December 10, 1898. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
235 
N.C.S. ANNUAL DINNER. 
It is the usual custom for the members of this society 
to meet each other annually at dinner, in order to 
afford an opportunity for the public presentation of 
the prizes to their respective winners, and the reali¬ 
sation of sound friendships not always possible at 
other times. 
The 1898 fixture, which was held in the Crown 
Room of the Holborn Restaurant, on the evening of 
Wednesday, the 30th ult., was one of the brightest 
and most successful in the history of the society. 
One special feature characterised the party, viz., that 
it was not exclusively composed of gentlemen, as 
hitherto, for the invitation extended to ladies 
induced about a score of the members of the gentler 
sex to be present, and this number will doubtless be 
largely increased on future occasions. Most of the 
leading lights of the Chrysanthemum world 
attended, and the large room was comfortably 
filled. 
Dinner was laid for half-past six o'clock, and with 
the usual punctuality of the Holborn was served to 
the minute. 
The chairman, Sir Albert K. Rollitt, LL.D., 
D.C.L., M.P., etc., arrived rather late, having been 
unavoidably detained at the last moment. The 
dinner through, the chairman rose to open a fairly 
lengthy toast list, in the usual fashion, with the loyal 
sentiments of homage to " The Queen, The Prince 
and Princess of Wales, and the rest of the Royal 
Family." As a body the N.C.S. is loyal to the core, 
and right loyally was the toast honoured. 
Mr. P. Waterer followed with " The Donors of 
Special Prizes.” He reminded his audience how 
much they were indebted to those who had thus 
helped the society, and mentioned amongst other 
notable prize givers, the Royal Aquarium Company, 
Mr. H. J. Jones, Mr. H. Deverill, Messrs. Sutton & 
Sons, and Mr. Robert Sydenham. Mr. Waterer 
urged the necessity of more artistic methods of 
showing the flowers, and said that he should like to 
see a class for sixty Japanese blooms, to be shown in 
twelve vases, containing five blooms each. He went 
on to say that the N.C.S. had a ghost in its cup¬ 
board in the shape of the rust. With the approval 
of the executive committee, he should like to offer 
five guineas as a prize for the best essay dealing with 
the subject. He coupled the toast with the name of 
Mr. H. J. Jones and Mr. J. W. Wilkinson. The 
latter gentleman, in responding on behalf of the 
Royal Aquarium Company, said he thought it was 
wise on behalf of the society to encourage special 
prizes. The class for twenty-four Japs, at the 
November show, for which the Royal Aquarium 
Company had given the prizes, had brought forth so 
great a number of entries that it needed 1,000 ft. 
of staging to accommodate them. Mr. H. J. Jones 
said little, but that little was very much to the point. 
Amidst crackling hand-clappings, he announced that 
he would be pleased to offer a first prize of ^25 for 
the class of twelve vases of five blooms each, 
suggested by Mr. Waterer. 
The distribution of the prizes was then taken in 
hand by the chairman. Sir Albert has few equals 
as an after-dinner speaker, and on this occasion his 
genial presence,coupled with his apparentlyin exhaus¬ 
tible fund of ready wit, highly delighted his audience. 
Mr. W. H. Berry received the National Challenge 
Trophy on behalf of the Portsmouth Society, the 
chairman remarking that they all looked to Ports¬ 
mouth in certain eventualities. Mr. Berry in reply, 
ing said that they were always in a fighting mood at 
Portsmouth, and they fought to win. He hoped to 
have the pleasure of competing on future occasions. 
The Holmes Cups were next presented, Mr. W. 
Higgs, gardener to J. B. Hankey, Esq., Fetcham 
Park, Leatherhead, claiming one for thirty-six 
incurves, and Mr. W. H. Lees, gardener to F. A. 
Bevan, Esq., Trent Park, New Barnet, taking the 
other for forty-eight Japanese. 
The Turner Memorial Cup was won by Mr. Nor¬ 
man Davis and as this is the third occasion on which 
he has been hailed winner, the Cup now becomes his 
own property. Mr. Davis was unfortunately not 
present to receive it. 
The Gold Medal of the Society was given to Mr. 
H. J. Jones for his grand group at the November 
show. Mr. A. R. Kenyon, Messrs. B. S. Williams 
& Sons, Messrs. Peed & Sons, Mr. W. Aldritch, and 
Mr. C. E. Wilkins all had medals to take, of varying 
values, whilst the painting of the premier bloom 
G. J. Warren) at the November exhibition was, 
made over to its winner Mr. Barras, of Chippenham 
Wilts. 
In giving the toast of the evening, " The National 
Chrysanthemum Society," he eulogised very strongly 
the work and aims of the society. He claimed that 
in thus popularising the culture of flowers, the re¬ 
finement of the home, as well as the lives of both 
individuals and families, were advanced. The art of 
gardening was a vindication of technical education, 
and in the Chrysanthemum they had a flower that 
was well worth all the attention they had given 
it. He recalled with great pleasure the time when 
he, as Mayor of Hull, opened the first Chrysanth¬ 
emum show that was held there. 
Mr. E. Harland, of PIull, next proposed " The 
President, Vice-President, and Officers of the 
Society.” After paying a tribute of praise to the 
capability of the men who were entrusted with the 
management of affairs, Mr. Harland said that the 
affiliated societies looked to the mother society to 
lead and to initiate improvements. He thought, 
however, that the question of grouping was one that 
deserved attention, as there had not been the advance 
made in this direction that he should have liked to 
have seen. Mr. C. H. Payne (foreign corresponding 
secretary) and Mr. A. E. Stubbs (auditor) responded 
to this toast. Mr. Payne was humorously inclined, 
whilst Mr. Stubbs had business to talk about, and 
some of the information he gave concerning the 
reserve fund of the society came as a surprise to many 
This reserve fund afforded, he said, as an illustra¬ 
tion of perambulating finance, a most interesting his¬ 
tory. It had been pointed out by some of the more 
enlightened members that the society, which had 
existed for over fifty years, had only managed to 
accumulate a mere £100 or so by way of a reserve, 
and even a portion of this had been earmarked for 
use this year. He had recently turned up some of 
the old balance sheets, or to be more exact, financial 
statements, and it would probably come as news to 
his audience, as it had to him, to learn that during the 
last fifteen or sixteen years they had had three 
reserve funds. In 1880 Mr. Holmes started the first 
one with a collected sum of/19 10s., and the name 
of their good friend Mr. Starling appeared in the 
amounts following. In 1890 the reserve fund reached 
£100 19s. gd., invested in Consols, but the centenary 
celebrations left a deficit in the current account, and 
£85 was taken to clear the year’s expenses. In 1893 
the secretary began to agitate for the formation of a 
new reserve, and by the end of 1894 had accumulated 
£55 2s., Mr. Ballantine and another gentleman 
subscribing to bring it up to this, as he had found 
from the cash book. In 1895 the publication of the 
year book was decided on, aud this temporarily 
depleted the reserve to the tune of £60, although it 
subsequently brought back £52. A third reserve 
fund was started in 1894-95, and by 1896-7 had 
reached £104 18s. 2d., which included £11 15s. as 
the proceeds of the first smoking concert. What 
had been done with that money would be shown in 
the balance sheet for the current year. Mr. Stubbs 
concluded by appealing for funds to swell the depleted 
reserve to its original, £104 18s. 2d., for, said he, 
" a little help is worth a deal of pity." 
The chairman kept his audience in high good 
humour, whilst he proposed the toast of “ The 
Ladies." 
Mr. T. W. Sanders reminded the company of their 
obligation to Sir Albert Rollit for acting as their 
chairman that evening. Sir Albert briefly responded. 
The toast of " The Press, general and horti¬ 
cultural," was placed in the capable hands of Mr. 
R. Fife, who spoke of the great debt that theirs and 
kindred societies owed to the Press as an institution. 
Mr. Geo. Gordon responded. 
Vocal and instrumental music was interspersed 
with the various speeches, and added a pleasing 
variety. The tables were handsomely decorated with 
Chrysanthemums, and several of the gentlemen had 
adorned themselves with huge blooms that at least 
left no doubt in the minds of the beholders that the 
wearers were devotees at the shrine of the Autumn 
Queen. 
- 
ARTIFICIAL GARDEN MANURES. 
The genial Principal of the Wye Agricultural 
College, Mr. A. D. Hall, M.A., delivered a most 
interesting lecture upon “ Artificial Garden 
Manures " before the Fellows of the Royal Horticul¬ 
tural Society, on the 22nd ult. The various points 
raised by Mr. Hall were illustrated by means of 
diagrams, and the whole of the matter dealt with was 
set forth in most lucid and vigorous fashion. 
In his opening remarks, the lecturer spoke of the 
value of chemical manures to the garden generally, 
but said that, in his opinion, the gardener was con¬ 
siderably behind the farmer in the intelligent use of 
such plant foods. The farmer had been experiment¬ 
ing in the use of special manures for certain crops 
for the last sixty years, and the result was that he 
possessed a great deal of useful information that the 
gardener lacked. Chemical manures were fairly 
extensively used in gardens nowadays, but the gar¬ 
dener did not apply them in enlightened fashion. 
The common practice was to buy made-up manures 
of which he neither knew the composition nor the 
strength. Even if good results were forthcoming the 
gardener was as much in the dark as ever as to what 
had produced it, for he could not tell what special 
ingredient had done the work, and did not gain any 
knowledge that might guide him as to future appli¬ 
cations. Mr. Hall strongly condemned this system 
and recommended the gardener to buy simple 
manures and apply them, or if he wanted mixtures, to 
do his own mixing. 
In all manures, continued the lecturer, there were 
only three substances of manurial value, and they 
were nitrogen, phosphates and potash, all else being 
of no use, except as a fill-up. Ordinary farmyard or 
stable dung contained about 5 per cent, of each o 
these three, but the quantity varied according to 
whether the dung was exposed to the action of the 
weather, in which case it had a good deal of the 
goodness washed out of it, or whether it was placed 
under cover. 
Proceeding to give instances of special manures 
that were rich in one of the three foods named, he 
cited nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia as 
being the most important nitrogenous manures. 
Bones, and some guanos, such as Chinchas, were very 
rich in phosphates; whilst basic slag and super¬ 
phosphates were examples of purely phosphatic 
manures Basic slag he specially recommended for 
use on wet or clayey soils, whilst superphosphates 
were of most value on light, dry, soils. 
Mr. Hall then went on to speak of the effects pro¬ 
duced by the foods enumerated. Nitrogen, he said, 
stimulated the growth of stems and foliage, but did 
not conduce to floriferousness or fruitfulness ; in fact, 
it tended to retard the maturity of the plants. Experi¬ 
ments made at Rothamsted showed that pots of 
grass that had been abundantly and continuously fed 
with nitrogen had made remarkable growth but pro¬ 
duced very few flowers, and the plants really seemed 
to have given up the habit of flowering. 
It was thus necessary to exercise a good deal of 
caution in applying nitrogenous manures, although if 
put on intelligently, very striking results were 
obtained. On crops of Brassicas nitrogen could be 
employed with marked advantage. One point, how¬ 
ever, it was necessary to observe, and that was where 
much nitrogenous manure was given to such things 
as Cabbages, the produce did not travel well, as it 
bruised very easily, and even a short journey depre¬ 
ciated its value considerably. Such produce, there¬ 
fore, must be cooked as soon after it was cut as 
possible. He wished to impress this upon market 
gardeneis. 
The element nitrogen, explained the lecturer, must 
first of all be incorporated in a chemical compound 
called a nitrate, before it could be of service to the 
plant. The process of nitrification, or the formation 
of nitrates, never a very fast one, was especially slow 
in cold weather, and thus by giving crops dressings 
of nitrate in spring the plants obtain great benefit. 
An instance of the way in which nitrogenous 
manures might be profitably employed, mentioned 
by Mr. Hall, was exceedingly interesting. A batch 
of Strawberry plants at Wye, early in the spring, 
were showing signs that they were going to over¬ 
bloom themselves. By giving them nitrogenous food 
the vegetative growth was strengthened and a much 
better crop of fruit obtained than would otherwise 
have been the case. 
Passing to the consideration of phosphates Mr. 
Hall said that, as far as their action was known, it 
was in the direction of developing the flavour and 
colour in fruits, and the colour in flowers. In con¬ 
nection with the employment of phosphates as 
manure he referred to experiments upon the 
cultivation of Hop that he had carried out. The 
