170 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 23, 1888. 
■good. Peas have produced plenty of haulm, but the pods do not fill. 
-Onions fail to bulb. Potatoes are large and free from disease, but have 
few tubers to the haulm. Broad Beans which were forced and planted 
•out have borne a heavy crop of well-fille 1 pods, but sowings in the open 
are a failure. Scarlet Itunners are just commencing to flower, and 
Dwarfs are not yet sufficiently large for use. 
Flowers out of doors have been exceedingly scarce this year, espe¬ 
cially so is the case in reference to Pelargoniums and Lobelias ; how¬ 
ever, Calceolarias and Violas have well filled their beds, and are now a 
mass of bloom. Early flowering Chrysanthemums and Carnations pro¬ 
mise an abundant supply of bloom, and Pentstemons are finer than I 
have ever seen them. Single Pyretbrums were also finer this year than 
-we have had them. Mignonette is poor, and most of the more tender 
plants, such as Heliotrope and single Dahlias, will, I fear, yield us few 
■flowers this season. Roses we should have had in abundance, but the 
rain proved so inimical to their buds that most of them decayed before 
heing fully developed. 
The soil we have to deal with is a calcareous loam, resting chiefly upon 
gravel, and situated in a low-lying valley on the banks of the Rye.— 
J. Riddell, The Gardens, buncombe Pari:, Helmsley. 
Events of the Week.— Shows still continue numerous, but 
the present is not a very full week in the south. On Thursday, 23rd, 
the Wilts Horticultural Society holds its annual Show in Salisbury, 
Dunkeld and Aberdeen societies having shows in the north on the same 
<lay. August 24th is fixed for the Perth Show (two days), and the 
members of the National Chrysanthemum Society with their friends 
have arranged for a trip on that day (Friday) to Baron Schroder’s 
garden, The Dell, Egliam. On Tuesday, August 28th, the Royal 
Horticultural Society’s Fruit and Floral Committees will meet in the 
Drill Hall, Westminster. A Show will be held at Sherborne on Wed¬ 
nesday, the 29th inst. 
-The Potato Disease at Chiswick.—T he attack of the 
murrain on the Potatoes on trial in the Royal Horticultural Society’s 
■gardens is very pronounced, in the case of some varieties virulent, and 
few have wholly escaped. They were examined by the Committee on 
Tuesday last, and an official report will be prepared for publication. 
- The Gardeners’ Orphan Fund.—T hrough the kindness of 
Mr. and Mrs. Hopwood the Gardens at Ketton Hall, Stamford, were 
•open to the public in aid of the above on Monday, August 20th. The 
weather was changeable and not very encouraging, but there was a good 
attendance ; £3 17s. was taken for admission, and 2s. 8,jd. in collecting 
boxes, leaving a balance in favour of the fund of £2 7s. 8jd, after paying 
for printing and advertising. 
- The Weather.— “ B. D.” writes from Perthshire:—“ The 
past week has been one of dry though coldish weather, with bright sun¬ 
shine, and hopes were raised accordingly. The barometer has, however, 
been falling steadily for the last twenty-four hours, and to-day (20th) is 
again very wet.” In the south the weather has been fine with occasional 
showers this week. 
- We learn that Mr. H. N. Ridley, one of the assistants in the 
botanical department of the British Museum, has been appointed super¬ 
intendent of the Singapore Botanie Garden. 
- Artificial Manures. —Mr. II. Dunkin writes :—“ I notice 
two slight printer’s errors in my late article on • Artificial Manures.’ 
On page 14G, the sentence that reads, Tam a firm believer in steady 
and continual progress in my walk of life,’ should be in any walk of 
life. And a little farther on, ‘ Trifling attention commonly known as 
fads (not facts) are better left alone.’ ” 
-The meetingof the British Association will take place at Bath 
this year September 3rd to 13th. In the Biology Section, Mr. Thiselton 
Dyer will be President. On September 5th and 6th the annual Fruit 
and Flower Show will be held in the Sydney Gardens, to which all 
members of the Association will be admitted. 
- Gardening Appointment.— Mr. N. Molyneux, for the past 
<two years head gardener to Mrs. Davies, Burton Hill, Petwortli, Sussex, 
has been appointed to the charge of the gardens of J. Carpenter Gamier 
Esq., Rooksbury Park, Wickham, Fareham, Hants. Mr. R. Gray, late 
gardener at C'hevening, Sevenoaks, has been appointed head gardener to 
Mr. Spender Clay at Ford Manor, Surrey. 
- Relative to Ketton Gem Melon certificated at Liverpool, 
Mr. W. Bardney writes :—“I had the pleasure of tasting Ketton Gem 
as well as Dickson’s Exquisite, which I have long considered the best 
flavoured Melon in cultivation, but on this occasion at least it was 
excelled by the one exhibited by Mr. Divers. It was well worthy of the 
certificate that was awarded it. Perhaps Mr. Divers will say if it 
possesses a good constitution and fruits freely on the first laterals, and 
whether the fruit exhibited is about its size when, say, four fruits are 
taken from healthy plants on the first laterals.” 
- The York Gala. —It will come as a surprise to many that 
Mr. John AA'ilson, for thirty years the Secretary, has resigned the 
secretaryship. He undertook that position at the birth of the Society, 
and exhibitors at the Gala know quite well how much confidence was 
created by the courteous attention received at Mr. Wilson’s hands, for he 
was always a thorough business man, kind to all, and will be missed at 
the York Galas. Mr. Wilson is retiring altogether from the various 
offices of trust he held in York, and purposes living near London, and 
we are quite sure he will carry with him the heartiest wishes for his 
health and Mrs. AA'ilson’s also, in his well earned retirement. 
- The AA'akefield Paxton Society.— On Thursday evening 
last the Committee of the Paxton Society met at the “ Saw Hotel ” to 
pass the accounts in connection with the recent AATndow Garden Exhi¬ 
bition held in the A'olunteers’ Drill Shed. The accounts were laid before 
the meeting by Messrs. G. W. Fallas and T. Garnett, the two Honorary 
Secretaries, when it was found that in consequence of the printing and 
advertising charges being heavier than in previous years the expenses 
exceeded the subscriptions by about £5 or £6, and a hope was expressed 
that not only would this deficit be met, but that additional subscriptions 
would be secured in order that a small balance might be carried forward 
towards the expenses of next year’s Show. A hearty vote of thanks was 
passed to Mr. Kingswell, who not only made the Society a present of 
a quantity of decorative material, but also promised a liberal subscrip¬ 
tion towards wiping off the deficiency. 
- Lombardy Poplars and Lightning. —Professor Asa Gray 
observed, says the Newcastle Cm rant, that the reason which lies at the 
bottom of the general belief, on the continent of Europe, that lightning 
strikes the Lombardy Poplar trees in preference to others is coming to 
light. Green herbage and green wood—sappy wood—are excellent con¬ 
ductors of electricity. A tree is shattered by lightning only when the 
discharge reaches the naked trunk or naked branches, which are poorer 
conductors. An old-fashioned Lombardy Poplar, by its height, by its 
complete covering of twigs and small branches, and their foliage down 
almost to the ground, and by its sappy wood, makes a capital lightning 
rod and a cheap one. To make it surer the trees should stand in moist 
ground or near water, for wet ground is a good conductor, and dry soil 
a poor one. It is recommended to plant a Lombardy Poplar near the 
house, and another close to the barn. If the ground is dry the nearer 
the well the better, except for the nuisance of the roots that will get 
into it. 
-In the Report of the Conservator of Forests in Ceylon for 1887 
it is remarked that though Sir Joseph Hooker in 1873 called attention to 
the rapid destruction of forests in that island, no steps were taken by 
the Government till 1882. In that year, as a result of a report of Mr. 
A'incent, of the Indian Forest Department, the Government turned its 
attention to the subject, and in 1835 the “ Forest Ordinance ” was issued. 
The objects of this Ordinance were, briefly, to select suitable areas of 
forest land and constitute them State Forests, to buy off any interests 
which private individuals might have in those lands, to place them 
under effective protection, and generally to systematise the forest con¬ 
servancy. Even now the Crown forests are plundered in a wholesale 
fashion by organised bands of thieves, but it is hoped in a short time to 
put an end to this, and make the forests of Ceylon as remunerative, 
comparatively speaking, as those of India, where they produce a sub¬ 
stantial revenue. Ruin has threatened the Ceylon forests, just as it 
threatened the forests of Jinjira, in AVestern India, where three-fourths 
of a vast forest forty miles long, and from fifteen to a hundred miles in 
j breadth, was destroyed, and the remainder with difficulty saved. 
