March 81,1887. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
255 
occupying the same positions for Seakale, and Mr. Evry was also first for 
Asparagus, and Mr. G. Garraway second. 
There were several non competitive exhibits, the most noteworthy of 
these being the group brought and arranged by Mr. J. Cypher of Chelten¬ 
ham. This occupied half of one side of the hall, and attracted much atten¬ 
tion, Orchid fanciers being especially interested. Messrs. R. Yeitch & Son, 
Exeter, Messrs. Cutbush Jk Son of Highgate, and Messrs. Cooling <fc Son, 
also exhibited attractive collections. 
NOTES ON GRAPES. 
My praise of Alnwick Seedling does not satisfy some writers, but I 
still repeat that even in October it will be superior to Black Hamburgh ; 
by keeping if well grown it is better still at Christmas, the briskness 
and aroma being very marked. It has a certain sharpness or acidity 
which some may object to, and perhaps if grown under unfavourable 
conditions, such as low temperature, bad positions, and unsuitable soil, 
it may probably be sour without being shanked. I well remember the 
few telling words of Mr. Barron in December at Chiswick. He then 
had it in good condition, being grown with Gros Colman, and he praised 
the flavour much. K No Grape,” he remarked, “ is equal to it.” In 
his book on Vine culture I find it reads thus :—“ Flavour strong and 
sparkling, becoming rich and sweet when well ripened, in that respect 
very much resembling the Black Morocco.” This Grape for some cause 
has a tendency to slightly shrivel in the skin when the foliage is going. 
I think possibly this may be due to extreme bright sun, together with a 
want of water at the roots, or even atmospheric dampness. I do not 
keep many Madresfield Court even till October, for the reason that they 
lose colour, though I have a few in November. Here flavour, compared 
with Alnwick Seedling, must undoubtedly have the day ; but Alnwicks 
can be eaten after Madresfield Court, just as Loxford Hall Strawberry 
can be eaten after British Queen. 
It seems I must not praise that noble variety, the Alicante. Why 
the public prefer Alicante in July, giving double price for it, compared 
with Black Hamburgh, is a mystery. In a cold house we had a bunch 
or two of Gros Colman, and kept them, but side by side with well 
grown samples they will not do. The past season more than ever 
confirms my supposition that Grapes can be improved by feeding not 
only during the growing season, but up to the colouring of the fruit.— 
Stephen Castle. 
CRYSTAL PALACE SHOW. 
March 26th. 
Although the exhibits were not quite so numerous as on some previous 
occasions there were sufficient to make a bright and effective display, to 
which the new competing contributions added materially. The Hyacinths, 
Narcasi, Cyclamens, Cinerarias, and Daffodils occupied the greater portion 
of the space in the centre transept, the groups of Roses, Orchids, and mis¬ 
cellaneous plants being disposed near the stage and the orchest a. Nume¬ 
rous plants were also included from the Company’s houses, which Mr. Head 
arranged tastefully in suitable positions, one specimen of Brownea coccinea 
hybrida attracting much attention from the visitors. The Browneas are 
handsome plants, but seldom seen out of botanic gardens, and perhaps 
one reason is that they do not flower so frequently as might be desired. 
When, however, they do produce their great drooping clusters 1 of brightly 
coloured flowers they are very telling. In the one under notice the flowers 
are of a glowing rosy scarlet hue and crowded in large heads, the leaves 
being pinnate with twenty pinn®. A certificate was awarded for the plant, 
which was in excellent health. 
The Roses in pots from Messrs. Paul & Son, Cheshunt, and Wm. Rumsey, 
Waltham Cross, formed two pleasing groups, the former having some 
beautiful examples of Madame Victor Verdier, with the pretty Polyautha 
varieties, Paquerette and Mignonette, while Mr. Rumsey had Madame 
MontelB, Due de Montpensier, and General Jacqueminot, remarkable for 
the brilliancy of their colours. Messrs. J. Laing «fc Co., Forest Hill, staged 
an attractive group of choice plants, amongst which Orchids were largely 
represented, Cattleyas, Dendrobiums, Odontoglossums, Ada aurantiaca, and 
Phaius, with Imantophyllums, Palms, and Ferns. Messrs. Barr & Son, King 
Street, Covent Garden, had a magnificent collection of Daffodils of innn- 
merab's varieties, as also had Mr. T. S. Ware, Hale Farm, Tottenham, both 
including other spring flowers, such as Anemone fulgens, Ohionodoxas, 
8cillas, &c. Messrs. H. Williams & Sons, Finchley, arranged a group of 
Hyacinths, Azaleas, Pelargoniums, Cydsuses, and Daffodils, exceedingly 
bright, with a preponderance of yellow that would be rather displeasing to 
wm-. Mr. H. James, Castle Nursery, Norwood, exhibited a group of plants 
arranged for effect, and was awarded the premier prize, the chief plants 
employed being Epacrises, Azaleas, Richardias, Palms, Ferns, and Dracmnas, 
edg- d with IsoTepis and Maidenhair Ferns. 
In the classes for bulbs in pots the leading prizes were won by Messrs. 
H. R. Wright, Lee, and Williams «fe Son, Finchley; Mr James, Slough ; and 
Mr. Salter, The Gardens, Selborne, Leigham Court Road, Streatham, having 
the best Cin-rarias, Messrs. Paul <fc Son the best Amaryllises, Mr. Luff the 
beet Lilies of the Valley, and Mr. J. Odell with the St. George’s Nursery 
Company the finest Cyclamens. But the bulbs were not up to th ir usual 
style, the spik s of the Hyacinths especially seeming deficient in size and 
substance of the bells. 
ON SOILS. 
(Continued from page 172.) 
Of the materials most valuable for applying to land some observa¬ 
tions relative to the different variety of soil may be made, as, for instance, 
sandy loams have great absorbing power. They are hungry soils—that 
is, the organic matter is quickly diffused and appropriated by the plants, 
necessitating frequent renewals. According to analysis, the best possible 
application that could be made for the current crop is phosphates and- 
alkalies, or artificials yielding a large per-centagc of potass in some form, 
say kainit, kelp, fish manure, and superphosphate of lime conjointly, and 
large producers of such crops as Carrots, Onions, Potatoes, &c., result ; 
but is the land better, or is it worse after, than it was before the crop ? 
The most profitable succeeding crops are Brassicas or cereals, which 
require lime, soda, and sulphuric acid. Instead of using phosphates and 
alkalies give the land a surface-dressing of clay or marl, which generally 
prevail under or in adjoining or intervening beds at the rate of 100 tons 
pier acre ; disintegrated and divisably mixed with the soil we do many 
things more than is effected by the artificials, the most important being 
the increase of the staple, retentive power, and permanent improved 
condition of the land, in that itVill in future he better capable of em¬ 
ploying the manurial matter committed to it. From the clay marl we 
get potash, sulphur, salt, and phosphates, for amalgamating with the 
silica and lime. 
Clays are most benefited by applications of farmyard manure on 
account of the silica contained ; in fact good loams and clays may be termed 
soils to which nothing comes amiss in the shape of organic matter, but 
the most important are silicates and lime. Dressings of road sidings 
with an equal proportion of lime effect the most valuable and permanent 
results ; indeed, dressings of lime are often magical in effect, especially 
on garden soils long subjected to liberal manuring and heavy crops, more 
particularly where the cultivation is of a surface character. Calcareous 
loams, like clays, are benefited by farmyard manure, particularly from 
cowyards, and even more so by sheep or horse manure, all of which are 
more valuable for clays and good loams than either of the others, and so 
are pigeon and fowl dung. The ammonia salts are most beneficial, but 
the same objection to their employment applies as to sandy loams. They 
are certainly better than nothing, but silicates being deficient manure is 
very valuable. To a hot chalky or shallow sandy loam the most valu¬ 
able dressing is probably pond cleanings and ditch scourings, as they 
furnish alumina, silicates, and humus. The value of such is greater on 
chalk than on sand, but if care be taken to keep the softer parts for the 
sands and the heavier for the chalks these substances effect a permanent 
improvement. Clay also is a very important dressing for calcareous 
soils, and it need not be of a marly description as advised for sandy 
soils. There are peat and bog soils, the great corrective for which is 
lime, and the changes effected by cultivation ; the most important factor 
in reclaiming such soil is the conversion into ash of the primitive vege¬ 
tation, if woody, by burning, or if of an herbaceous character, turning 
into the soil so as to enrich it by its decay. 
It may be observed that no cultivator aiming at the improvement 
and continued fertility of the soil will neglect opportunities of increas¬ 
ing its staple with such material as is accessible, and is lying idle and 
injurious at his gates. Clay can be had for the digging for calcareous 
soils, also marl for sands, and pond and ditch cleanings ; heaps of rub¬ 
bish only need putting on land of a shallow and hot nature to benefit 
them. Clay will take almost any amount of road scrapings and sidings, 
the debriii of old buildings—anything, in fact, containing silica and 
lime, and even ashes or rubble, only fine enough as not to interfere with 
the cultivation of the soil. These substances, in their several applica¬ 
tions, effect important mechanical changes in the soil. Before quitting 
this part of the subject, I may remark that the use of artificials may be 
characterised as unimportant from an improving point of view, and are 
more likely to impoverish than to maintain the fertility of the soil. 
As regards the mechanical texture, we have to consider its original, at least 
the condition it obtains. There is in most a surface or crust of soil of 
a mellow texture, the result of a long course of cultivation. Beneath 
this is the pan. The surface soil is a few inches deep, as it has been 
stirred by the plough or spade ; it may have been subsoiled—it will be 
double the depth of the single-ploughed ; or it may have been trenched 
—it will be much deeper than that under ordinary spade husbandry. 
This pan may be called the sediment or dregs of the mellow surface, 
which is inorganic substances washed or filtered out of the surface, 
principally silica or lime, and it marks the division of the surface and 
subsoil. There is a difference between the pan of virgin soil and that 
of cultivation, but for all practical purposes none need be made ; there¬ 
fore we will consider the line of demarcation is to be there as regards 
fertility and sterility. Above we have earth mixed in varied degree as 
regards organic and inorganic substances, the staple having been broken 
and manure applied ; beneath we have a stubborn mass of a varied 
character which, as we express it, has never seen daylight, and it con¬ 
sists for the most part of inorganic matter that requires a gradual pre¬ 
paration to render it fit for plants. 
But great caution is needed in dealing with the pan. It can be 
brought to the surface by subsoil ploughing or deep trenching, the top 
ameliorated, good material being buried under a stratum of crude 
material, which will take as many years of manuring and knocking 
about to render equal for profitable cultivation as it took centuries of 
the combined efforts of the atmosphere and plants to produce naturally 
to the original mellow surface, and now so ruthlessly buried. In break¬ 
ing up the pan the digging, dragging, smashing of the steam plough, 
that effects no more than loosening and deepening, only mixing some of 
it with the soil above, and bringing but a little to the surface, leaving 
the major part of the stubborn material where it was for a time at least, 
but in a different state—viz., impenetrable by rain, air, and roots, and 
so by being freely knocked about without any radical interference with 
the good material, the deep rooting of the plants, and the disintegration 
will at once increase the food supplies, assist in their manufacture for a 
considerable, if not all, time, or until such time as a pan is again formed, 
and which ought to be prevented by the renewal of the process. Similar 
