August 29. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
413 
owners of the best “ Spanish,” “ Shanghaes,” “Dorkings,” 
and “ Ducks,” and these in addition to the ordinary 
prizes. 
The only points in the schedule that appear to require 
any other special notice are as follows :—“ Game fowls” 
are divided into only two classes, the first consisting of 
“Blade, Blade-breasted, and other Beds," tho second 
admitting those of “ any other colour." 
“ Polish,” wo regret to observe, are limited to the 
“ Black, with white crests,” and the “ Golden and the 
Silver-spangled,” thus excluding the white, the black, 
and other varieties, for which, moreover, no opening is 
made in any “ extra ” class. 
Black, white, and the other Bantams, the gold and 
silver-laced alone excepted, compete together, nor is any 
provision made fora “booted” class, which, after tho 
discussions on this point during the last year, would 
probably have been desirable. 
“ Geese,” as we have long urged, should be represented 
in their Several families; and other “Ducks,” beyond the 
“Aylesbury” and “Rouen,” have sufficient merits to 
justify their claim for admission. 
The form of entry, embracing all essential points, is 
remarkably clear and explicit. 
It cannot be supposed that so long as the standard of 
excellence in fowls, and the principles on which Poultry 
Exhibitions should bo conducted, are matters of discus¬ 
sion, that some points in the best arranged prize list 
may not invite criticism. The practical experience of 
Mr. Andrews, tho Secretary of this society, leaves, how¬ 
ever, as may readily be anticipated, little to object to, 
and very possibly, the points on which we have taken a 
contrary opinion, may have been brought about by facts 
of which we have no knowledge. But, under any cir¬ 
cumstances, it becomes day by day a matter of general 
admission that the common cause that Poultry Associa¬ 
tions have in view imperatively requires a definite set¬ 
tlement of these questions. A fixed standard of points 
of merit is absolutely essential, and this obtained, as 
sooner or later it inevitably must be, the details of our 
several exhibitions will also assume a different character 
from what they now bear. 
AUTUMNAL PROCEEDINGS—FRUIT. 
A hard term is this “ autumnal,” when we have 
scarcely thought of giving up the joys of summer. But 
summer, and, indeed, everything that delights the heart, 
must be given up ; it is the condition of our being. In 
the fruit way, the cultivator will now turn his attention 
to the storing away those fruits which are adapted to a 
winter’s supply, to a period when we in vain turn our 
eyes on the fruit-garden for assistance in the dessert. 
Strawberries, Gooseberries, Cherries, Raspberries, Plums, 
Ac., are all swept away. Apples and Pears are the prin¬ 
cipal stores, anything else must chiefly be such as 
require retarding. 
About the fruit-room little that is fresh can be said; 
the fact being, that most gardeners are confined to a 
given room, the conditions of which are not always very 
suitable. This is most unfortunate where the gardener 
is made entirely responsible, and where a long supply is 
expected; and he may sometimes be pained to hear that 
his employer has been heard to remark, that it is sin¬ 
gular “ How much better Gardener Jones keeps his fruit 
than Gardener Brown.” 
Somo twenty years since, I obtained permission from 
my very worthy employer to fit up a long room at tho 
back, or north side, of the sheds, for a fruit-room. In 
former days they did not think it at all necessary to fit 
up shelves for fruits, and when I came here, in 1828,1 
found an old lumber-room had been the Apple and Pear 
store, the fruit being laid on the floor, as the farmers do, 
on straw, and when the rats got amongst them a pretty 
mess was made. Now this room, although a very good 
one on the whole, is not quite the sort of thing which I 
should adopt in these days, but we have learned much 
during the last score of years. At the period alluded to, 
it was much the fashion to talk of cool cellars and such 
like for fruits; many averring that any place which 
would keep ale well would keep Apples well, and so on. 
But this is not a mere Apple affair; we have a more 
delicate and important subject—the Pear—to look after; 
and besides this, several things of much consideration 
obtain at least a temporary residence here occasionally. 
So, then, the Apple view of the affair is the very lowest 
view. 
How'ever, I must say what I did in regard of this room. 
I had the soil taken out to twenty-one inches below the 
ground level; and finding a clean red sand, I considered 
it pretty sound. Being of opinion that much under¬ 
ground damp evaporated from the floor of fruit-rooms, 
I had four inches of well-kneaded clay spread over the 
bottom, treading up every crevice. On this hard-burned 
bricks were laid, and the work was finished. I had 
at the time intended to adopt hollow walls, as non¬ 
conductors of heat and moisture, but circumstances 
hindered me, and I soon found that the most serious 
enemy I had to contend with was these outer walls. 
Few persons are fully alive to the fact, that soft bricks 
are such enormous absorbents of moisture, and they 
transmit it by a kind of capillary attraction with equal 
facility; water is made to run uphill. Who has not 
seen the effects of this in somo nicely-papored room ? 
The wall is damp, say they. I fancy the general idea 
is, that certain bricks were built-in wet, forgetting the 
constant travelling of moisture upwards, through a bad 
foundation of these absorbing bricks. Now, this floor 
has certainly accomplished the end in view, but on the 
whole, the house has been rather too damp for the 
tender fruits. The object I had in view in lowering 
tho floor was to obtain as low a temperature as possi¬ 
ble : this may fairly be termed a retarding principle, 
inasmuch as it at once proceeds upon the assumption 
that the ripening must be hindered or arrested. Apples, 
to be sure, have kept admirably; and as for Pears, some 
of them have kept too long; that is to say, they have 
been compelled to pass the period at which that 
chemical change in the fruit is destined, in the course 
of things, to take place, and which change we call 
ripening. This much must be observed, that the in¬ 
creasing demand for late Pears, recently, has caused 
many gardeners to err in this respect; not through their 
ignorance, however, but through a desire to meet the 
expanding requirements of the age. Thus,—such as the 
Passe Colmar, which, when really in fine condition and 
melting, is a first-rate fruit in December, becomes a 
regular Derbyshire Spa Pear in the course of February. 
And the same may be said of many others. The public 
may thank, in a great degree, trade catalogues for this 
wrong conception of the keeping properties of Pears. 
A novice, looking over one of these, would conclude f 
that no man need be a day without a rich, melting Pear 
all through March and April: but alas! how widely 
different the fact. 
I am quite persuaded that there is a period at which 
