357 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 8, 1859. 
two Longtlons in Shropshire, two in Staffordshire, and two in Worcester¬ 
shire, and our correspondent does not specify which is his whereabouts. 
Hybrid Pink Cuttings [J. Laxton). —These came safe to D. B., who 
asks us to return his thanks. 
Insects on Peach Trees (Crux). —We cannot suggest a remedy with 
: any certainty of success, unless we know what insects they are. Send us 
■ some specimens in a quill. In the meantime fumigate well with tobacco. 
Coomraii. —“ I have got a tuber of a Chinese Potato, sent me under the 
name of Coomrah. I shall feel obliged to you, or any of your correspond- 
1 ents, if you will be kind enough to inform me what treatment it requires, 
! through the medium of The Cottage Gardener. It is a brown tuber, 
about a foot in length. It is very dry ; hut apparently has a good many 
eyes. Should it be cut as a Potato, and started in heat ? I should feel 
obliged if you would notice it in Tuesday’s paper.”— A Subscriber. 
[We do not know this root, and shall be obliged by any one sending us 
some information.] 
Beet (A Constant Subscriber). —The samples you have sent of Hender¬ 
son’s Pine Apple Short-topped Beet are very good indeed. It is evidently 
a most excellent sort, and does not grow too large. 
Maggots in Grease (IF. IT ).—These will not injure plants growing in 
soil into which those maggots are dug, or poured. They live only on 
animal matters. 
Work on Garden Plans ( A Subscriber). —You have, you say, our 
“Garden Manual,” “the only work anywise approaching your want;” 
but you require a larger work. Loudon’s Villa Gardener will, probably, 
supply your need. 
Planting a Garden (C. M. Major).—The plan of your garden is ex¬ 
ceedingly good for such a place; and every one of the beds may have 
bedding plants, except the two marked standard and dwSrf Rosen, AH 
you have to do is to match the corresponding beds on each side of the 
fountain with the same colours, and to put the colours crossways in the 
four beds round the fountain itself. But, as the beds are not numbered, we 
can give no more clue for the planting. You should have marked your 
own proposal, or the way the beds were planted last year, and we w ould 
then tell how far you were in, or out of the fashion. We never design a 
system of planting. 
Red Spots on Vine Leaves (A Many Years' Subscriber). —Your leaf 
was too withered to enable us to see the red spots ; but we incline to think 
the spots are warts, produced by more moisture at the roots than the leaves 
can healthily perspire. 
Garden Plan ( Broughton J.). —Your first garden is well planted ; but 
we prefer the middle of the centre group, bed 5, to be white, then 6 and 7 
to be made out of 5 ; that is, planted with Tom Thumbs; 8 and 9 as you 
: have them ; but your own way is just as good. For the east garden’, 14 
and 19 are well placed for Tom Thumbs, and white Ivy-leaf; then the 
corner beds, 11 and 15, ought to be of weaker colours than 10 and 16, say of 
Heliotrope; 13 and 17, being the farthest from the eye, will bear stronger 
colours than 10 and 16. Unless your Caprifolium is gratrnn, it cannot be 
determined by a leaf and cut flower. Why not send a branch with a whole 
flower-head ? 
t Planting Bp.ds ( A Country Subscriber, Cheshire), —The right way to 
plant your beds is in match pairs. Every two and two must be alike. The 
first pair, 34 and 40, are quite right. All the rest are out of fashion ; biq 
you cannot err in planting anything in such beds, only have them in pairs 
Garden Plan (IF. B .).—We never plant beds, or flower gardens; we 
only correct and criticise the planting of others. Last year, your Scarlet 
Geraniums, Calceolarias, Golden Chain, and all the Verbenas, were ex¬ 
ceedingly well done. You want a row of Cerastium tomcnlosum, six inches 
in width, and to come out quite close to the grass, all round No. 9, the 
middle circle, as you ought to keep to the same colours in 7, 8, 10, and 11 ; 
and inside the Cerastium, one row of Saponaria Calabrica, which would fill 
the whole space. The front of the sloping border of evergreens, with 
standard Roses at the bottom, should be all white, and the best telling 
white. The greatest fault at the Crystal Palace, is repeating the strong 
colours in the beds, in front of all the shrubberies. That was better last 
year than formerly. White in front of evergreens, at long distances from 
the eye; and all kinds of shades of pink, lilac, and purple, when near 
the eye, can never be wrong. But in a flower garden, or in sight of beds, 
never plant scarlet, yellow, or crimson, in front of evergreens, much less 
in front of mixed shrubberies. To do so alwavs insures the want of effect. 
Name or Plant ( Joseph Robinson). —It is impossible, from the specimen 
sent, to say whether the tree is Cedrus Lebanierc C. deodara. 
TOE POUlim CHRONICLE. 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
March 15tli, 16th, and 17th. Shropshire. Sec., T. W. Jones, Church 
Street, Wellington, Salop. 
May 25th and 26th. Beverley. Sec., Francis Calvert, Surgeon, &c. 
June 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, 1859. Bath and West of England. At Barnstaple, 
Devon. Director, S. Pitman, Esq. 
July 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th. Sheffield. Wilson Ovcrend, Chairman. 
Entries close the 15th of June. 
N.B.— Secretaries will oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
RULES FOR JUDGING. 
Certain things and questions come periodically before the 
poultry public; they are as regular as the seasons. They are 
like certain motions before the “House ”—such as closing at an 
early hour of the evening, the “ Ballot,” and so on. They always 
i come on, and they always meet the same fate. There was an 
amusing paper, written some years since, of eminent men who 
had foreseen and prophesied the decadence and ruin of their 
country. We suppose they really believed what they published j 
but how tiresome and provoking it must have been for men of 
forty, stern, cool, erudite, and politic, to predict ruin in twenty 
years, to live to be seventy, and then find their country daily im¬ 
proving : or a man declaring that nothing but an ardent patriot¬ 
ism could induce him to come before the public with the only 
scheme that can avert ruin, to explain it carefully, and almost 
with tears to adjure people to adopt it, and to discover at the end 
nobody remains to listen to him. There is nothing left for him 
but to go home and lament a ruin which exists only in his own 
imagination. 
So in our poultry proceedings. We have at this time lots of 
appeals. They all end by saying, the prosperity and duration of 
Poultry Shows depend on the adoption of their scheme. Thus 
we have rules for judging, in order that all may agree. We 
never heard anything so utopian. When do two barristers, or 
two solicitors, or two physicians, or two apothecaries, or even two 
civil judges agree ? But it is said, poultry judges have tho same 
birds to judge; so have all the foregoing the same cases, yet their 
opinions are different. 
But, after all, what is the complaint that is urged?—that 
birds, which take a first prize at one Show, do not at another. 
“Who can reconcile such eccentricities?” says one. “What are 
exhibitors to do?” says another. “Something must be done,” 
cries a third. “ I shall give up exhibiting,” exclaims a fourth. 
Now, what is the fact nine times out of ten? Just this: At 
some small local Show, but probably well judged, a pen of no 
great merit, but without glaring defects, gains a first prize over a 
small class of barely average birds. They are there first-prize 
birds. The price is moderate, and they are bought. They are 
shown at a larger Show, judged by the same Judge or Judges, 
and commended. They are brought into competition with first- 
class birds. They were victorious over hare mediocrity ; but they 
are beaten by real merit. They won, because they had no defect; 
but they fail by the side of positive merit. We do not mean to 
say that Judges do not make mistakes, or that the office is not 
sometimes assumed by those who have no legitimate claim to 
it; but, as a rule, the principal Shows are well and properly 
judged. 
We are disposed to smile, when we read a determination to 
give up showing, and when we come to the frequent termination, 
“ Such inconsistencies are fatal to the pursuit, and I shall give up 
exhibiting.” It was said of a man, that lie left off killing flies 
because so many attended the funeral of each, that the numbers in 
his house increased. So, we think, for every exhibitor who re¬ 
linquishes, two take it up. We lately met a man who, some 
years since, was a very large exhibitor ; of course he assumed an 
air of ignorance about the matter, asked if those follies still con¬ 
tinued, was astonished when we told him he had not been missed 
from liis classes; and, after declaring he took not the slightest 
interest in His poultry, offered to show three pens of different 
breeds for any sum of money, and against any three in the king¬ 
dom. When lie retired, six years since, he told all his friends 
the thing was at an end. He had given up, and they would soon 
hear no more of the matter. He lias been in the position of those 
who look for national ruin, and are doomed to life-long dis¬ 
appointment.— B, 
BRAHMA POOTRAS. 
“Preserve me from my friends!” Well might Mr. Botham 
say so. “ Salop ” comes in for commendations, of course. 
“ Alpha,” surely, deserves to have some ; but “ Bed Ensign ” 
ought to be plated ; for he asks the pertinent and unfortunate 
question, “ Are Black Hamburghs a distinct breed ? for they 
also breed true, and possess the genuine characteristics of that 
class of birds.” The gist of the entire argument rests on the 
solution of this unlucky question. Can you breed out a cross, so 
as to insure a certain fixed form, feather, &c., similar to Pigeons ? 
“ Bed Ensign ” says “Yes,” and so do I. The Moonies and 
Gold-spangled (or Pheasant) Hamburghs, the Black Ilamburghs, 
the Pile Game, the Black Polands, Game.Bnntams, Brahmas— 
all and every one of these are instances of the truth that crosses, 
when bred for any length of time, will throw scarcely a taint of 
their former selves. Certain classes are more easily managed to 
breed than others. I got a second prize at Exeter, and highly 
commended at the Bath and West of England, some two years 
hack, for Black Hamburghs ; and these were bred (the two liens) 
