THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 15. 
which need not every year offer the same features, but 
always something good and unexpected. For the “ Copper 
Moss” fowls, prime favourites as they are in Yorkshire, 
much is not here pleaded ; hut a few of the “ Silver Moss,” 
or “Silver Moonies,” from Warwickshire, might have excited 
admiration. Why they are called “ Moonies ” is difficult to 
divine; they are thickly studded with circular black spots 
on a white ground. Some barbarous natives paint a certain 
personage white ; the tradition still remains that the moon 
may be made of green cheese; but a black moon is an 
unheard-of incongruity. A handsome pen of Tea-fowl and 
their young ought not to pass unnoticed. 
The Penzance market is a handsome granite building. 
The lower portion is principally filled with butcher’s stalls; 
the upper story, or Corn Market,—a long, large, and lofty 
room, with a not over-decorated interior, hut perfectly conve¬ 
nient,—was used for the Poultry Show. Some of the prin¬ 
cipal families of the neighbourhood attended. The total 
number of visitors was about a thousand, between twelve 
o’clock and a quarter before four. Had it been possible to 
light the Corn Market with gas, and given an evening exhi¬ 
bition, the returns would have been greatly increased. 
The arrangements were judicious, and much satisfaction 
was expressed by the visitors, and which, indeed, was only 
a deserved testimony to the abilities of the secretaries,—the 
llev. W. Wriothesley Wingfield, and E. H. Rodd, Esq. 
The kindness and hospitality exercised by these gentlemen, 
in addition to their social position, were certain to guarantee 
the success of an Infant Association like that which has 
j ust made its appearance in the south-west. On this occasion, 
the Rev. E. S. Dixon acted as sole judge. Undesirable 
as such an office is, he could not hesitate to accept it, after 
the entire confidence reposed in him by bis constituents, 
the Exhibitors. The awards seemed to give satisfaction, 
and were considered just; a gratifying result to all parties. 
GARDENING GOSSIP. 
Independent of the intense interest which attaches 
to the subject of Sir John Richardson’s Arctic Searching 
Expedition, just published, it deserves a perusal on 
account of the abundance of its amusing and instructive 
details, nor are the least so those relative to cultivated 
plants. It was not newly-trodden ground to Sir John 
Richardson, and it is pleasing to observe his recognition 
of his former footsteps, such as this, on arriving at the 
Rainy River— 
“ It was in a patch of burnt woods in this vicinity that, 
in the year 1820, I discovered the beautiful Eutocu Frank- 
linii, now so common an ornament of our gardens.” On 
the Oth of July, at the Pine Portage on Clear Water River, 
they found “ Lonicera parvijlora showing a profusion of rich 
yellow, tinged with red, and fragrant flowers, and gathered 
ripe strawberries for the first time in the season.” At Fort 
Simpson, Sir J. Richardson says, “ Barley is usually sown 
from the 20th to the 25th of May, and is expected to he 
ripe on the 20th of August, after an interval of 02 days. 
In some seasons, it has ripened on the 15th. Oats, which 
take longer time, do not thrive quite so well; and Wheat 
does not come to maturity. Potatoes yield well, ancl no 
disease has as yet affected them, though the early frosts some¬ 
times hurt the crop. Barley, in favourable seasons, gives a 
good return at Fort Norman, further down the river, and 
Potatoes, and various garden vegetables, are also raised 
there. The 65th parallel of latitude may, therefore, be con- 
| sidered as the northern limit of corn crops in this meridian, 
j Wheat does not reach beyond the 60th.” It is curious to 
find that in October, I860, a pit sunk in a heavy mixture 
of sand and clay, to the depth of 16 ft. 10 in., revealed 
| 10 ft. 7 in., of thawed soil on the surface, and 6 ft. 6 in. of a 
permanently frozen layer, beneath which the ground was not 
frozen. At length, at Fort Good Hope, on the Mackenzie 
River, Sir John Richardson reached, in parallel about 67°, 
S the latitude in which even the hardiest garden vegetables 
i could not be productive. “A few turnips, radishes, and 
some other culinary vegetables grow in a warm corner, 
237 
under the stockades, but no corn is cultivated there, nor do 
potatoes repay the labour of planting.” Some of our garden 
inhabitants, however, struggle on as far as latitude 68° 37'; 
for there, in the valley of the Mackenzie River, Sir. J. Rich¬ 
ardson found the Red Currant, Rosa blanda, Kalmia ylauca, 
Nardosmia palmata, and Liqrinus pcrcnnis. 
Wo have received Messrs. Readies, of Plymouth, 
Messrs. Keynes', of Salisbury, and other nurserymen’s 
Catalogues, all giving desirable information; but we 
cannot commend any to especial notice. If we did, our 
pages must be loaded with such references, for it would 
not be fair to make a selection. Our commendation 
would be worth nothing if confined to those who adver¬ 
tize in our columns. 
Under the very contradictory title of The White 
Blackberry, a plant of a new fruit lias been sent to the 
Horticultural Society at Chiswick. It is perfectly hardy, 
being found in North America, in latitude 44° 30'. Its 
discoverer is Mr. J. S. Needham, of Danvers, in Massa- 
chusets. It is of the colour of the white Sweetwater grape, 
“ but when grown in the open air is of a darker hue. 
It is said to be sweeter than the blackberry, with a 
mulberry flavour. We advise our readers not to have 
their expectations raised too highly. 
TRELLISES, ESPALIER RAILS, &c. 
Some persons may wonder at our attempting to give 
so much significance to these remnants of the olden 
time, but we do so under the assurance that when 
adopted in those days, they were so managed as not to 
carry out a tithe of the advantages of which they are 
capable, and, in fact, that the trees thereon were grossly 
mismanaged in the majority of cases, and in some as 
much neglected as an overgrown quick hedge. Indeed, 
this might be said of most of the wall trees; and with 
the modern and more simplified practice as to fruit-trees, 
commencing as it does at the right end—-root culture 
there can be little doubt that trellises will yet become 
more general still. The great facilities afforded in these 
days lor getting articles of the kind, of any construction, 
at a great reduction of cost as compared with bygone 
days, is another great inducement to their more general 
adoption. As to their effect in a garden, who does not 
admire a neat trellis bordering the principal walk or 
walks of the kitchen-garden, uniformly clothed with our 
best kinds of fruits, and in good bearing ? Here, under 
good management, appears order and system, and the 
latter, in our opinion, should, as far as possible, appear 
stamped on the face of everything, from the strictly 
parallel lines of vegetable cropping up to the range of 
hothouses. And here it may be observed that, as a con¬ 
necting link of an intermediate chaiactei, to unite, , 
as it were, in a whole, the culinary department of 
gardening, what better than espalier rails, fruit-tiee 
arcades, or any other artistical device, which is at once 
obviously contributory to fruitfulness, and conducive to 
the general effect. There is something so inharmonious, 
so incompatible, and so unconnected, between the row 
of fine houses, pits, &c., at one end of the garden, and 
the rough, unsystematic, and unmanagably coarse stand¬ 
ard fruit-trees, which but too frequently smother the 
borders, that the eye of order can never be thoroughly 
satisfied with such a state of discordance. 
But these neat rails need not be absolutely confined 
to the kitchen-garden. In almost all places of any pre¬ 
tensions, certain by-scenes or transition portions exist, 
which, in all propriety, may, and ought to, combine the 
tone of the kitchen department and the floral. Indeed 
