39(5 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 25. 
Two Societies have lately added their prize-lists to those 
already published for the Poultry Exhibitions of 1853. 
“ The Dorsetshire Association lor the improvement of 
Domestic Poultry,” will hold its second Annual Meeting 
in Dorchester, on the 19th and 20th of October next: 
and the list of patrons and patronesses would sufficiently 
indicate the activity of those to whom the management 
of this Society has been entrusted. But beyond the 
mere formal announcement of such patronage, a most 
unusual circumstance appears in the fact, that no less 
than eight pieces of plate are offered, as extra prizes, for 
different breeds of fowls, by noblemen and gentlemen 
resident in the county. The prize-list is well-arranged, 
and liberal premiums are offered ; the regulations, 
moreover, are excellent, being short, yet explicit and 
intelligible. Under such favourable circumstances, a 
brilliant meeting may, doubtless, be anticipated; and 
heartily do we congratulate Air. Andrews, the Honorary 
Secretary, on his well-merited success. 
The second list to which we alluded is that of the 
“ Cornwall Society,” which we notice has greatly ex¬ 
tended its classes for Geese and Turkeys, in both of 
which the old birds and those hatched in 1853 will 
contend separately. We certainly regard this as an 
improvement, especially as it may bring into the field 
more of those farmers and cottagers whose benefit is 
one of the main objects of such institutions. The 
number of distinct Poland varieties that have been 
recently introduced have caused the addition of a fourth 
Poland class. Such birds were previously forced to \ 
compete at comparative disadvantage among “ those of | 
auy other distinct breed.” The exhibitor and the public 
will, therefore, both gain by this alteration. 
The 27tli and 28th of December next are appointed 
for this meeting, which will be held in the Corn Market, 
Penzance. 
I 
i 
i 
Several more letters from Exhibitors at the late Baker j 
Street Poultry Exhibition have reached us, complaining ( 
of the delay in receiving back their birds, and, in one | 
instance (Silver-pencilled Hamburghs) they have not | 
been received at all. The letters complain, also, that the , 
writers can obtain no reply. This, we think, arises 1 
from Mr. Catling’s absence, for we know that at the 
time the letters were written he was acting as Judge at 
the Great Yarmouth Show. Nevertheless, we must j 
again call his attention, and the attention of all persons 
connected with similar exhibitions, to the imperative 
necessity of having better regulations for the earliest 
possible and secure restoration of the birds to their j 
owners. Because, as one correspondent justly remarks \ 
—“ if such carelessness and inattention were general, | 
there would soon be an end of Poultry Exhibitions.” | 
Committees of such Exhibitions, if honourable men, j 
consider that their most important duties commence 
when the show finally closes; for then comes the pay¬ 
ment of the prizes, and the restoration of the birds. 
The man who becomes careless so soon as his object— 
a successful exhibition—has been obtained, is totally 
unfitted for any office connected with such an exhibition, 
and is guilty of an offence morally not less an offence 
than would be a malicious injury to the fowls. 
We are very glad to find that our recent observations 
upon this point has been taken in good part, and acted 
upon, by the Committee of the Malvern Poultry Exhibi¬ 
tion. The Honorary Secretary, Mr. T. Davis, says:— 
“ I have just read Dr. Gwynne’s letter. I am a fellow- 
sufferer from the same Exhibition. I have also read 
your notes, and have, fortuuately, made all the arrange¬ 
ments suggested by you, viz.: own carriages to and 
from the station, &c. ; and although we do not expect 
more than 300 pens, I have three committee-men, and 
nine assistants. Every bird sent to our Show will leave 
in eight hours after the Show closes, on Thursday night. 
“ We have also Farmers’ Classes for this county ; and 
T12 to be given to the Cottagers of this locality.” 
All this is as it should be, and we have reason to 
believe the Exhibition will be a good one. The Bristol 
and Birmingham Railway will only charge for taking 
the birds to the Show—bringing them back gratuitously. 
WHAT SHALL WE DO FOR OUR TENDER 
FRUIT-TREES IN SEPTEAIBER? 
For my own part, I consider this month as exercising 
a most potent influence on the prospects of the following 
year. The farmer knows that plenty of sunshine is 
requisite to his wheat crop during the month of August 
especially; and the gardener may know, that what a 
sunny August is to wheat, a sunny September is to 
fruit-trees in general. If, then, sunshine be really so 
essential to tbe embryo buds of fruits—to say nothing 
of the ripening process in late fruits—who can justify 
the retention of superfluous spray, the result of neglect 
in early summer? Besides, if this be true in ordinary 
seasons, how much more weight must it carry after 
such a summer as we have passed, during which a 
double amount of sap has been called into play, as 
regards trained fruit-trees ? 
Talk of blind blossoms, indeed, and about severe 
springs, and bad localities! any locality may be bad, 
if principles are ill understood, or practices absolutely 
essential arc suffered to fall through for want of labour. 
There is an old saying, that “ a bad shearer never gets 
a good hook; ” and this will apply occasionally to the 
cultivators of fruit-trees. 
The analogy between the buds of plants, or trees, and 
seeds, appears so strong, that any person who can com¬ 
prehend what conditions are necessary to perfect seeds 
is in a proper position to understand the needs of the 
ripening bud, more especially if both seed and bud be 
the offspring of plants or trees from warmer climes. 
Look, for instance, at our Lettuces, Cauliflowers, and 
such garden esculents, originally from warmer climates 
than Britain—what is the known consequence arising 
from badly organised or ripened seeds in untoward 
seasons? Why, not only a bad crop, but a badly con¬ 
stituted plant. Hence, shanking, fogging-off, mon¬ 
strosities, and imperfect developments in the seed-bud. 
People look astonished, and say, “It is very odd that 
these plants do not get on, and I used to have such 
good luck with them;” but such anomalies are rarely 
placed to the right cause, and the thing being, in the 
main, apparently shrouded in mystery, misconceptions 
j are continued from generation to generation. 
The Cottage Gardener, they say, has done much to 
