August 1st, 1885. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
755 
a 
Gardening is the purest of 
refreshment to the 
human pleasures, and the greatest 
spirit of man.”—B acon. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 1st, 1885. 
Cottagers’ Shows. — It was by an odd 
chance that we very recently found in a 
southern portion of the great Metropolis an ex¬ 
hibition of garden and window produce which 
will probably stand out this remarkably hot 
season as specially fresh and pleasing. Flower 
gardens in several aspects, windows dressed with 
flowers and shrubs in truly beautiful form, 
creepers on house fronts not merely blooming 
but growing in great luxuriance, even Grape 
Vines bearing good crops of fruit, with Virginian 
Creepers, Clematises, Tropseolums, &c. in exceed¬ 
ing beauty. All this we found in the hot, parched 
streets, broiling as it were under the fierce rays 
of the summer sunshine. The exhibition gave a 
medley of plants, Fuchsias, Begonias, Zonal and 
Ivy-leaf Pelargoniums, hardy window shrubs, 
foliage plants in variety, Musk, Creeping Jenny, 
and not least, long trailing plants of the pale 
mauve-flowered Campanula fragilis, which oddly 
enough seems more popular as a town plant, and 
better grown there than in country districts. 
But away in the country the most distressful 
complaints are heard in all directions of the 
withering effects of the heat and drought under 
which Potatos, Peas, Beans, Cabbages, and other 
ordinary garden crops are failing, indeed almost 
dying, and the cottagers have to look helplessly 
on, utterly incapable of counteracting the evil 
which the drought is doing. Throughout the 
rural districts the best cottager exhibitions of 
garden produce are usually in the autumn, a 
season when samples of the main crops which 
have been grown for the winter’s consumption 
may usually be found in abundance. Such shows, 
as a rule, afford remarkable evidence of the capa¬ 
city of the ordinary rural cottage gardener and 
allotment holder to produce samples of crops 
which often vie in excellence with those of the 
gentleman’s gardener, who perhaps shows in 
other classes, or simply places a collection of 
garden products in the show to assist in creating 
an effective display. 
We fear this year that cottagers will enter 
upon their competitions with heavy hearts. 
Potatos, usually their strong feature, must be 
very small, especially where the soil lacks hold¬ 
ing power. Turnips seem impossibilities, for 
no seed can germinate in the exceeding drought, 
and other produce must be scarce and small. 
Even hardy fruits are suffering also, for the com¬ 
parative absence of heavy rainfall during the 
winter, following upon the long drought of the 
preceding year, is now telling upon large trees 
with distressing effect ; the fruits are falling, and 
what remains refuse to swell. St. Swithin’s 
season has indeed been a droughty one, and even 
a shower would be welcomed to wash the foliage 
and cool the scorched fruits. Mere showers, 
however, will be of little service to vegetation 
of any sort. Trees and vegetables alike need 
thorough soakings, if any good is to follow, and 
unless supplied in the form of thunder-storms, 
which are ofttimes as much to be dreaded as 
desired, we see no present prospect of improve¬ 
ment. 
A fortnight longer of such drought will do 
infinite mischief—a month will destroy almost 
everything. Such being the case, it is not 
possible to feel other than commiseration with 
cottagers who see not so much their customary 
prizes fading away as the garden crops that 
usually form for them and their families food 
of an exceedingly useful and healthful kind. 
Under these circumstances, exhibitions of cot¬ 
tagers’ garden produce can hardly be looked for 
this season with hope or satisfaction. Having 
regard to these considerations, we shall look 
forward to the show of cottage garden produce 
which is to take place at South Kensington, on 
the 25th inst., with more than usual interest. 
The show of similar produce held in the con¬ 
servatory last year about the same time proved 
to be one of unusual excellence, and was indeed 
a surprise to all who saw it. But we may well 
express doubt whether the present season can 
show such good results. Then cottagers rivalled 
private gardeners in the excellence of their pro¬ 
ductions, so much so, in fact, as to raise doubts 
in the minds of some of the bond Jides of many of 
the exhibitors. 
In such shows in the rural districts where 
every exhibitor is personally known, and his 
garden is an open book to all his neighbours, it 
is barely possible for cottagers to impose, even 
assuming that they were anxious to commit 
fraudulent acts. In that respect we cannot 
admit for a moment that cottagers are any worse 
nor indeed any better than any other class of 
exhibitors. Probably, to put the matter paren¬ 
thetically, all are as honest as they can be, just 
so much and no more. In the case of this South 
Kensington Show, it is obvious, however, that 
exhibitors should be proved to be what they 
represent themselves to be, inasmuch as there 
can be no fairness in the competitions if all are 
not placed on the same footing as regards position 
in life, and garden advantages. To ensure this 
it is desirable that all competitors should give 
for reference the name of some secretary or other 
officer of the local horticultural society to which 
he may be attached, and thus enable the South 
Kensington authorities, if they feel a warranty to 
be desirable, to obtain it. 
As at this show there are many classes and 
numerous good prizes, and as farther, competing 
gives admission to the Inventions Exhibition, &c., 
some considerable inducement is offered to 
cottagers in remote places to try their fortune, 
especially if they have really good exhibits. It 
is, of course, very desirable that a good show 
should result, but it is certainly not less desirable 
that the competition should be conducted with 
entire fairness on the part of exhibitors. 
Paving Flower Shows. — A great deal of the 
financial success attending on flower shows depends 
upon the manner in which they are managed. 
If the popular support is to be secured it must 
be bid for in a liberal manner, and efforts must 
be put forth to enlist the active support of all classes 
resident in the locality. Recently the Ealing, Acton, 
and Hanwell Horticultural Society held a two days’ 
exhibition in Gunnersbury Park, Ealing, by way of 
celebrating the twenty-first anniversary of the society. 
The sum taken at the gates amounted to just over 
£90, and that derived from the sale of tickets amounted 
to £94, a large proportion of the latter sum being 
derived from sixpenny admission tickets sold the day 
before at fourpence each. Despite the large atten¬ 
dance, it is gratifying to know that not a single cause 
for complaint arose; and not a particle of damage 
was done to any part of the grounds. There is a great 
future for suburban flower shows, if rightly managed. 
The sum of £250 is annually received by the Ealing 
Society in the form of annual subscriptions; and 
special prizes to the amount of £75. Two exhibi¬ 
tions are held annually—one in July, and one in 
November. 
(Sarfrerang lilmclkm 
—— 
Flower Shows for Next Week. — Monday: 
Great Horticultural Exhibition and Botanical Congress 
at Antwerp. Northampton Horticultural Society’s 
Show. — Tuesday : Oxford Union Carnation and 
Picotee Show. 
Mr. Harry Veitch had the honour of presenting 
Princess Beatrice with her bridal bouquet, which was 
composed of the choicest white flowers in season, and 
in the centre was placed a sprig of myrtle from a tree 
at the Swiss Cottage at Osborne, which was struck 
from a similar sprig in the bouquet also presented 
by Mr. Veitch to the Crown Princess of Germany on 
her marriage in 1858. 
The report of Peter Lawson & Son, Lim., Edin¬ 
burgh, states that after paying all the expenses 
incurred in the formation of the Company, and 
allowing for bad debts, the accounts show a surplus 
of £5,880 11s. lid. A dividend at the rate of 10 per 
cent, per annum is declared, and a balance of 
£5,233 Os. 3d. is carried forward. 
On Tuesday next the Provisional Committee of the 
Oxford Union Carnation and Picotee Society will lay 
out a feast of Carnations in Mr. E. S. Dodwell's 
garden at The Cottage, Stanley Road, Iffley Road, 
Oxford, of which all lovers of the flower are invited to 
partake. At 3 o’clock a luncheon, presided over by 
the Mayor of Oxford, will be provided in the Hall of 
Cowley S. John’s High School, Iffley Road. 
We understand that the tender of Messrs. James 
Veitch & Sons for supplying the London parks with 
bulbs has again been accepted by H.M. Offioe of 
Works. 
Mr. Cove, for the last five years gardener at Stow- 
ford Lodge, Ivybridge, has been engaged as gardener 
to Col. Coryton, Pentillie Castle, Saltash, Cornwall. 
The total number of visitors to the Glasnevin 
Botanic Gardens, Dublin, during 1884, was 326,914. 
Horticulturalists will be busy next week at 
Antwerp. According to the programme Monday will be 
devoted to meetings of the Congress, and at half-past 
eight p.m. an official reception by the Burgomaster in 
the Town Hall. On Tuesday the Congress meetings 
will be resumed, and in the evening there will be a 
banquet at the Cerele Artistique Litteraire et Scien- 
tifique; Wednesday, excursion to Ghent; Thursday, 
botanising excursion in the Campine; and Friday, 
excursion to Brussels. 
At a meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, 
held on Tuesday, the following gentlemen were elected 
Foreign and Corresponding Members, viz. H.M. 
the King of the Hellenes, K.G.; His Majesty the King 
of the Belgians, K.G.; H.S.H. the Duke of Saxe- 
Coburg Gotha, K.G.; H.S.H. the Grand Duke Nicholas 
of Russia; Rev. M. J. Berkeley, F.R.S.; Edmond 
Boissier; Alphonse de Candolle ; Professor Asa Gray; 
Lieut.-Gen. H. E. de Greig; Sir J. D. Hooker, K.C.S.I., 
C.B., F.R.S.; George King, M.B., F.L.S.; Sir Ferdi¬ 
nand von Mueller, K.C.M.G.; Charles Naudin, Sc. D.; 
Professor J. E. Planchon; Dr. E. de Regal; Professor 
H. G. Reichenbach ; Dr. Richard Schomburgk; Lewis 
A. Bernays, Professor Maxime Cornu; Casimir de 
Candolle; Count Oswald de Kerchove de Denterghem ; 
A. De la Devansaye ; Professor Du Breuil; Dr. A. W. 
Eiehler; 0. Fenzi; Count Francis von Hohenstein; 
Fr. de Cannaert d’Hamale; Dr. A. J. Keiner ; Pro¬ 
fessor Peter Macowan, B.A.; Max Leichtlin; Charles 
Moore, F.L.S.; Dr. Edouard Morren ; Baron Edward 
Oppenheim; Professor C. S. Sargent; Henry L. de 
Vilmorin ; Sereno Watson ; H. Wendland. 
Grand National Dahlia Show. —We are requested 
to announce that, at a recent meeting of the sub¬ 
scribers to the prize fund for the show to be held in 
September next, at the Crystal Palace, it was decided 
to offer a prize, to be called the Turner Memorial 
Prize, as a memento of the late Mr. Charles Turner, 
of Slough, who laboured so assiduously towards the 
establishment of these exhibitions. Several subscrip¬ 
tions, varying in amount from 2s. 6 d. to 21s., have 
been received for this object. Those who desire to 
contribute either to this or the general fund are 
requested to send their subscriptions within the next 
few days to the Hon. Treasurer, Mr. Thomas Moore, 
Botanic Gardens, Chelsea, S.W., in order that the 
conditions of the prize may be settled at the next 
meeting of the Committee, which will take place 
shortly, 
