112 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
October 22, 1892. 
others. H owever, it is the J apanese section 
to which we look chiefly for October 
flowers. 
It is said that we do not want early 
bloomers, but no one can say that the 
second week in October is early, and indeed 
but for Michaelmas Daisies and a few other 
hardy plants'gardens look bare enough of 
flowers just now. It was a surprise to see 
such a display of Dahlias, showing that 
some localities at least have suffered little 
from frost as yet. The groups of Chrysan¬ 
themums might have been more numerous, 
but these will no doubt grow in numbers ; 
and the table decorations and other floral 
combinations in the gallery were very beau¬ 
tiful, but it is feared being upstairs escaped 
general attention. They, however, con¬ 
stituted a most attractive feature. 
The conference on the question of 
enlarging the show boards for Japanese 
varieties, which was presided over by 
Sir Edwin Saunders, was of a most 
practical and business-like character. 
It was well attended by those whom 
the question most intimately concerns; 
the papers read were vigorous and 
to the point, and all agreeing upon the 
desirability of moderate enlargement, to 
Avhich sentiment there was practically no 
opposition in the discussion which followed. 
The actual result of the conference was the 
passing of a resolution to the effect that the 
standard board should be 28 inches long, 21 
inches wide, 8 inches high at the back, 3 
inches high in front, 7 inches from centre 
to centre of each hole ; and the holes 3 
inches from the front in the first row, and 
4 inches from the back in the third row. 
The matter will have to come before the 
General Committee of the society before it 
can become a rule, but we have no doubt 
the resolution will be adopted, and that the 
new rule will come into force after the pre¬ 
sent season. 
^§|egetable Competitions. —The Messrs. 
Sutton & Sons, who deservedly rank 
amongst the most liberal donors of prizes 
for Vegetables, have of late, in connection 
with their prizes at important shows, 
offered the money in classes for single 
dishes, an admirable deviation from the 
ordinary system of giving perhaps three 
prizes only for collections, which casts the 
bulk of the money into the hands of three 
competitors only. That was the case at 
Earl's Court, for instance, and some ex¬ 
ceedingly meritorious collections were left 
out altogether. Now at the Royal Aqua¬ 
rium Show last week, Messrs. Sutton offered 
prizes in eight single-dish classes, and the 
results are interesting as pointing to the 
wider and more fair distribution of the 
awards. 
Thus, in the Beet class Mr. Ocock was 
first ; with Carrots, Mr. Waite ; with 
Cauliflowers, Mr. Gibson ; with Celery, 
Mr. Pope; with Leeks, Mr. Lye; and with 
Parsnips, Mr. Friend—-six classes with 
different Avinners of first prizes in each. 
With Onions Mr. Gibson got another first, 
and Mr. Waite Avith Tomatos. Then Mr. 
Friend was second with Celery, Mr. Gibson 
with Beet, Parsnips, and Tomatos, Mr. 
Pope with Carrots and Leeks, Mr. Ocock 
with Cauliflowers, and Mr. Lye with 
Onions—so that the second prizes were 
well distributed also. It is very interest¬ 
ing to find that, out of the eight classes 
with four prizes in each, Mr. Gibson (whose 
excellent exhibits did not come into the 
prize list at Earl’s Court) should, in taking 
tAvo firsts, three seconds, and one third, 
have done better than any other competi¬ 
tor ; showing that many men have first- 
class exhibits in a few dishes, but weak 
ones in others. 
While we should regret to see prizes for 
collections entirely abolished, so admirably 
do they encourage a high standard of cul¬ 
tivation all round, the method of awarding 
prizes in single classes does undoubtedly 
lead to larger competitions, the more equal 
distribution of the rewards, and the raising 
of the standard of merit. Of coarse men 
of high reputation as growers and exhibi¬ 
tors will always take good positions ; but 
in exhibiting vegetables, as in other things, 
there is always found as good fish in the 
sea as ever came out of it, and the oldest 
and most expert exhibitor must never 
make sure of his wins ur$il the awards 
have been made. 
he Fall of the Leaf.—A lthough 
some few Aveeks will elapse ere the 
present year dies absolutely, the vegetable 
year, if it may be so termed, is dying fast 
noAv. With the decay of the leafage 
comes one of a gardener’s gravest troubles, 
for much as leaves may not be out of place 
Avhen they lie thickly beneath the trees 
from Avhich they have fallen, yet do they 
to Avell-ordered garden minds seem very 
untidy, and there is natural haste to sweep 
them up, cart them away, and thus have so 
far as circumstances will admit some of 
that neatness even in the acknowledged 
untidy season which all good gardeners love 
to find. 
But if the fall of the leaf serves to 
remind us that the summer is over and the 
winter is at hand, it serves also to remind us 
that seasons must have their course, and that 
in so doing they are performing for all that 
relates to gardening good service. The fall 
of the leaf shosvs not only that the summer 
has in perfecting both wood and leaf done 
its work Avell, but the autumn and winter 
Avill in their hardening effects so'mature 
wood and bud that a productive season for 
leafage and probably for fruit is assured. 
We may sometimes wonder why it should 
now be in season so hot, and nowin season 
so cold, as these extremes bring only to 
poor humanity much of pain and discom¬ 
fort, still so far as the vegetable world is 
concerned, these extremes are all conducive 
to good. Even the leafage Avhen it has 
performed its functions, and noAV cast off as 
it were by the trees being for them on the 
branches no further use, yet serve good 
purpose as manure. 
Gardeners in fact find so many uses for 
the fallen leafage that they cannot afford 
to treat it discourteously. They gather the 
leaves up Avith care, put them into heaps to 
decay, and thus form useful plant food in 
the succeeding year. They use them for 
the provision of Avarmth by forming them 
into beds, into which plants in pots are 
plunged. No one can afford to neglect the 
decaying fallen leaves if he be a gardener ; 
hence not only does the autumn bring trials 
to the tidy man, but also much of concern 
for the careful man, Avho sees in the leafage 
good store of plant food. 
Horticultural Examinations. —It does 
^ seem at last as if some real effort was 
about being made to promote a definite 
system of Examinations in Horticultural 
knowledge, not merely locally but nation¬ 
ally. Growing out of the lectures on 
Horticulture given in the county of Surrey 
under the auspices of the Surrey County 
Council, there Avas instituted an examina¬ 
tion held last spring under the authority of 
the Royal Horticultural Society with very 
admirable results. The society norv is 
purposing to formulate a syllabus at once 
for instruction and examination in the hope 
that County Councils generally Avill make 
it the basis of their teaching schemes, and 
thus secure at the outset something like 
unanimity in county action throughout the 
country. 
The syllabus so far as prepared includes 
tAvo distinctive features. First, elementary 
knowledge in plant life or plant physiology, 
on which all horticultural practice should 
be based ; and secondly, horticultural 
operations and practice. The examinations 
Avould be divided into higher and loAA’er 
grades ; in the former should be specially 
found school teachers, in the latter ordinary 
attendants at the horticultural instruction 
classes. The proposal opens a Avide door 
for all who may desire to enter into the 
examinations. Gardeners’ ImproA'ement 
Societies especially seem here to haA'e 
opportunities Avhich they should not neglect. 
The subjects set forth in the schedule apart 
from the Plant life section, and much of 
that is exceedingly simple and elementary, 
deals with garden implements, cultRation 
of soil, digging, trenching, hoeing, seeding, 
earthing, staking, and all similar subjects, 
propagating by cuttings, layers, budding 
and grafting, training, pruning, and all 
matters relating to fruit tree and bush 
culture, Amgetables, sections, kinds, A’arie- 
ties, methods of sowing or culture. 
Flowers, manures, insect and fungoid 
pests, and similar subjects make up a 
broad syllabus which should offer to eAmry 
class of candidate aA\ T ide field for study and 
instruction. We learn that it is proposed to 
hold the examinations throughout the coun¬ 
try early in May next; that being so all inter¬ 
ested should bestir themselves if they Avish 
to see the scheme a success. 
-- 5 -- 
Mr. W. McKinnie has been engaged as gardener to 
T. P. Barber, Esq., at Shotley House, Durham. 
The Ancient Society of York Florists will hold their 
annual Chrysanthemum and Fruit and Vegetable 
Show on November 16th and two following days; 
and also an exhibition of Spring Flowers on April 
26th and 27th, 1893. 
The Kent County Chrysanthemum Society. —The 
fifth annual exhibition of this society will be held 
at the Rink, Blackheath, on the 1st and 2nd Nov., 
when over £100 will be awarded in prizes. 
The Chrysanthemum Show in the Temple Gardens 
is now open to the public, as also is that annually 
provided in Battersea Park, but in both cases the 
flowers will not be at their best for a week or two. 
A new Ganna.—An American gardener is said to 
have raised a Canna which is superior to 
Madame Crozy, and the best of a batch of 800 seed¬ 
lings. The improvement lies in a golden band one- 
quarter of an inch wide around the petals instead of 
the narrow yellow margin as in Mad. Crozy. It is 
now in the possession of Mr. A. MacLellan, New¬ 
port, R.I. 
Complimentary Dinner and Presentation to Mr. 
Marshall. —On Thursday evening of last week a few 
members of the General Committee of the Inter¬ 
national Horticultural Exhibition entertained Mr. 
William Marshall at a complimentary dinner at 
Earl's Court, and presented him with a souvenir of 
the Exhibition in the form of a charming little oil 
painting by Miss Macfarlane, the subject being an 
urn-shaped vase of Orchid flowers—Cypripedium 
barbatum and Brassavola Digbyana, with a Gloire 
de Dijon Rose at the base. Mr. Harry Turner 
presided and made the presentation on behalf of the 
subscribers, and Mr. Marshall received the hearty 
congratulations of all his friends on the characteristi¬ 
cally happy manner in which he had carried out all 
the arrangements in connection with the appoint¬ 
ment of the judges during the season. 
Technical Education in Dundee.— We learn that the 
Dundee Horticultural Association, which has for its 
aim the advancement of the science and practice of 
horticulture, made application in the autumn of last 
year to parcipitate in any sum set aside from “Residue 
Grant ” by the Town Council for the purposes of 
technical education. This application, vve are. glad 
to know, was favourably received, and one of the 
conditions attached to the grant given to the technical 
institute by the council, was the institution of a class 
in the principles and practice of horticulture for 
