48 
L July 19, 1888. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Events of the Week. —The principal Shows of the present week 
will be the following :—Helensburgh (Roses) and Highgate on the 19th, 
the National Rose Society’s Provincial Show at Darlington on Friday, 
the 20th inst., with Tibshelf on the 24th and Louth on the 25th inst., 
both Rose shows. The next meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, 
in the Drill Hall, Westminster, will be held in conjunction with the 
show of the National Carnation and Picotee Society on Tuesday, the 
24th inst. The exhibits will also comprize Ferns, Selaginellas, Ivy 
and Zonal Pelargoniums, &c. Messrs. W. & J. Birkenhead, Sale, 
Manchester, have promised an extensive collection of Ferns for this 
meeting. 
- The Exhibition of the National Carnation and Picotee 
Society will be held in the Drill Hall of the London Scottish Volun¬ 
teers, James's Street, Westminster (adjoining St. James’s Park Station, 
District Railway), on July 24th. A luncheon will be provided at the 
‘* Hotel Windsor,' 1 Victoria Street, at 1.30 P.M., for members and their 
friends. Tickets 2s. 6d. each (exclusive of wine), to be obtained from 
the Secretary, or any member of the Committee. W. T. Thiselton Dyer, 
Esq., F.R.S., Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, and Vice-President of 
the Royal Horticultural Society, has kindly consented to preside. 
Shirley Hibberd, Esq., will occupy the vice-chair. Subscriptions to the 
Society were due in January, and the Hon. Treasurer is S. Hibberd, 
Esq., 1, Priory Road, Kew, near London. Prizes will be paid as usual 
at 5 p.m. on the day of Exhibition. 
- The Weather. —Mr. C. Orchard writes from the Isle of 
Wight:—“ Roses on the houses and dwarfs are flowering most profusely, 
the dark varieties keeping their colours well in this dull weather. The 
vegetables in the kitchen garden have made wonderful growth, the 
haulm of the Potatoes being of tree-like proportions. The hay crop is 
very heavy, and would compensate for the very light crop of last season 
if we were to have what is very much required, a period of bright sun¬ 
shine, that would perfect the whole, and make a fruitful season. I have 
been very fortunate so far with my hay crop. I have made hay while 
the sun shone, and preserved it when it raine 1, but there is much about 
here spoiled. It is many years since I savv everything looking so 
green and luxuriant as now. The chalky hills, or downs as they 
are here called, which at this season of the year are generally of a 
rusty brown, are now a verdant green to the very tops. The Bee 
Orchis that are usually only a few inches high on these exposed places, 
are now to be found with flower spikes a foot long. Wild flowers on 
banks and hedgerows have attained unusual proportions.” 
- “ The weather,” writes a Sheffield correspondent, “ still con¬ 
tinues most unseasonable, a cold wind blowing from the north- 
-east, with scarcely any sunshine, and cold rains almost daily. On 
Monday rain was falling fast, and had continued so to do with only 
two hours intermission since eleven p.m. on Saturday, or nearly 
forty-eight hours. The ground is saturated and very cold. Roses and 
Carnations will not be in flower with us before August, nor will Straw¬ 
berries and Raspberries ripen before that time. Peas are making plenty 
of haulm, but are podding very slowly indeed. Potatoes also are malc'ng 
abundant top growth but scarcely any tubers. Although Sheffield as 
notably a very late district as regards vegetation, I have never previously 
known it so late as this season.” 
- The Portsmouth Show.— The Hon. Secretary, Mr. F. Power, 
writes :—“As it may interest your readers to know the result of popular 
prices of admission, I give you the exact number of visitors on each day 
at our Show last week. First day, 6G1 at Is. ; 1571 at fid. ; second day, 
(5086 at 3d. ; third day, 14,826 at Id.—total, 23,144. Had the weather 
been fine no doubt the numbers would have been greater, but a gale of 
wind and snow falling on the second day was anything but favourable 
for flower shows.” 
- A correspondent states that “ At the recent Rose Show at 
Ryde, I.W., a beautiful bank of Orchids and Ferns were 
arranged in the Concert Hall and exhibited, not for competition, by Mr, 
J. Earle, gardener to Henry Grosse Smith, Esq., The Priory, St. Helens,, 
I.W. The Laelias, Dendrobiums, Cyprip<diums, Odontoglossums, Onci- 
diums, Thunias, Masdevallias, Epidendrums, &c., in their several 
varieties formed an attractive feature in the Exhibition.” 
— The Guerande Carrot. —“B.” sendsthisandthefollowingnota 
—“ I have been highly pleased with this intermediate sort, which comes 
into use as quickly as the Early Horn, and very soon outgrows that sort. 
It entirely supersedes the Early Nantes, and grown alongside Sutton’s 
Early Gem it is slightly ahead of that fine variety. Grown in the open 
garden and on a south border the results have been alike in these 
respects.” 
- “Another vegetable worth noting is Early Puritan Potato,. 
which comes nearer to the standard of good quality than most sorts. 
We tried it lately with some other new varieties, and it gave muck 
satisfaction, and is marked as a main cropper for another season, 
Veitch’s new early Pea is also a decided step forward as regards earliness, 
and from Webbs’ Early Gem Tomato we gathered a large crop of good 
fruits in May and June. This is an extremely free variety, and new to 
me.” 
- Tomatoes at Chiswick. —The old Rose house in the Royal 
Hoiticultural Society’s Garden is this season given up to the cultivation, 
of Tomatoes. The house is a light airy structure, about 100 feet in 
length by 30 feet in width, and contains some 450 plants, planted out 
in four borders, two on each side of the central walk. The plants are. 
grown with single stems, and trained to stakes about 6 feet in height. 
The seed was sown early in March, the planting out taking place about 
the middle of April. Ordinary garden soil is that used. A capital set 
of fruit has been obtained, and the plants are in vigorous health. 
Amongst all the sorts bearing the name of Perfection there is a great 
family resemblance, and of this most useful type producing smooth, 
solid, scarlet-coloured fruits, there are some 250 plants in the collection.. 
Ham Green Favourite, certificated last year, is a variety worthy of note,, 
being much esteemed at Chiswick. Horsford’s Prelude is an American 
introduction, and will be appreciated by those who like a somewhat 
small Tomato. It produces its beautiful deep scarlet fruits in clusters, 
sometimes numbering as many as eighteen fruits, and bearing to within 
6 inches of the ground. The plants are characterised by a stocky and- 
compact habit of growth. Early Scarlet Tennis Ball is a round Plum- 
sliaped fruit which is produced in clusters—a very free setter ; a good 
sort to cultivate where quantity is a desideratum. Laxton’s Open Air, 
a good early variety and a free setter, and that good all-round variety,, 
Hathaway’s Excelsior, find a place in the collection. Golden Queen is. 
a very fine yellow-skinned variety, certificated by the Royal Horticul¬ 
tural Society’s Fruit Committee two years ago. In a lean-to house- 
adjoining is a collection of about fifty varieties, grown in 12-inch and 
16-inch pots, and containing some of the newer sorts, which promise well’. 
- A meeting of the Executive Committee of the Yorkshire, 
Association of Horticultural Societies was held on Monday- 
evening last at the Grand Restaurant, Boar Lane, Leeds, Mr. Jos. Smithy 
President, in the chair, and at which delegates were present from the- 
virious societies held at Leeds, Sheffield, Barnsley, and Rotherham. 
After disposing of a very enjoyable tea, hospitably provided for the, 
delegates by the Leeds Paxton Society, business was proceeded with, and" 
the following resolutions adopted :—First, That the minutes of last, 
meeting be confirmed. Second, That the annual meeting of the 
Association be held at the Grand Restaurant, Boar Lane, Leeds, on 
Wednesday, August 1st. Programme for the day’s business to be as^ 
follows :—10.30 A.M., Meeting of delegates for the transaction of busi¬ 
ness ; 11.45 A.M., Luncheon for delegates and visitors; 1.10 P.M., 
Excursion to Oakworth House Gardens, the residence of Isaac Holden* 
Esq., M.P. ; 6.10 P.M., Return from ditto ; 6.15 P.M., Tea at GrancL 
Restaurant ; 7 P.M., Lecture by Professor Jefferson “ On the Chemical 
Action of Plants, with Microscopic Illustrations and Experiments.” 
The question arising as to where the business of the Association be- 
conducted and the annual meeting be held in 1889, the delegates from- 
the Sheffield Floral and Horticultural Society signified that they were 
empowered to invite the same to Sheffield on behalf of their Society. 
This invitation was received with satisfaction by the Committee, and 
referred for final decision to the annual meeting. A resolution was also 
unanimously adopted that before the annual meeting takes place each 
Society in the Association be requested to hold a special general meeting. 
