132 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
October 30, 1886. 
Me. James Blair, foremanat Lord Belper’sGardens, 
Kingston Hall, Derby, has been appointed gardener to 
Viscount Powerscourt, Powerscourt, Ireland. 
Mr. T. F. Dranfield, late gardener to the Earl of 
Boslyn, Dysart House, Dysart, has been engaged as 
gardener to Mrs. Ingleby, Valentines, Ilford. 
Mr. Richard Weller has been engaged as gardener 
to Sir Croker Barrington, Bart., at Glenstal Castle, 
Murroe, Ireland. 
The Executive Council of the Liverpool International 
Exhibition have awarded to Mr. John Matthews, of 
Weston-super-Mare, a silver medal for the Terra 
Cotta Ornaments which he is showing at the exhi¬ 
bition. The medal now aw’arded makes the fourteenth 
which Mr. Matthews has received, and the third this 
year. 
Me. J. Bramham, of Liverpool, has also been 
awarded a Gold Medal at the same exhibition, for his 
Allerton Priory Boiler. 
Messrs. William Thomson & Sons, Tweed Vine¬ 
yards, Clovenfords, have been awarded a Bronze Medal 
at the Edinburgh Exhibition for their Vine and plant 
manure. 
The second annual show of Chrysanthemums and 
other flowers, fruits and vegetables of the St. Peter’s, 
Hammersmith and district horticultural and cottage 
garden society, will be held at the St. Peter’s boys’- 
school, King Street, West Hammersmith, on Thursday, 
November 11th. 
The late Mr. Z. Stevens, was, we are informed, a 
Derbyshire man, and served his apprenticeship in the 
gardens at Osmaston Manor, whence he went to 
Trentham as journeyman under Mr. Henderson, and 
subsequently became foreman. From thence he went 
to Messrs. Veitch’s nursery at Chelsea, and returned to 
Trentham as chief, in succession to Mr. Henderson, not 
Mr. Fleming, as stated in our last. 
Meetings of the Linnean Society are announced 
to be held at Burlington House, on November 4th and 
18th, and December 2nd and 16th ; and in 1887, on 
January 20th, February 3rd and 17th, March 3rd and 
17th, April 7th and 21st, May 5th and 24th (anni¬ 
versary meeting at 3 p.m.), June 2nd and 16th. The 
meetings take place at 8 p.m. 
An inquest was held list week at Dartmouth on the 
body of a girl, aged seven years, who died through eating 
Hawthorn berries. Dr. Mahon said he had made 
a post-mortem examination, and found a lot of seeds of 
berries which grow on Hawthorns. These seeds had very 
sharp points at the ends, and these points had caused 
excessive nervous irritation, and produced inflammation 
of the stomach and bowels, which eventually caused 
death. The berries were not poisonous, and death was 
primarily caused by the irritation, 'which a stronger 
person might have thrown off. 
We are indebted to Price’s Patent Candle, Company 
for a liberal and welcome supply of Gishurstine, 
which those who do not know the article, may be in¬ 
formed is the best composition for rendering the boots 
watertight in the market. We say the best advisedly, 
from an experience of four or five years constant use. 
Besides keeping the tops supple and impervious to 
water, if property put on the soles, it not only adds 
materially to the comfort of the wearer by keeping the 
soles dry, but also increases their measure of durability. 
The Montreal Trade Bulletin states that the Potato 
disease in that province has assumed serious pro¬ 
portions, causing a rapid advance in prices, amounting 
to fully 100 per cent. In many instances, wdiole fields 
have been so much affected that growers state they will 
not go to the useless expense of digging them. From 
Ontario advices have been received to the effect that 
the ravages of the Potato disease are very serious, and 
that Toronto and other Western points will have to 
draw upon Lower Canada for supplies. 
Mr. Herbert Gladstone has contributed an article 
on the all-important subject of “National Physical 
Education,” to the book which is to be published in 
December next, in connection with the opening of 
“Olympia,” the new National Agricultural Hall at 
Kensington. 
Horticultural.— The Honourable Tom: “Haw! 
This is, I suppose—er—the new Tobacco that every¬ 
body’s growing.” Elfrida de Smyth : “Oh, dear, no. 
That’s an India-rubber plant.” The Honourable Tom : 
“ India-rubber ! Bai Jove ! Now I’d have bet any 
money it was real. What—er—wonderful imitations 
there are now-a-davs !” 
COLONIAL FRUIT PRODUCTION. 
Of all the remarkable exhibits seen at South 
Kensington during the past summer, of products of 
our vast colonial possersions, few, perhaps, w r ould have 
more greatly impressed gardeners with the fruit resources 
of Canada, for instance, our nearest and greatest depend¬ 
ency, than the wondrous display of Apples, Pears, 
Grapes, &c., and of farm and garden produce, made by 
that colony in the conservatory this week. Talk about 
chickens coming home to roost, here we have evidence 
that in our anxiety to colonise far-distant lands, and, at 
the same time, relieve ourselves of our assumed surplus 
population, we have raised up clever and prosperous 
competitors, not only for the world, but for our own 
trade also ; and few competitors display so much enter¬ 
prise as these Canadian folks do. 
This exhibition of colonial fruits, put up here in all 
their attractive form and beauty, is a formidable 
inroad, and such as should waken up our home growers 
to the dangers which surround them in the shape of 
foreign or colonial enterprise. Why, were it proposed 
to make even in Paris, much less at Montreal or New 
York, a gigantic show of purely English produce, our 
growers would shrink from the suggestion as an im¬ 
possibility, and yet we see Canadian growers from all 
parts of that vast dominion sending us literally 
thousands of dishes of their fruits, that we may see 
with our own eyes what Canadian fruit realty is, just 
as we see the enterprising manufacturers of that and 
other far more distant colonies, creating such a wonderful 
exhibition as is now on view at South Kensington ; 
w r hilst, next year, w r e are to see what enterprising 
Yankeedom can do in the same way close by. 
We have, with our insular ideas, begun to regard our¬ 
selves so much as the elect consumers of the world, that 
we somehow think it the duty of all the world to bring 
their products to us for our delectation. The world 
has been doing so with a vengeance, with the result 
that we are eaten up, body and bones, by excessive 
cheapness. Of course, the vast army of consumers, 
—and all producers are consumers of something—can¬ 
not and do not complain of prices, so long as they do not 
conflict with their own peculiar products. It is when 
we find other produce literally cutting down the prices 
of our own commodities to starvation point, that we 
turn and wonder, with a purely based surprise, how it 
is all to end. If we turn specialty to the numerous 
samples of Apples w r hich the Canadians show, produced 
in their great orchards with almost universal abun¬ 
dance, and at the most trifling cost, we are forcibly 
reminded that at home our lands are heavily charged 
with burdens, which literally absorb, and more [than 
absorb our profits, and choke our resources as with a 
gag- 
The Canadian knows nothing of these heavy charges, 
and if his profits are not extensive, they are, at least, 
his, and not those of someone else. If the Canadians 
can excel us in the production of beauty and colour in 
their Apples—and, without doubt, colour is a very 
profitable element—we beat them in the production 
of quality, as found in flavour and density of flesh. 
Canadian fruits seem produced with great rapidity, and 
under bright skies and warm sunshine; the very dryness 
of the atmosphere seems to enter into the texture of the 
fruit, which is dry and “chippy,” lacking high flavour 
and keeping qualities. If our fruits are less showy, at least 
we may declare them to be otherwise far better, and, 
perhaps, may challenge the world in the production of 
quality. It is in the cost of production of fruit in 
which we are so heavily handicapped, allied to the fact, 
which adds so materially to the cost, that our crons are 
irregular, and can never be relied upon until realty 
gathered. Whilst in private gardens we grow a variety 
of kinds which cover a long season, in our market 
gardens and orchards the largest grown kinds are early 
ripeners. Growers excuse this by saying that they 
thus command a market before the great bulk of 
American and colonial Apples are imported. As a 
result, they do but literally swamp the market with 
earty kinds, whilst they leave no appreciable bulk of 
fruit in the market to compete with the foreign fruit. 
If this latter found formidable competition at home, 
no doubt the importers would soon find that the trade 
did not pay. If, on the other hand, we leave the 
market during the winter almost in the hands of the 
importers, they can command fairly remunerative 
prices, and thus further importations are encouraged. 
By so largely increasing our home Potato production, 
we checked foreign importations, because the prices 
would not pay the foreigner. We can only hope to 
check this tremendous rush of outside fruit in the same 
way. Home growers also should do something to 
impress upon the home consumer the exceeding 
superiority of quality found in home-grown samples ; 
but then more care must be taken in the packing and 
sending to market. These Canadian fruits largely, in 
spite of the comparative softness of flesh, yet, in 
most cases, come out of their tubs far less injured than 
do ours out of hampers and market baskets. There 
seems only two courses open to the home grower ; 
either he must fold his hands and accept defeat and 
ruin, or else he must buckle-to and fight competitors as 
Englishmen should. 
-- 
JUDGING CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
It is very kind of Mr. Udale that he should be so 
anxious to learn what farther I may have to say with 
regard to the points I raised as to the merits of sports, 
&e., and their respective place in stands of flowers. I 
fear, however, I have little more to add, because I 
stated clearly previously that I thought the introduc¬ 
tion of the same variety in sported forms in small 
stands of flowers was ivrong, and lacked distinctness 
and variety. Suppose, for example, if any exhibitor 
were to stage, in a class for six blooms, Empress of 
India, Golden Empress and Lord Alcester with Mrs. 
G. Bundle, G. Glenny and Mrs. Dixon, such an exhibit 
would, under existing regulations, be perfectly correct, 
but can anyone say that it would be desirable ? 
Except in colour of flowers the plants are identical in 
the two sorts given, the form of blooms in each case 
identical, and there is an absolute lack of honest variety. 
I am simply anxious to induce exhibitors boldly to go 
in for variety in their stands, and not to be tempted 
by size of bloom, as is often the case, to put no less 
than three of the Empress strain in a stand of twelve 
blooms. As a result in competitions, we see these 
forms re-duplicated over and over again, until sameness 
becomes wearisome. 
In Potato competitions I have endeavoured to pro¬ 
mote distinctiveness in collections, not only in colour, 
but as far as possible in form. We have no Potato 
sports happily, but some kinds come very near each 
other, especially in the general appearance of the 
tubers. Still, as with Chrysanthemums so with 
Potatos, there are so many distinct kinds, that a 
twenty-four collection, or even thirty-six dishes, may 
be easily obtained, everyone of which admits of no 
question as to distinctiveness. Chrysanthemum exhi¬ 
bitors may try to the same end if they wish, and in so 
doing very materially help judges, because it is, I hope, 
in all cases, a full point in favour of any competitor, 
when his blooms are not only distinct, but clearly show 
distinctness. If in making up a stand, a man would 
say, “ Well, I won’t put in two sorts which bear close 
resemblance, lest it should lead to difficulty, even though 
I leave out a good flower,” he would act most meri¬ 
toriously. With respect to the subject of wording 
schedules in a clear and satisfactory way, I think that 
it has been pretty well thrashed out already. 
If the term “kinds” signify, in all cases, distinct 
sections or families, as, for instance, Japanese, Chinese, 
incurved, reflexed, or anemone-flowered, &c., and 
“varieties” be the term invariably applied when it 
refers to classes of these sections, it seems as if all were 
done that is needful. Whereas in most good schedules 
the various sections are classified under their respective 
headings, such as Japanese, incurved, &c., the term 
“ distinct” attached to each class seems to be all that is 
desirable, and admits of no dubiety. If there be mixed 
classes, then the term “any flowers” will suffice. In 
all cases I should give prominence to varieties of real 
distinctness, because there is so much room for it, and 
I hope judges will do their utmost to give force to the 
same view. 
With respect to “A Gardener’s ” suggestion as to 
creating a division in the incurved flowers by terming 
the large ones “ show,” and the smaller ones “fancy,” 
I think the proposal deplorable ; we want no more 
divisions, they should be avoided if possible. Where 
there is absolute diversity in form or style of flower, 
then division may be desirable, but nothing of the 
sort is shown in the case of Empress of India apd 
Mrs. G. Bundle. No doubt small flowers, though even 
as perfect, have no great chances against big ones ; but 
here again judges might do some service by declining to 
recognize mere size, unless accompanied by corres¬ 
ponding high quality.— A. B. 
