June 29. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
235 
ting rid at once of all the spotted foliage. This, of 
course, will be followed only by those who do not con¬ 
sider the disease to be constitutional to the plant. No 
means that 1 have heard of will ever make a spotted 
leaf green again. Young plants, that are not expected 
to bloom for a month or two, may be grown out of the 
spot. Almost every affected leaf should be removed at 
once. If the plants are kept rather close during the 
day, and with air at night, shaded or syringed during 
sunshine, to prevent a too rapid perspiration, young 
foliage will soon be formed ; and unless the smaller 
leaves left had previously been affected, there will be 
little manifestation of it on those young plants. A 
, check to healthy growth was the predisposing cause, and 
! an encouragement to free and active growth must now 
I be resorted to, to get rid of its appearance. A highish 
temperature during the day, a cooler and airier atmo¬ 
sphere at night, will best promote this object, it would 
be of little use resorting to such a palliative until gentle 
April had come. 
Secondly, preventing the manifestation of the disease 
may be gathered from what has already been said. In 
one word, it must be accomplished by attending to all 
the points of good culture, and especially guarding 
against sudden extremes of heat and cold, moisture and 
dryness, aud more particularly guarding against a great 
degree of cold visiting the plants while the roots are 
soaked with water, and the atmosphere not far from the 
dew point. A number of our friends contrive to grow 
these plants by keeping them, for the most of the winter, 
in cold pits and frames, where they can apply no arti¬ 
ficial dry heat; aud where they succeed well, as they ' 
often do, so much greater is the honour. From such i 
we have numberless inquiries as respects this very sub- j 
ject, aud the advice we would give is simply this: Get 
your plants potted as early as you can, and use pots 
small rather than otherwise, and soil light rather than ! 
rich, aud grow the plants pretty freely until the end of ! 
October, when the pots will be pretty well filled with roots. 
From that time, until the end of Februrary, bo more 
anxious to keep your plants than to grow them. Give '■ 
them as much air as possible in mild weather, and as 
little water at tho roots as will just keep the leaves from 
flaggiug. If a bright sun should come with mild 
weather, expose your plants as much as possiblo; but j 
even then be careful of watering overmuch. If tho 
foliage seems distressed, and on examining the soil you 
find there is still moisture about it, just lessen evapora¬ 
tion from the foliage by dewing the leaves with the 
syringe, taking care to do it as gently as not to damp 
the place. If sunny days come, attended with a keen, 
dry, frosty air, give but little air, repeat tho dewing 
process; the leaves will not be weakened in such cir¬ 
cumstances by a little heat—sun-heat, for short intervals, 1 
will not draw tho plants, and then, with a little air be¬ 
hind, the beams of the sun will dry and make all com¬ 
fortable inside. If the plants show extra signs of 
suffering, prefer a little shade to opening the lights in 
such circumstances. By following this plan the plants 
will be stiff and hardy, scarcely larger on the first day of 
March than they wore on the first day of November; 
but the leaves, though small, will he firm and tough, 
instead of soft and squashy. By the end of February, 
advantage may be taken of fine days to give tho plants 
an impetus to grow, as long, dull weather after March 
sots in does not often dangerously trouble us. By April, 
the plants may be shifted, if desirable; if not, manure- 
water should be given; and shifted or not shifted, that 
manure-water communicated after the flower-buds are 
peeping will give you fine trusses of bloom, accompanied 
with small, healthy foliage, instead of large leaves and 
small trusses. • 
1 need not mention that a similar treatment will be 
requisite in greenhouses, or Geranium houses, but tho 
difficulty will be greatly lessened, as the furnace enables 
us to avoid all extremes of temperature, aud of moisture 
and dryness in the atmosphere. For instance, in con¬ 
tinued muggy weather, we have no resource in a cold 
pit, except slipping in a hot-water greybeard, or some 
hot bricks, or largo lumps of unslacked lime; but a 
small fire would at once dissipate the mist, and promote 
circulation in the greenhouse. The more care that is 
taken of the watering-pot, however, during winter, tho 
less the likelihood of Mr. Spot appearing, even though 
the average temperature should be rather low at times. 
The keeping Geranium plants, those not actually bloom- 
iug, I mean, rather dry in winter and spring, is the 
great main secret of successful culture. The next is 
giving them all the air possible, consistent with an 
atmosphere not too cold nor too moist. From 43° to 
48° may be considered a fair average temperature for 
such plants at night. The Fancies should not remain 
long below 45°, though a night or two at a time a little 
lower will do them no harm. If from some of the most 
successful exhibitors of these plants, whether Fancies or 
the old florist kinds, you could learn the real means how 
they obtained such masses of bloom, with just enough 
of healthy foliage to act as a pleasant counterfoil, they 
would tell you that their plants got but little of the 
water-pail until the flower-biuls appeared. My neigh 
bour, Mr, Busby, has some nice, small, stubby plants 
this season, smothered with bloom, and not the sem¬ 
blance of a spot on them. I know that lie would tell 
you that airiness and comparative coolness aud dryness 
in winter were the main elements of success. 
R. Fish. 
EXHIBITIONS OF PLANTS, FLOWERS, FRUITS, 
AND VEGETABLES. 
For more than thirty years 1 have watched, with great 
interest, the progress of exhibitions for prizes of the 
productions of the garden. I have been an exhibitor 
myself, and I may venture to say a successful one, 
and have been on committees of management, and have 
also filled the office of censor, or judge, repeatedly during 
that long period. As a matter of course, I have seen 
mauy things to approve of in management, and too 
many to condemn. 
There can be no doubt that the emulation aud desire 
to excel at these exhibitions has had a powerful ten¬ 
dency to improve tho qualities of the horticultural and 
floral productions of the garden; and, therefore, it fol 
lows that exhibitions are desirable, aud worthy of being 
supported and encouraged by the public, and have been 
so to a very great extent, and would be still more so if 
properly conducted. 
In order to bring about such a consummation, “ de¬ 
voutly to bo wished” by all lovers of the garden, 1 pur¬ 
pose, in the following brief remarks, to point out tho 
first things that a committee of management ought to 
consider before establishing a Horticultural and Floral 
Society. These considerations will show why certain 
societies of this kind have failed, or, at least, have not j 
succeeded to that extent their sanguine projectors have 
anticipated. I think this idea of showing what a society 
should do, will be less invidious than mentioning the 
names of any societies, who, having acted upon unwise 
or unfitting principles, have failed in consequence. 
The first consideration requiring the attention of the 
individuals wishing to form such a society is this:—Aro 
there, within a circle of ton, or, at tho utmost, fifteen 
miles of the place of exhibition, a sufficient number of 
influential and, I may say, patriotic gentlemen that 
would together subscribe a sufficient annual income to 
enable the committee to offer respectable prizes over 
and above the incidental expenses? This annual in- 
