January 28, 1888. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
65 
reading for the producers—and, it may be added, for the consumers—of 
wine, as they show that the yield was the smallest, with one exception, 
known for the last thirty years, and 50 per cent, below the average of the 
last ten years, which have themselves been distinctly ‘ lean years.’ The 
total amount of wine made was only 642,000,000 gallons, this being just 
a third of the exceptionally large crop of 1875. The decline is of course 
due in the main to the ravages of the 'phylloxera, as this insect has been 
eo busy during the last ten or eleven years that the area of vineyards 
under cultivation has fallen from upwards of six to rather under five 
million acres, this alone telling plainly of the mischief that has been 
done. The cultivators of the Vine were further tried last year by the 
weather, which was very unfavourable for the Grapes, both in the summer 
and autumn, fierce drought preceding the rain instead of following it, 
and this was notably the case in the Bordeaux and Champagne districts, 
while the vineyards in the central departments of France, including the 
Burgundy district, were well favoured in the matter of weather. The 
mildew did a good deal of damage in the southern departments, but it is 
hoped that an effectual cure for this disease has been found in a solution 
of chalk and sulphate of copper, experiments upon a large scale in the 
Bordeaux district having been very successful. The departments in 
which the quantity of wine made was largest were the Herault (48,330,340 
gallons), the Aude (47,160,945 gallons), the Puy-de-Dome (36,689,940 
gallons), the Vienne (27,624,150 gallons), the Loir-et-Cber (27,414,045 
gallons), the C6te d’Or (24,796,845 gallons), the Gironde (24,211,260 
gallons), the Indre et Loire (22,572,990 gallons), and the Yonne (22,147,065 
gallons). The only French departments in which no wine is made are 
the Calvados, the Cotes du Nord, the Finistere, the Mancbe, the Nord, 
the Orne, the Pas de Calais, the Seine-Inferieure, and the Somme, though 
in some of the others the yield is very small, notably in those which, 
like the above-named, are nearest to the British Channel. Small as was 
the crop of wine last year, the quality is reported to be remarkably good, 
and the prices are said to be going up ; but the situation is none the less 
a very unsatisfactory one, for the imports of wine into France last year 
were over 180,000 gallons, or equal to more than a third of the whole 
quantity made in France. Worse still, the exports of wine were only 
55,575,000 gallons, while ten years ago the exports were 81,767,500 
gallons, and the imports only 6,000,000 ; that is to say, the imports have 
increased in the proportion of thirty to one while the exports have 
decreased at the rate of three to two.” 
The annual general meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society 
will be held in the conservatory at South Kensington on Tuesday, 
February 9th, the chair to be taken at 3 p.M. The first annual dinner 
will be held the same evening at 6.30 P.M, at the Criterion, and not at 
the Albion as was previously noted. 
-Mr. Shirley Hibberd has withdrawn his name from the list 
•of officers of the International Potato Exhibition, and will not 
in future be associated with the proceedings. 
- A correspondent, “G.,” asks if any of our correspondents 
ean inform him as to “ the best seed drill suitable for market gar¬ 
dening.” 
- Mr. J. Gadd, Belhus, Aveley, writes—“As opinions are 
solicited respecting Reading Hero Potato, I may confidently say as 
far as my knowledge goes that it is good in quality, a good bearer, of 
strong constitution, and will become in this neighbourhood the Potato 
for the general crop both with market growers and cottagers.” 
-We are informed that at the Devon and Exetep. Horticul¬ 
tural Society’s 1886 Summer Show, Friday, 20th August, and Autumn 
Show, Friday, 12th November, the Trustees of the Veitch Memorial Prize 
Fund have allotted a Veitch Memorial medal and a prize of £5 for com¬ 
petition at Exeter in 1886, the competition to be confined to the County 
of Devon. The Committee of the Devon and Exeter Horticultural Society 
have resolved that the medal and prize shall be given for a collection of 
vegetables, to be competed for at their Summer Show (20th August). 
Schedules and further particulars can be obtained of the Hon. Secretary, 
C. T. K. Roberts, Esq., 15, Gandy Street, Exeter. 
- A new American periodical entitled the “ Horticultural 
Art Journal ” (Mensing & Stecher, Rochester, New York) was an¬ 
nounced some time ago, and the first part has just reached us. It is to 
be published monthly, giving eight pages of matter and four coloured plates 
of flowers and fruits. Those in the first part represent the following— 
Marshal P. Wilder Rose, a seedling from General Jacqueminot, which 
first flowered in 1881; Plum, Shipper’s Pride, a dark purple free-fruiting 
variety ; Rancocas Raspberry and the Niagara Grape, a white variety 
which is said to be very hardy, enduring “ a temperature 35° below zero.” 
These plates are well executed, and the general appearance of the pub¬ 
lication is satisfactory, but we regret that as regards literary honesty the 
publishers have commenced badly. A slightly reduced reproduction of 
our block representing Whinham’s Industry Gooseberry, which was 
engraved for this Journal, and appeared on page 253, September 17tfc» 
1885, is given in the last page of the periodical under notice without a 
word of acknowledgment. 
- “ W. O., Fota Island, Cork," writes—“ It may not be gene¬ 
rally known that Physianthus albens is quite hardy in the south 
of England. Plants raised from seed have grown 20 feet high in four 
years, bearing its small white flowers and numerous large seed pod » 
The plant will grow in any moderately light rich soil, and is easily 
raised from seed. A plant here on a south-east wall has been in 
flower for several months. The flowering at this season I attribute 
to the dry hot summer of 1885.” 
- The sixth annual general meeting of The Essex Field Club 
will take plaee at the Public Hall, Loughton, Essex, on Saturday evening, 
January 30th, 1886, at half-past six o’clock. The report of the Council 
for the year 1885, and the Treasurer’s statement of accounts, will be 
read and submitted to the meeting. The election of new members (f 
the Council and Officers for 1886 will also take place. An ordinary 
meeting will also be held solely for the proposal and election of new 
members. The annual presidential address will be delivered by 
T. Vincent Holmes, F.G.S., M.A.I., the subject being “Notes on the 
Evidence Bearing upon British Ethnology.” 
- Hints to Potato Growers. —One of the largest Potato sales¬ 
men in the country writes as follows to the North British Agriculturist 
regarding the culture of the favourite esculent :—“ Potatoes are very 
plentiful, and, in spite of what was written about short crops and heaps of 
statistics and tabulated business, there are as many Potatoes in Great 
Britain as there were last season. The only fault is, however, more pre¬ 
valent than ever, black when cooked. Four-fifths of the Potatoes in the 
market are Magnum Bonums, and nine samples out of every ten cook 
more or less black. This may seem exaggerated, but it is a fact ; some 
are so black as to be nearly useless. I think, taking them all round, the 
Scotch Champion cook best this serson, and some of the blackest are off 
the best warp lands of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, where we should have 
the very finest quality. All Magnum Bonums in south, home, and mid¬ 
lands are full of second growth. I expect a great lot of Regents will be 
planted next season. They have done well, in Scotland especially ; no 
blight at all, good shape and quality, and good crops, but they are all 
consumed in local and north of England markets, where they will not 
have Magnum Bonums while they can get round Potatoes, and they are 
not bad judges, but in London and south they will have Magnums. It’s 
strange, but true. There are a good many Magnums going from Scotland 
just now to New York, where they are at present worth £6 to £6 10s. per 
ton, but the heavy duty and charges there reduce the nett result very 
materially. The duty is over £1 per ton. So, although the American 
growers have small crops, they are making fair prices on account of the 
prohibitive duty. It is very different here. There are lots of German 
Potatoes here ; the freight of about 6s. right up to the river side wharves 
from Hamburg has induced the Germans to send, but there is no trade for 
them. The freight from Holland is about 7s., from France 6s., from other 
places as low or lower, so our farmers in the north have a good chance 
against this, paying 13s. to 16s. from Yorkshire, 20s. from Cheshire, and 
25s. to 30s. from Scotland. Many from Yorkshire are coming this season 
by sailing vessels, and, of course, from Scotland, but this can only be done 
where Potatoes are near a river or sea coast.” 
- At the ordinary weekly meeting of the Paxton Society, held at 
Wakefield recently, Mr. Henry Oxley, one of the Vice-Presidents, occupied 
the chair, and Councillor Milnes was in the vice chair. Mr. J. Smith, 
gardener to Mr. T. Green, of Leeds, read an excellent paper entitled, 
“ Historical Introduction to Rudimental Botany.” The essayist was lis¬ 
tened to with the greatest attention, and at the close of his paper he was, 
on the motion of Mr. T. Garnett, seconded by Mr. L. Twigge, accorded a 
very hearty vote of thanks. The lecturer exhibited a large number of 
