402 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
February 27, 1892. 
It did seem impossible that any Govern¬ 
ment, after in accordance with the decision 
of Parliament placing the large sum arising 
from the duties above-named at the dis¬ 
posal of the municipalities, could totally 
disorganise ail recent efforts in the direc¬ 
tion of education by withholding the 
supplies in future years. The statement 
referred to will at once allow all local 
authorities to breathe freely, and encourage 
that yet very small body of workers who 
have so far been doing their best to make 
horticulture an acceptable theme in the 
estimation of rural dwellers. Earl Cowper 
was right when he said that persons were 
qualifying to become instructors, and it 
would be unjust to them were the grant 
presently withheld. 
However, so far all is well. During the 
ensuing summer Count}'' Councils will be 
able to do much to perfect their plans, and 
those acting as instructors will be able also 
to chalk out lines and methods of working 
calculated to produce the greatest benefit. 
The horticultural trade, which so far has 
done little to encourage the new move¬ 
ment, should presently benefit immensely. 
SSThe International Fruit Show.— Our 
readers will be much gratified to hear 
of the success which has attended the 
application of the provisional committee 
charged with the conduct of the preliminary 
arrangements of the Great Fruit Show to be 
held in London next autumn, made to the 
Court of Common Council on Thursday of 
last week, for the loan of a large open space 
on the Thames Embankment for the pur¬ 
pose of the exhibition. The petition was 
presented by Alderman Sir James White- 
head, Bart-., and supported by some four¬ 
teen or fifteen gentlemen warmly interested 
in the movement, and the unanimity which 
characterised the granting of the applica¬ 
tion bodes well for the hearty acceptance 
of the proposal in the City. 
The striking popularity of the leader of 
the movement, Sir James Whitehead, the 
patronage of H.M. The Queen, the free 
use of this splendid site, which is but just 
past the Temple Gardens, and the support 
which will be cheerfully accorded to the 
movement by the leading fruit growers of 
the Kingdom, the success of the proposed 
show seems to be assured. We can hardly 
doubt but that beyond the show proving to 
be a great financial success, that it will 
also be one in a purely exhibition sense. 
We want to see not merely a magnificent 
show of fruit, bat a grand coup d'eil, or an 
entirely unique display, rvhich apart from 
the intrinsic merits of the exhibits shall 
command the highest admiration, and from 
an educational point of view be far reach¬ 
ing it its effects. 
We want to show to the world literally 
that whilst fruit culture at home is so far 
from being a lost art that it can challenge 
all nations freely, yet. that also we can pro¬ 
duce in an exhibition of this kind some 
evidence of art or genius in the creation of 
effects which shall charm and captivate 
the multitude. These may seem to be 
ambitious aims, but certainly nothing less 
will satisfy us in this case. 
The First Crystal Palace Flower Show of the season 
is announced for Saturday, March 26th. 
Shropshire Horticultural Society. — We are requested 
o state that the amount paid in prize-money last year 
by this society was £597 5s., and not ^428 7s. 6d. as 
inadvertently stated in our last. 
Death of Mr. Hugh Weir, of Whishaw. —The name 
of Mr. Hugh Weir will be familiar to most Pansy 
growers as a very successful raiser of new varieties 
of Pansies, and we regret to announce his death on 
the 3rd January and the loss cf one of our most 
respected Scottish florists, 
The Wolverhampton Floral Fete.—The schedule 
of prizes for 1892 has just been issued, and is on a 
most liberal scale, the prizes especially for fruit and 
Roses being much augmented. July 12, 13, and 14 
are the dates fixed ; and in the open to all classes for 
sixteen stove, greenhouse, and ornamental plants, the 
prizes are £ 20 , £13, and £10. Very liberal prizes 
are offered in the other plant classes, and in the ten 
open classes for Roses, prizes to the amount of £67 
are offered. Fora collection of fruit, open, £7 10s., 
£5, £3, and £1 10s. are given, with liberal prizes also 
for other fruits and cut flowers. Several classes are 
reserved to gentlemen gardeners, open to Stafford¬ 
shire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and Salop, for 
plants, cut flowers, fruits, and vegetables. The ama¬ 
teurs who do not keep a gardener, and reside within 
ten miles of Wolverhampton, have several classes 
with liberal prizes devoted to them, for plants, cut 
flowers, fruits, and vegetables; and the cottagers 
have thirty classes for their vegetables, fruits, flowers, 
and plants, and several liberal extra prizes are de¬ 
voted to vegetables. 
Birmingham Gardeners' Association. —At a meeting 
on Feburary 17th, Mr. A. Outram, of the Victoria 
and Paradise Nurseries, Holloway, London, read a 
paperon" The progress of Horticulture in the United 
States,” and after an annual visit for the last sixteen 
years he was able to speak with some authority. He 
spoke in high terms of the great advance made dur¬ 
ing that time in the formation of first-class collections 
of Orchids, of new and rare and other plants, now so 
generally met with, and of the cultivation of which in 
many instances high praise must be awarded. He 
alluded to the enormous number of Peaches, Apples, 
&c., now under cultivation compared with sixteen 
years since; to the extraordinary progress made in 
the cut flower trade, and of the hughe establishments 
now in full swing for their cultivation for market, 
the great popularity of the Rose and Carnation as 
cut flowers, and of the excellent cultivation' of the 
Chrysanthemum and the raising of so many fine new 
varieties. Questioned as to the prospect in America 
for young English gardeners, Mr. Outram replied 
that there was a good opening for intelligent, 
respectable young men who were prepared to work 
hard, and wait until they got into the ways of the 
country, and obtained a situation as they may want. 
The Weather in the North.—Our Aberdeenshire 
correspondent, writing on Monday afternoon, says, a 
renewal of the snowstorm occurred on .Saturday 
night, and yesterday forenoon a heavy snowstorm 
raged — not alone in Aberdeenshire, but apparently 
over the greater part of the north of Scotland, and 
the south of Scotland as well. In Aberdeenshire 
yesterday’s snowstorm was succeeded by rain and a 
very decided “fresh.” Last week’s frost seems to have 
been phenomenal on Deeside : at Ballater on Friday 
night, the thermometer registered 3 0 below zero (35 
degrees of frost) ; at Braemar the thermometer 
sank to within half a degree of zero (31J degrees of 
frost), which almost justifies the description applied 
to the weather as being of “the really rigid Siberian." 
Serious apprehensions are entertained in the north as 
to another block on the railway lines, while consider¬ 
able anxiety is felt by flockmasters. We learn also 
from Mr. J. Forbes, of Hawick, that the temperature 
fell to zero there on the morning of the 19th. 
Lord Carrington and his Allotments. —Lord Car¬ 
rington, who is an extensive land-owner in Lincoln¬ 
shire, Buckinghamshire, and elsewhere, has given 
some interesting particulars concerning the working 
of his allotments. His lordship states that there 
are 1,600 allotments of one-tenth of an acre, which 
are let to mechanics in Wycombe at the rate of 26s. 
to £3 10s. per acre. The crop on these has been 
worth £3, and the land repaid at least /50 an acre. 
There are also 21 acres split into 175 allotments of 
100 yds. long and 50 yds. wide which are let at 6s. 
each. The crops on these had been valued at £3, 
which for the21 acres made an annual return of £8 75. 
As regards village allotments Lord Carrington says 
he has 4,900 of them—a few of three acres, a few of 
one acre, and the majority of a quarter of an acre. 
In addition to these he has 152 new allotments being 
laid out, some of them on his Lincolnshire estates, 
which were to be let at from 25s. to £1 an acre. 
A Horticultural Lecturers’ Association.—We have 
learned that it has been suggested as desirable that 
ah these now engaged in the interesting work of 
county council lecturing on horticulture, should, 
af the close of the season, meet ^nd compare notes, 
exchange opinions, and define so far as is possible, 
such schemes for future work as may seem to them 
the most likely to serve the cause of education in 
horticulture. The idea is an excel’ent one and 
would perhaps be further valuable did these gentle¬ 
men resolve to form a small lecturers’ association, so 
that it might be found helpful in many ways. The 
considerable experience gained during the present 
winter is far too valuable to be flung broadcast 
anywhere, whilst utilised amongst themselves might 
assume the form of business capital. That therein 
be next winter a wider development of this horti¬ 
cultural instruction there can be no doubt, therefore 
it behoves all engaged in it to arm themselves 
during the summer with all the information and 
support they can obtain. 
Leelia Superbiens at The Briars, Reigate. —Mr. 
Bailey writes :—“ I have cut within the last ten days 
for house decoration three spikes of this grand old 
species, one of which had no less than eighteen 
flowers on a head, and a fellow spike from the same 
plant had fourteen. The former strikes me as being 
a somewhat unusual number. Although of a 
rambling habit of growth this is to my mind a noble 
plant and well worthy of a place in any collection.’' 
TEN YEARS’ SUNSHINE. 
A very interesting record is before us in the shape 
of a pamphlet, published by the authority of the 
Meteorological Council (Eyre & Spottiswoode), re¬ 
cording the duration of sunshine in various parts of 
the British Islands during a period of the ten years 
extending from 1881 to 1890 inclusive. The system¬ 
atic registration of sunshine was not put in operation 
till 1880, when an improved form of sunshine re¬ 
corder, known as the Campbell-Stokes sun-heat in¬ 
strument, was sent to a number of the meteorological 
stations throughout the country. In two instances 
the records have been made from two instruments of 
a somewhat different pattern. One of them was an 
apparatus which works by photography, and records 
sunlight. 
The number of stations at which the records were 
made is forty-six, and they are scattered over various 
parts of the British Isles, from the Orkney Islands 
to Jersey, inclusive of stations in the Hebrides, the 
Isle of Man, etc. The duration of sunshine for each 
month of the ten years is recorded in hours, and also 
the percentages of a possible duration, that is from 
sunrise to sunset. Where the records have been 
complete and uninterrupted, the sum total of sun¬ 
shine during each month for periods of five and 
also the whole ten years has been tabulated under 
the names of the respective stations where the obser¬ 
vations were made. 
It is significant and interesting to note that birds 
sometimes prove annoying and mischievous to 
meteorologists as well as to gardeners, notwithstand¬ 
ing the widely diverse nature of the avocations of 
the two classes of people. In one instance seagulls, 
and in another jackdaws, were found guilty of pick¬ 
ing the. cards out of the apparatus employed for 
registering the sunshine. Whether curiosity or mis¬ 
chief was meant is not recorded. 
The sunniest part of the whole of the British Isles 
is Jersey, which is the only station where on the mean 
of the ten years an average of half the possible 
duration of sunshine occurred in any one month. The 
duration registered for May was 52 per cent., and for 
August 55 percent. No other station has registered 
above 48 per cent. Another striking fact is that 
during the two weeks from the 22nd to the 28th of 
February, and from the6th to the 12th of September 
inclusive, in the year 1891, the sunshine registered 
was 89 per cent, of the possible duration. This is 
considered the highest amount attainable in our 
climate. 
Taking an average of the ten years during the 
month of January, Jersey stands first with 25 per 
cent.; Aberdeen follows with 24 ; London drops down 
to 4 per cent, at Bunhill Row, and 10 at Greenwich. 
Jersey rises to 31 per cent, in February, and the sea- 
coast stations, Falmouth, Aberdeen, St. Ann’s Head, 
and Valencia to 27. In March, Jersey rises to 41, to 
46 in April, to 52 in May, but drops to 49 per cent, 
in June, although still showing the highest record. 
The above-named sea coast stations also take lead¬ 
ing positions, while Bunhill Row shows the lowest 
record. In June, Markree Castle, Ireland, is slightly 
lower than Bunhill Row, and the former together 
with Glasgow show the lowest record (26 per cent.) 
in July. August is a more sunny month than either 
