214 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 8, 1887. 
grand example of a Davallia Mooreana, 7 feet across. Mr. McIntyre was 
second, his Adiantums being handsome, especially A. farleyense. Mr. J. 
Luke Thornburn, gardener to G. H. Benson, Esq., Eden House, Sunderland, 
was third with smaller but clean healthy plants. 
The groups of plants were very effective, but were marked by a groat 
similarity in style, small well-coloured Crotons being freely employed. The 
first prize of T10 and the Society’s silver medal was won by Messrs. Clark 
Brothers, Carlisle, for a light tasteful arrangement, in which Crotons, 
Begonias, Ferns, and Dracaenas predominated. Mr. McIntyre was also 
awarded a first prize for a bright and handsome group of similar design. 
Mr. H. Johnston, who was placed second, had a number of Crotons, Palms, 
Dracaenas, Adiantums, and Celosias freely and effectively arranged with a 
neat margin of Panicum variegatum. These groups were placed at the ends 
of the marquees, and, with the non-competing exhibits to be noted presently, 
constituted an admirable finish to the Exhibition as a whole. 
Cut Flowers, Bouquets, &c. —The central marquee of the three was 
occupied with the cut flowers arranged on side stages, the bouquets, button¬ 
holes, wreaths, and dessert table decorations having a central stage extending 
the whole length of the tent. The exhibits were very numerous, and it 
would occupy too much space to particularise them all, but they formed one 
of the most interesting features of the Show to the general pubiic, the tables 
being surrounded by a crowd of visitors on each of the three days. There 
were six competitors with dessert tables arranged in a space 10 feet by 
5 feet 4 inches, the first prize being ATO and the Society’s silver medal. A 
well-known and successful exhibitor in the north, Mr. M. D. Thompson, The 
Hermitage Gardens, Chester-le-Street, was awarded this substantial honour 
in a keen competition, followed by Mr. J. R. Chard, Brunswick Nurseries, 
Stoke Newington, Mr. J. Cypher, and Mr. A. Methven, Gateshead, but 
there was considerable difference of opinion, as there often is in such classes, 
respecting the correctness of the awards. Mr. Cypher’s table was unques¬ 
tionably entitled to a better place than that awarded it, and it would have 
been more satisfactory if the Judges could have devoted more time to the 
class. Indeed, a staff of six Judges for so large a Show was inadequate. 
Messrs. Perkins & Son, Coventry, were successful in the classes for a basket 
of cut flowers, bridal bouquet, hand bouquet, and a ladies’ spray, winning 
first honours in each case with their usual tasteful arrangements. Mr. 
Cypher had the best epergne of flowers, and Mr. Chard also won several 
prizes, together with Messrs. Lunt, Armstrong, Rutherford, Handyside, 
Robertson, Hewitt, and McDougall. Mis3 Dora Battensby also showed well 
in several classes, her bouquets and baskets being especially tasteful. 
The cut flowers comprised some fine Gladioli from Messrs. Harkness 
and Son, Bedale, some of their spikes having sixteen large expanded flowers. 
Messrs. H. G. Brown, R. Greenwell, and Alex. C. Campbell were also prize- 
takers in the same class. Dahlias were capitally shown, several classes 
being devoted to them, including those in which the Turner Memorial 
prizes were offered. The best twenty-four Dahlias were shown by Mr. J. 
Spoor, Musgrave Cottage, Low Fell, Gateshead, who was awarded the 
first prize of £6 and Wood’s Jubilee Memorial silver medal. Mr. Spoor is 
a well-known amateur florist at Newcastle, who competes successfully at 
many of the local shows in the district; his blooms were fine, of good sub¬ 
stance, and rich clear colours. Messrs. N. Walker, H. Clark & Sons, Hark¬ 
ness &Son, Wm. Boston, and J. Walker followed in a large class. The 
Turner Memorial prizes for twelve Dahlias and twelve Roses were awarded 
to Mr. J. Walker, Low Fell, Gateshead, and Mr. Arthur Whitton Aiskew, 
Bedale. Messrs. J. Cocker & Sons had some fine Roses for the time of year, 
Hollyhocks were shown in remarkably fine condition, Asters, Marigolds, 
Pansies, Carnations, Picotees, &c., being well represented. Mr. J. Short 
had a fine collection of hardy flowers, remarkably well-grown samples ; in¬ 
door flowers being Bhown by Messrs. Mclndoe, E. H. Letts, H. Johnston, 
and Suffield. 
The non-competing exhibits comprised a large and handsome group of 
Crotons and other plants from Messrs. Little & Bdlantyne, Carlisle, the 
Crotons, being distinguished by their rich colours, the following varieties 
Warreni, Sunset, Queen Victoria, Countess, Sinitzinianus, Prince of Wales, 
Ruberrima Aigburthensis and volutus. Caladium argyrites, Eulalia japonica 
variegata, with Talms and some fine Dracsems, were also included in the 
group. Messrs. Fell & Co., Hexham, had a large group of trees, shrubs, and 
hardy plants, a fine selection of the best varieti b. Mr. W. J. Watson, 
Newcastle, had a collection of plants and flowers. Messrs. Backhouse and 
Son, York, had a large collection of Apples. Mr. John Jennings had a group 
of Ferns, Palms, <fcc. Messrs. Cocker & Sons, Aberdeen, a colle. tion of 
Roses. Mr. Forbes of Hawick showed some good Pentstemons; Mr. Alex. 
Lister, Rothesay, sent some fine Marigolds, Pansies, &c.; Messrs. Dobbie 
and Co. exhibited a collection of handsome Dahlias, Marigolds, and 
Pansies ; Mr. Robson, Hexham, had a collection of hardy trees, shrubs, and 
Roses; and Mr. A. G. Brown, gardener to Mrs. Barnes, Whitburn, had a 
plant of Vallota purpurea with over thirty spikes of flowers, a very hand¬ 
some specimen. 
On the first day of the Show a luncheon was held in the dining room, 
the Mayor, Sir Benjamin C. Browne, presiding, with Alderman Gray in the 
vice-chair; there being present the Lord Mayor of York, Sir J. Terry, Canon 
Lloyd, M.A., the Sheriff of Newcastle, Alderman W. H. Stephenson, and a 
large number of officials and visitors. 
INDIAN EXPERIENCES. 
(Continued from page 161.') 
With the object of counteracting the deplorable state of things 
referred to iu my last letter, Tea and Chinchona have been planted to a 
considerable extent both on fresh land and between the lines of the 
gradually perishing Coffee trees. I have been recently informed, on the 
best authority, that in this district of the Auchterlony Valley and the 
■neighbouring one of Goodalore, from eight to ten millions of Chinchona 
trees are being cultivated at the present time, mostly of the Succirubra 
and Calisya species, and large quantities of bark are now being for¬ 
warded to the London markets. The revenue derived from this source 
will doubtless help to diminish the deficit caused by the Coffee crop 
failures, but it is highly problematical whether this source of revenue 
will long be maintained in the face of rapidly falling prices for all kinds 
of barks in the markets of the world, owing to over-production in India, 
Ceylon, and Java by artificial cultivation. The cultivation of Tea would 
appear to be the planter’s sheet anchor for the future, to which he is now 
turning his attention. It has been amply demonstrated that Tea of 
excellent quality can be produced in India at similar elevations to the 
Valley under notice,’and that it fetches a fair price in the home markets ; 
and as the Tea shrub has been found to possess a much hardier con¬ 
stitution than that of either Coffee or Chinchona, it follows that its 
cultivation would be likely to prove of a more permanent nature than 
either of the last named plants. It is, therefore, to be hoped that the 
land in the Auchterlony Valley will not be abandoned to the growth of 
noxious underwood, but that under the operation of intelligent and 
scientific cultivation, land that was once clothed with the finest Coffee 
plantations of the south of India, may, ere many years have passed, be 
occupied with the Tea shrub. 
I visited the Auchterlony valley on many occasions during my sojourn 
in India, and at each visit was more and more charmed with the appear¬ 
ance of the Coffee plantations and the wonderful beauty of the sur¬ 
rounding heights crowned with the everlasting verdure of the forests, 
from which issued lovely and ample streams of the purest water, which 
intersected the Coffee estates in their course to the river beyond, and 
turning many a water wheel on their way. Unlike many Coffee dis¬ 
tricts, there was ample water here of the purest and best description for 
all purposes, and yet I never knew the planters turn it to account in the 
way of irrigation, even in seasons of the greatest drought. 
Possessing a delightful climate equally enjoyable to the Englishman 
and the native of India—a soil, at once of the greatest depth and richest 
description, capable of producing not only Coffee of the finest descrip¬ 
tion, but also English vegetables of every kind in abundance and oi ex¬ 
cellent quality, as well as Apples, Peaches, Oranges, Loquats, Limes, 
Shaddocks, Pine Apples, Pears, and other fruits, and numberless English 
flowers—this delightful valley seemed to have been set apart by Nature 
either to be left alone for ever in its pristine beauty of forest and stream, 
to be the home of the elephant, the bison, the tiger, and the innumerable 
wild animals and birds that inhabited its forests, or to be changed into a 
Garden of Eden by the skill and industry of intelligent man, for the 
permanent benefit of his kind. Instead of that it has run imminent 
risk of being changed from its primitive grandeur into a pestilential 
wilderness by the hands of the land speculator hastening to be rich. No 
better tract of country could be conceived for the settlement of small 
landholders, both European and native, where by dint of highly culti¬ 
vating the naturally fertile soil, marvellous crops might have been 
raised, not only of Coffee, but of many kinds of fruits and vegetables, 
for the wants of the cultivators and for sale. In no part of the world, 
I imagine—certainly in no part of Southern India—has the system of 
speculative husbandry or land jobbing succeeded for any great length of 
time. If Government, instead of countenancing any such system, had 
from the first fostered and encouraged the settlement of small land 
holders, both native and European, in the various Coffee districts of 
the Presidency of Madras, it would not only have greatly benefited 
cultivators of the land in general, but it would have been the means, 
most assuredly, of permanently upholding the land revenue of Govern¬ 
ment, and instead of the thousands of acres in every district, once covered 
with Coffee, but now converted into noxious thorny scrub, we should 
have had well cultivated districts comprised of small but highly 
cultivated and remunerative holdings, supporting a large population, 
where, at the present moment, not a soul exists. 
There are not wanting indications that the Government of India are 
becoming alive to the very unsatisfactory state of agriculture in the 
country, especially with regard to the Coffee, Tea, and Chinchona indus¬ 
tries, undertaken to such a large extent by Europeans, and the time 
may not be far distant when facilities may be afforded settlers of small 
means to obtain small holdings, which would be almost certain by right 
cultivation to prove both remunerative to themselves and to the State. 
The idea that India is but ill adapted to the English constitution is, I 
think, exploded ; at least it is my belief from an experience of seventeen 
' years, that with due care the average Englishman is as likely to live as 
long and enjoy life quite as much on any of the hill tracts of South 
India as in any part of his native land.— PlANTEE. 
WQKK. f o^ the WEEK.. 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 
The weather has changed at last. It is now cool, and rain has fallen 
freely. The half-starved crops have benefited greatly by it, and they are 
now assuming a healthy green colour. It will soon be late in the season 
to expect quick and luxuriant growth, but the great heat that is in the 
soil ought to produce much growth during the next month or more. It 
is this we are looking to for the improvement of our backward crops. 
Recently sown seeds have been very slow in germinating and making 
plants of any size ; autumn Turnips are very small, but they are sure to 
attain a useful size during the next two months. 
