THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, June 9, 1857. 
north, and is the easiest to cultivate. TrilUums , or at any 
rate T. grandiflorum , require shade, shelter, and very sandy 
soil on a damp bottom. The one mentioned from Kingston, 
the best we ever heard of, flourishes under these conditions. 
Those marked in your list would be most acceptable to Mr. 
Beaton, and you will see in another page that Sir Joseph 
Paxton is on the same scent. Who has a good patch of 
Anemone amplexicaulis to throw across the scent ?] 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Rhubarb Wink {Bradford).—Y ou. must buy our numbers 97 and 
99 * They contain the best directions for making it ever published. Do 
not meddle with your Lilies of the Valley. They will bloom next year 
probably. If not growing strongly give them a little leaf mould about 
their roots. 
Rose Insects {J. C. M.).— Your insects which attack the Roses 
at night are the destructive Weevils, Otiorhynchus sulcatus. (See 
Cottage Gardener, iii. 125, for figure and description.) 
Hibiscus suratensis {W. W.). —This Hibiscus is an East Indian 
annual, which is very pretty, but so impatient of cultivation that it was 
lost soon after its first introduction. We never met with it in a trade list. 
Perhaps some correspondent may tell you where it may be obtained. 
Saxifraca granulata and Verbena Endymion (H . J5.).—Mr. 
Beaton will be much obliged by them. His direction is “ Surbiton, 
Kingston-on-Thames, S.W.” 
Intermediate Stock (T. Mann): —There is nothing remarkable in 
the change of your Stock from scarlet one year to green the next; but, as 
your soil may be the cause, it is as well to know that chalk will correct 
the tendency. Give a good dressing of chalk to the border on which 
the Stocks vary, and we think they will not vary again. Has any one 
seen these Stocks “ run ” on the chalk formation ? 
Seedling Calceolarias {W. B. Jefferies). —They are very good 
flowers and very pretty, but no one can give an opinion worth relying 
upon unless he sees the whole plant. 
Young Bullfinches. — B. C. P. will be much obliged by informa¬ 
tion how these are to be reared. 
Nerium oleander (A Lady). — It is absolutely necessary to keep 
the pot in a saucer (not a tub) filled daily with water. Buy our number 
25, and there, for threepence, you will have a dissertation by Mr. 
Beaton on Oleander culture. 
Improved Coil Boiler.— Another Experimentalist wishes to know 
where this boiler, mentioned by “An Experimentalist ” at page 121, 
can be obtained. 
Insect on Apple and Cherry Trees (T. T.).—The insects which 
have injured your Apple, Pear, and Cherry blooms are the destructive 
Raspberry Beetle, Byturus tomentosus. The only plan to destroy them 
is to beat the boughs over a sheet, and then collect and kill the Beetles 
which will fall. The young grubs which will by-and-by be found in 
the fruit of the Raspberry should also be carefully destroyed. We do 
not know an Apple called Lord Suffield. 
Peach Trees shedding their Bloom (A. D.). —If the wood is 
thoroughly matured in autumn, and the trees get fair play afterwards, 
there is little danger of the blossom dropping. If the trees are sub¬ 
jected to great heat, either from being covered with glass or otherwise, 
and the roots are cold, wet, and dormant, it is very likely the blossom 
would drop from want of nourishment. We knew a Peach house, most 
of the roots of the trees in which were outside the wall, that so dropped 
their blossom for years. It was forced gently, but there was no spout to 
carry away the water that fell from the roof. A spout was put up, the 
border slightly covered with litter, and thus neither allowed to be greatly 
cooled nor deluged, and there has been no failure since. If such extra 
wet and cold while the branches were excited are not the cause in 
your case, we should attribute it to the greenness of the wood in the 
autumn. 
Various. — A Subscriber from the Beginning will find the books that 
will suit him mentioned a week or two ago. We hardly know what 
eight or ten decorative plants would be best for a Flower Show in August, 
that are to be purchased now, and nothing but a cool greenhouse to 
grow them in. We know that many purchase plants, and show them as 
their own growth a few weeks or days after, and this we will say no more 
about than that it is a contest not of skill, but outlay. We will think the 
matter over, and meanwhile some of our exhibiting friends knowing in 
these matters may help us. 
Mushrooms Thick and Fat.— L. J. will be attended to, but the 
matter may wait a week or two, for the dog days are the most trying 
periods for Mushroom houses. 
Various. — Clericus will also be attended to; meanwhile let us say 
there is no difficulty in forcing Peaches in pots. Allowing the trees 
to grow through the pots into the border is just good or bad according 
to the result we aim at. When such, however, is the case, the tree in 
the pot becomes to a great extent a planted-out tree. 
Name of Bulb (F .).—We cannot be quite certain what this little 
bulb can be, but very probably it is the Galanthus plicatus, which is a 
native of the Crimea. We should not disturb it on any account. It 
will flower next year if never touched from now until then. If doubt 
then exists about its name send us a fair specimen, and we will tell you 
what it is. Then do not disturb it again during the whole year. The 
bunch will then be doubly as fine as it was the year before, and so on. 
Let it continue for some four or five years without its being disturbed 
with either hoe, spade, or fork. 
the’ poultry chronTcul 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
Junb 26th. Exeter. Sec., T. W. Gray, Esq., Queen Street, Exeter. 
July 8th, 9th, and 10th, 1857. Leamington, Sec., Thomas Grove. 
July 9th. Prescot. Sec., J. F. Ollard. 
July 28th, 29th, and 30th. Sheffield, South Yorkshire, and 
North Derbyshire. Sec., William Henry Dawson, Fig Tree 
Lane, Sheffield. 
August 8th, 10th, 11th, and 12th. Crystal Palace. Sec., W. 
Houghton. 
August 19. Bridlington. Sec., Mr. Thomas Cape. 
September 2nd. Dewsbury. Sec., Harrison Brooke, Esq. 
September 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th. Gloucester. Sec., Mr. H. Churchill, 
King’s Head Hotel. 
October 1st and 2nd. Worcester. 
November 30th, and December 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Birmingham. 
Sec., John Morgan. Entries close the 2nd of November. 
December 16th and 17th. Nottinghamshire. Entries close No¬ 
vember 18th. Hon. Sec., Mr. R. Hawksley, jun., Southwell. 
December 30th and 31st. Burnley and East Lancashire. 
Entries close December 1st. Secs., Angus Sutherland and Ralph 
Landless. 
January 9th, 11th, 12th, and 13th, 1858. Crystal Palace. 
January 19th, 20th, 21st, and 22nd, 1858. Nottingham Central. 
Sec., Mr. Etherington, jun., Notintone Place, Sneinton, near Notting¬ 
ham. 
N.B .—Secretaries will oblige us by sending early copies of their lists 
ONE JUDGE OR SEVERAL? 
It will be almost universally acknowledged that the present 
time is indeed one of vital interest to Poultry Exhibitions. 
Each succeeding year outvies its predecessors as to the 
intrinsic value of our appointed premiums, and necessarily 
birds that can be depended on as “winners” progress in 
value accordingly. At the period the writer of this contribu¬ 
tion first officiated as an arbitrator a first prize of one 
sovereign value was considered liberal, and a premium well 
worth the winning. Six years only have passed away, and 
we now find twenty times the amount offered as a similar 
reward, and that, too, with the very satisfactory and honour¬ 
able provision that “money or plate” are equally available 
at the option of the winner. Such regulations bear about 
them the very impress of sterling integrity on the part of 
the Committee, but certainly necessitate especial attention 
to the plans adopted for the final allotment of such really 
valuable distinctions. At the hands of the Judges their 
future ownership entirely depends; therefore efficiency and 
rectitude are alike indispensable characteristics of those to 
whom so responsible and onerous a duty is consigned. 
It is pretty generally known that the competition of late 
bears not the slightest comparison to that of former years. 
Fowls that at the onset of the poultry movement were con¬ 
sidered unexceptionable are very far behind in the race as 
to even the generality of specimens that are now exhibited, 
and could they by possibility be placed beside the successful 
of the present time, how few persons would accredit that such 
poultry had ever themselves held the proud position that 
rendered them so covetable in their day, and at that time 
distinguished their fortunate owners in the poultry world. 
This has arisen from two causes. Firstly, the essential traits 
of character in each variety are now almost universally 
understood; and, in the second place, for some years past 
the most scrupulous care and anxiety to improve and per¬ 
petuate such developments have arrested the attention of 
careful breeders. As an example look to our general Spanish 
classes. The change wrought in this description of poultry 
stock—although the improvement even here in no way sur¬ 
passes that of many other varieties—is most extraordinary. 
The usual difficulty in time present is really to find one 
indifferent pen; formerly an adult cock possessing even an 
approach to a perfect face was gazed at with astonishment 
by hosts of admirers, and enthusiastically pronounced “ un¬ 
approachable.” 
The same “ strain ” that time back was possessed only by 
a single individual is frequently found, by purchase and so j 
forth, now competing from the well-regulated yards of, per¬ 
chance, some scores of amateurs, each equally enthusiastic, 
and resolved by every means at his disposal to outvie his 
opponents, whether by more careful selection of the com- 
