wish 
to have the whole system brought under review, for at 
present it appears to be in some respects faulty, not to 
say loose; and the opinion is gaining ground that the 
non-publication of complete systematic reports of the 
Chiswick trials is a mistake from whatever point of view 
the omission is regarded. 
Wherever the head of the Royal Horticultural 
Society may be, Chiswick is its heart; and I am 
one of those who think it is a small matter as to 
whether the offices of the Society remain at South Ken¬ 
sington or not, in comparison with making the most and 
the best of the Gardens at Chiswick—doing all that can 
be done there as far as the Society’s resources allow, and 
making the public acquainted with the proceedings in an 
official manner and without avoidable delay. This 
would do more than anything else to strengthen the 
Society and gain for it public sympathy and confidence, 
as records of the doings in the Gardens would afford proof 
that the Society is actively engaged in the work it was 
established to perform A good deal is no doubt done in 
the gardens now, but what avails that if the great body of 
cultivators know nothing about it except what is casually 
gleaned from the observations of some visitor who hap¬ 
pens to record his impressions in one or more of the 
gardening Journals? 
That the Council of a Royal Society should he content 
with that haphazard method of placing its work before 
the public is a little surprising, and to say the least it 
betrays a lack of real active interest on the part of that 
body, and an absence of a genuine horticultural spirit 
that should animate every member and form the basis of 
his action in the conduct of the Society’s affairs. It 
should be, and it can be, popularised, and in no way so 
well as in developing the resources of Chiswick, and placing 
the work that is being done there before the public as 
often and as quickly as the materials can be provided, 
and this would be much more frequently and promptly 
than has been the case during recent years. Official 
inactivity is largely interpreted as apathy, and can only 
represent a society in an enfeebled state. — A Fellow. 
SHADING AND AIR-GIVING. 
(.Continued from page 30.) 
A COOL temperature at night, and early air-giving, will minimise 
shading, and so far as growing and ripening are concerned, would 
render the process next to unnecessary, could we depend upon 
regular courses of weather. But in all shallow structures, such 
as pits and frames, shading is often required, when, after several 
days of dull, cloudy weather, one with bright sunshine suddenly 
comes. We see even hardy plants flag for several hours under 
such circumstances, and unless the preventives of early air-giving, 
and additional moisture in the atmosphere, have been attended to, 
the danger of scalding and burning would have been imminent, 
without shading, in all such structures. 
A good syringing, or an hour’s shading, will often habituate the 
plants to the change, and no crumpling or scalding of leaves will 
be the result. But this shading should never remain a moment 
longer than is necessary. It is nothing uncommon to meet with 
people that can only have one prominent idea at one time. They 
will never do great things in gardening, unless they are fixed to one 
department, and hardly even then. It is nothing uncommon to see 
a man careful in shading; but go hours after the sun has been 
clouded, and there is still the shading. The necessity of removing, 
as well as putting on, is a sort of double idea, and that was too 
much for thorough attention. One of the cleverest men I ever 
knew never held a situation long from this very cause. Whatever 
he was doing was done well, because it received his undivided 
attention. There was no room for anything else, and the general 
results may be guessed at. There was praiseworthy attention to- 
one object, but for all other things demanding equal care and 
thought, they might as well not have existed. Every minute’s, 
shading more than is necessary renders the plant more enervated, 
and just requiring more and more of future shading and coddling. 
Having said sufficient of the principle to be kept in view 
in shading, let me now say a few words as to the modes and 
material. For though the hints thrown out would reduce shading 
to a minimum when growth and maturation were concerned, it 
becomes less or more indispensable when we wish to preserve plants 
in bloom as long as possible. 
For this purpose nothing is better for houses than thin calico- 
or open bunting, fixed by one side to the ridge of a house, and at 
the front side of the house to a round roller of wood, from 1^ to- 
2£ inches in diameter. In houses about 30 feet in length, a cord 
twice the width of the house, wrapped round a grooved wheel on 
the end of the roller, will be sufficient to let the roller up and down. 
As you pull the string, the resistance given will cause the roller to- 
revolve and mount the roof, and by means of a pin in front it may 
be fixed at any elevation. 
But even at the above length, or a little more, there will be a 
tendency in the roller and blind to drag at one end, and, therefore,, 
in the cases of blinds over long houses, it is better to have two or 
three pulleys instead of one. The mode of working is quite as- 
easy, but different. Each pulley will require to be from three to 
five times the width of the houses. Fix the blind on the apex of 
the roof and to the roller, respectively, as stated above. Then, 
supposing you are to have three pulleys, one near each end, and 
one in the middle, fix your pulley lines firmly in these places to the 
apex of the roof, then bring down the cord on the glass, underneath 
the shade, passing it over the wooden roller, and taking it back 
again to the apex, and passing it there through a pulley wheel, and 
bringing the end of the line down over the loof again, so that yen 
can easily catch it by the hand. Do the end ones the same way, 
only in addition carry the cord from the pulley wheel along the apex 
of the roof, to another pulley wheel close to the centre, and bring 
down the cord over the roof in the same way as the first. You can 
thus take all three cords in your hand at once, by pulling which the 
blind will rise regularly from end to end, and you can fasten it at 
the top or any intermediate distance, by twisting the ropes round a 
post with a peg through it. When unloosed the weight of the 
roller will bring the blind down. On the same principle you may 
bring all the strings to one end, instead of the middle, and you 
may have as many pulley-strings as you like. Three would be 
quite ample for a length of 70 or 80 feet. 
For pits, a similar plan may be used. Any mode, almost, is 
better than the littery mats we often use. I saw, the other day, a 
very simple and effectual mode in operation. Thin bleached calico 
was used. Each piece covers from four to eight or ten lights-, 
according to the size of the pit. Each end is fastened to a rod of 
wood about half an inch in diameter, and a foot or two longer than 
the covering. On one of these the covering i3 rolled up when not 
wanted. When used, one rod is fixed at the end of the pit or 
frame. You stand at the front of the pit, hold the lower end of 
the other rod in your hands, and, placing the other end on the apex 
of the back of the pit, you turn it round, walking briskly along, 
and leaving the cloth on the glass as you proceed ; the rod is then 
fixed at the other end. From having the rods longer than the pit 
you thus easily shade and unshade, without the rods ever touching 
the glass. On the cloth, opposite the handles of each light, there 
are strings sewed on, which, when tied to the handles, prevents any 
wind but a hurricane from moving it. The rods, besides being 
thus useful, are a great saving to the shade, as when not wanted, or 
in wet weather, they can easily be transported to a waterproofed 
shed. Any other cheap thin material, such as Nottingham netting, 
may be used in a similar manner. 
Many, however, will object to the trouble even of these shades, 
and would prefer something that would give a mild continuous 
shade during summer. The other day I saw a house thickly en¬ 
crusted with lime. The objection to this is, that if used at all in a 
quick state it will injure both paint and putty. Whiting is better. 
The objection to both is, that the first shower will wash them off. 
Hence I recommend double size, with the smallest amount of 
whiting—say the size of a walnut to more than a quart. I saw 
many of what had been fine blinds lying in a nursery, fast going to 
decay, lately, and the houses had been sized and whitened instead. 
The proprietor told me that it answered far better, and saved an 
immense number of mishaps and bother in mistakes about shading. 
He had, however, put his on on the inside of the glass, instead of 
