October 29, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
381 
Now a word as to the standard value of the “ mark.” Mr. William¬ 
son suggests four as the integral value. Here we differ for the first time. 
The decimal advance of our arithmetical notation suggests to me five or 
ten as a more convenient measure, and I should prefer to add the points 
to the marks rather than reduce the marks to the lower denomination. 
In conclusion, I may state that I by no means assume that the maximum 
values as rendered will be anything like just; they are simply added as 
they occur to me to complete the illustrations. 
Since writing the above I have read “ Thinker’s ” remarks on subject 
on page 3)3. I certainly concur with much that he says, but it must be 
remembered that good judges are not always at command, and in the 
nature of things the young and inexperienced must at some time make a 
beginning. No judges, we are aware, would think of troubling with 
points except in very close competition, and it is there that the value of 
a fixed standard would be acceptable.—W. A. 
[It is not necessary to publish the blank tables, as they are practically 
the same as those represented on page 221 of our issue of September 10th, 
the only difference being that a column giving the maximum or standard 
number of points for each fruit or vegetable, as the case may be, the 
columns for marks and points awarded by the judges following the space for 
“ remarks.” In the “ standard ” column for fruit our correspondent places 
10 marks for a Pine Apple. 9 for Grapes, 8 for a Melon, 7 for Peaches and 
Nectarines, 6 for Figs, 5 for Oranges and Apricots, 4 for Pears and Plums, 
3 for Apples, 2 for Cherries and Strawberries, and 1 point each for 
Currants, Raspberries, and Gooseberries. In the “ standard ” column, 
as representing the relative merits of vegetables, the points are as fol¬ 
lows :—Cucumbers and Tomatoes, 10 each; Vegetable Marrows, Celery, 
Leeks, and Onions, 9 ; Peas and Cauliflowers, 8 ; Asparagus, Seakale, 
Globe Artichokes, and Mushrooms, 7 ; French Beans, 6 ; Beet, Parsnips, 
and Carrots, 5 ; Cabbage. Turnips, Potatoes, and Brussels Sprouts, 4 ; 
Savoys, 3 ; Broad Beans, 2 ; Borecole, 1—a method of assessment which 
is open to discussion, as we suspect growers and exhibitors are not quite 
unanimous in their views on the subject. In the table for plant-judging 
space is provided for the names of all the specimens in the classes to 
which prizes are awarded, with accompanying columns for marks, point 3 , 
and remarks.] 
TREE MIGNONETTE. 
The earliest plants that have been prepared for this mode of growth 
have covered their trellises, and should be removed from the pits in which 
they have been grown to light airy positions safe from frost. The side 
stages of the Rose house is a capital place for them until it is necessary to 
use fire heat or keep that structure close. 
These plants are quickly ruined in a close confined atmosphere. They 
must have plenty of light and air to insure strong sturdy growth, which is 
the secret of fine spikes of flowers. The earliest plants may be tied down, 
and then allowed to come into flower if they are required. All later 
batches should be trained as they require it to their trellis, and all the 
flowers removed directly they appear. It is important that Mignonette 
be carefully supplied with water, never allowing them to suffer by the 
want of it, or the shoots turn woody and cease extending. Clean soot 
water in a weak state may with advantage be given to those that have 
filled their pots with roots. Strong stimulants must be avoided, for they 
are certain to prove fatal. In addition to the soot water we apply to the 
surface of the soil a little artificial manure about once a month, which 
keeps the roots active upon the surface and invigorates the plants.—B. 
SOME NEW AND OLD POTATOES—THE GENERAL CROP 
IN IRELAND. 
You did well in your leading article, last issue, to invite further infor¬ 
mation as to experience on the above gained during the past year. 
Besides the general farm crop I grow all the new varieties I can con¬ 
veniently procure in an experimental plot, with the view of being able to 
answer the queries of my neighbours in reference thereto, and for rny own 
information. Many of your readers do the same possibly, and can add 
further useful observations. Looking at the matter broadly after being 
much about in Ireland lately, I may sum up my experience by saying the 
general field crop has been one-third deficient as compared with last year. 
This is already becoming evident in 2d. per stone more than last year 
being charged by retail in the local markets. Three-fourths of the Potato 
crop in Ireland and Scotland consists of the Champion, the “ seed ” or 
‘ sets ” coming principally from the latter to the former. If the 
Champion, or rather “ Scottish Champion,” fails, what variety shall take 
its place ? This interests millions. Already the haulm, no matter how 
manured or grown, is less than half the height and with half the vigour it 
bad when first introduced. Every variety degenerates. If anyone denies 
this let him take up a list of varieties of thirty, or even twenty, years ago, 
and see where they are grown now. 
The Magnum Bonum with me, too, is not so vigorous or as heavy a 
cropper as in former years, and what is worse, though the past season did 
not encourage fungoid diseases—being an unusually dry one—a larger 
fraction of the crop is diseased than the last or previous. It is, however, 
like the Champion, still one of the freest from blight. Both those 
varieties being grown the largest of any others in the United Kingdom I 
take them first ; they are, however, different in every respect. Take one 
essential point rarely remembered. Tbe Champion should be used for the 
able from September to May, the Magnum Bonum from April to August, 
l have heard the Magnum Bynum described as only fit for cattle and 
swine, but on inquiry I found this was because it was used at the wrong 
time. 
The same thing, but in a less degree, applies to such heavy croppers as 
White Elephant, Vicar of Laleham, Adirondack, and Wormleighton Seed¬ 
ling. I am inclined to name a new variety, tbe Helen Potato, I bad last 
year for the first time, but I reserve it for further trial. Beauty of Hebron 
is of fairly good quality, not so early as Early Rose or Extra Early 
Vermont, but, like all Potatoes of American introduction, they flicker for a 
few seasons and degenerate in our moist and semi-sunless climate. Patter¬ 
son’s Victoria, Regents, Kemps, White Rocks, Porter’s Excelsior, and 
Schoolmaster, either from degeneracy or a predisposition, are too liable to 
disease to ever regain the extensive culture they formerly had. For 
early use I ask nothing better than Sukreta (Carter’s) I had last year for 
the first time ; but for general purposes, everything considered, I consider 
Reading Hero the Potato of the immediate future. Grown side by side 
with two newer Scottish introductions on the farm—viz., Scottish Queen 
and Imperator, I readily give it the preference.—W. J. Murphy, Clonmel. 
ANNUAL MEETING OF THE YORKSHIRE 
ASSOCIATION OF HORTICULTURISTS. 
ADDRESS BY THE REV F. D. HORNER. 
[At the la9t annual meeting of the above Association, held at the 
rooms of the Paxton Society, Wakefield, the Rev. F. D. Horner delivered an 
interesting address upon the general objects of the Association, and this 
was supplemented by a lecture on the Auricula. We have been favoured 
with the MSS. of both these, and as they are of far more than local interest 
we present them to our readers.] 
(Continued from page 355.) 
THE AURICULA. 
I will ask you to take my own feelings about this beautiful 
spring flower “ as read.” I am speaking only of that section 
of the flower known to florists as the Auricula, and 1 will only 
say of my acquaintance with it that I have known it from my 
very childhood. To the first Auricula Show I ever saw my father 
led me by the hand, and I had to stand on tiptoe to see the plants 
upon the tables. With none other interruptions than those 
which needs must come across the path of life between childhood 
and man’s estate, I have kept the Auricula in sight; and to all 
those who are conversant with it the flower has evidently within 
late years, say the last twenty, been passing through a very 
progressive era of its culture. In the present stage of its history 
it has quite turned over a new leaf. It had the character of being 
a difficult, almost immoveable flower, and a plant of fastidious 
tastes. 
Variation of course could always be had from seed at, so to 
say, about a year's notice; but improvement was thought so like 
crying for the moon that few attempted it. Many old growers 
would never save seed, and thought it an impious thing to risk 
the life of a valuable plant over seed-bearing. A few would grow 
seed saved by such florists as the late George Lightbody, but they 
were looked on as embarking in an enterprise that would be 
fruitless—men who would never succeed in rounding the Cape of 
their Good Hope. “ You do not know to what vanity and vexa¬ 
tion you are committing yourself. Be content to live on the 
labours of the past. You cannot, in the Auricula, be better than 
your fathers were.” Thus the old sorts and the few gems among 
them came down from hand to hand, reverenced as venerable 
heritages beyond which there were no great expectations. Between 
one leading flower and its next great rival years and florist gene¬ 
rations might intervene, as, for example, between the appearance 
of the grey edge Lancashire Hero in 1846 and its next illustrious 
class fellow G. Lightbody in 1860. But this was no innate 
obstinacy in the flower. There is found no extraordinary risk 
in letting a healthy young plant, however valuable, carry seed ; 
and now that branch of culture which was supposed to tend 
nowhere but to an endless variety of tormenting disappointments 
affords the keenest enjoyment and richest results. 
I should like at the outset to remove any impression if such 
there be, that the Auricula is a flower to be frightened of, in the 
sense of being a difficult, miffy, slow thing to grow. It has great 
adaptability to hard circumstances. The plant is perfectly hardy, 
easily handled, moveable at almost any time, quite content with 
a 4-inch pot, of short convenient habit and great and varied 
beauty of foliage, tolerant of a smoky air, a plant of a simple and 
regular life, and by no means the epicure in the complex and not 
nice composts which o'd time treatise on its culture tell us were 
the necessaries of its life. It was never likely to get such indi- 
gestibles naturally, and that alone is enough to prove them 
needless and worse. In duration of life it is what I may perhaps 
call a limited perennial, one stem or plant living a few years 
more or less, and giving off a few offsets from time to time that 
perpetuate the parent variety in all its identity. No such 
identity is possible from seed, for no two seedlings are ever alike. 
, The florist Auricula as we have it is so far removed, so far 
