86 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 
tlie part of the Norfolk Poultry-keepers, must have received 
great encouragement; and we shall learn, with pleasure, that 
the most sanguine anticipations of its promoters have been 
fully realized. But we find another prize-sheet on our 
table, detailing the premiums offered at the second meeting 
of the “ Honiton and East Devon Associat ion for the Improve¬ 
ment of Domestic Poultry," to he held at Honiton, oil Wed¬ 
nesday, the 28tli day of December next. 
We are glad to notice the example of the Winchester and 
Cornwall Societies, in allowing the ticket, “ not to he sold,” 
to he affixed to pens which their owners have no desire to 
part with, has been followed in this instance ; regarding it, 
as we do, as a manifest improvement on the former custom. 
But why Black Shanghaes should compete with the Brown 
and Partridge birds, wc are at a loss to understand. If 
their admission is insisted on, a separate class should he 
granted; and, so far as their origin is concerned, they would 
certainly be more at home with the White birds of that class 
than where they will now find themselves at the lfoniton 
show. Turkeys and Geese should have had more encourage¬ 
ment, if only as the Farmer’s stock, whose Ducks, moreover, 
if he fail to possess the Aylesbury or Rouen breeds, are 
altogether exclusive. This last is a serious fault; for, al¬ 
though we have reason to consider the two first-named 
varieties as the best for general purposes, still, we cannot 
forget that there are many sub-varieties of the common Duck 
of great merit; and the beautiful and useful Black East 
Indian, or Buenos Ayrean Duck, should have admission 
to every Poultry Exhibition. In Pigeons, too, we notice a 
most arbitrary selection; Trumpeters, Pouters, Barbes, and 
Turbits, being most summarily excluded; but these would 
surely have as quite as good a claim for admission as the 
Nuns, Archangels, Jacobines, and Fantails, that have found 
favour with the Honiton Society. 
Let it not be thought, that, since we canuot bestow 
unqualified approbation, such remarks on what we must 
consider errors should not appear. Our duty, in that case, 
would be ill-performed, and our task but half-fulfilled. In 
this, as in every other similar instances, wc object, on prin¬ 
ciple, to an arbitrary selection of certain varieties of birds 
for the honours of the prize-list. Whatever money can be 
applied for premiums should be fairly distributed between 
all the recognized classes. We are not to pick here and 
there for what we may like or think best, but let all com¬ 
pete on a fair field, and without favour. 
Some liberal prizes for “ dead Poultry ” arc added to the 
Honiton list; and we believe that such an introduction will 
be found advantageous in very many localities. 
THE GUERNSEY LILY. 
(Nerine Sarniensis.) 
The history of the introduction of the above plant to our 
greenhouses, conservatories, and parterres, and its mode of 
cultivation in the island of Guernsey, are of such interest as 
to induce me to lay before your readers what little I know 
respecting this mucli-cherished favorite. 
This interesting plant was found growing about the 
middle of the seventeenth century on the sand banks in the 
Vale parish, Guernsey, supposed to have been washed there 
with the debris of a Japanese vessel wrecked on the coast. 
Some cottagers discovered it in bloom, and took it home 
to their own gardens and planted it, thereby originating 
a source of employment, and remuneration for their in¬ 
dustry and that of their successors; the grower now looking 
as much forward for a portion of his revenue from his crop 
of Guernsey Lilies as from any other crop he may have 
growing on his land. I cannot doubt the correctness of this 
time being the period of its introduction, as in walking 
through the picture gallery at Hampton Court Palace, in 
1851,1 discovered, in one of the rooms, a drawing of it with 
the figures 16 it on it (I could not distinguish the third 
figure in the row,) and do not doubt the drawing was made 
soon alter its introduction. I think this sufficient evidence 
as to the period, as I find it to correspond with the date 
specified in Loudon's “ Hortus Brittanicus." 1650. 
The persons cultivating the Guernsey Lily with most 
success invariably select a low, sheltered, spot, where the 
ground is of a light, sandy texture, mixed with loam, under 
the protection of trees—(part of an apple orchard, for 
instance, sheltered by an elm hedge, of a description for 
which the island is famous)—wherein they are planted in 
rows, according to the width ol the strip allotted lor the 
purpose, as close together as they can he, allowing just 
sufficient room for spreading the roots; about two inches 
between the roots, and ten to twelve inches between the 
rows, burying the bulbs but half-way up, leaving the necks 
entirely exposed. The usual season for planting them out 
is the middle or latter end of September, as soon as the 
roots begin to grow; this being an indication that they 
will not bloom that season. After planting, they are left 
without any sort of protection but that afforded by the 
locality; and they make their- growth during the winter 
months, which, if favourable, and not very frosty, so as to 
allow the full development of the leaves, ensures an abundant 
bloom during the ensuing August and September. The 
beds are generally left for years without transplanting, and 
the visitor is often astonished, in going into these Lily 
grounds, to find the roots growing in clusters all along the 
rows, thrusting one another, as it were, out of the ground, 
from the rapid increase of the roots. As the blooming 
season comes on, the elderly ladies, for it seems tlieir pre¬ 
rogative, as far as I have had an opportunity of observing, 
go along the beds or rows, marking out with little sticks the 
roots which show any indication of blooming buds, so as to 
be able the more readily to take them up on the market 
mornings, or when application is made for them by the 
dealers; and it is astonishing the power of vision our worthy 
friends display in their peculiar avocation, discriminating the 
flowering from the non-flowering roots with an aptness which 
has made me and many younger owners of a pair of good 
eyes blush at our imperfection in their peculiar pursuit. 
They are sold at prices varying from 2s. to Is. per dozen; 
the dealers collecting them and sending them in quantities 
to the different nursery seedsmen and private customers 
throughout the United Kingdom, by whom they are distributed 
to the boudoirs and conservatories. 
The theory that the same root never blooms twice is 
incorrect; as I have, at this present moment, one before me 
which flowered last season, and have often had them to bloom 
a second time. 
I attribute the fickleness and uncertainty of their blooming 
more to the unfavourableness of the mode of culture than 
to any other cause; and I have also noticed, when the winters 
have been long and severe, there has not been such an 
abundant bloom as in milder seasons. 
Belladonna Lilies (Amaryllis Belladonna ) are cultivated in 
a similar manner; with the exceptions of planting them 
deeper, and they require a richer soil, and more space to 
grow in, the roots being much larger anil grosser feeders 
than those of the more admired favourite, whose pretty 
rosy-crimson umbel of flowers is adored by all who have the 
gratification of seeing it well bloomed.— Chas. Bd. Saukders, 
Ciesarean Nursery, Jersey. 
COTTAGE BREWING. 
“ There were twelve kinps lived in the west, 
Twelve kings both great and high; 
And they have sworn a dreadful oath, 
John Barleycorn shall die. 
They dosed him with nux vomica, 
Heaped strychnine on his head, 
And then they rubbed their hands and cried, 
‘ John Barleycorn is dead! ’ ” 
A brother Patrick, they say, was once thought to lie dead 
also; but he, lively soul, upon an interrogatory question to 
that effect, answered, “No, he was not dead, but spaehe- 
less!” Alas! honest John, thou art speechless, even from 
the womb of thy mother earth, still thou livest on; aye, and 
will continue to live as long as British industry endures. 
Would that you could speak in defence of thy much abused 
and dishonoured self—a most affecting case you would have 
to plead; sufficient, no doubt, to win over and shame the 
defamers of thy generous heart, those wallowcrs in excess, 
who bring mistrust upon thy good name by their own weak 
and immoderate indulgences; with others, who, agreeably 
to the tune of the “twelve,” heap strychnine and the like 
abominations upon thy guiltless head, thus sacrificing a 
