January 18/ 1913. 
THE GARDENERS’ MAGAZINE. 
53 
XTORTICULTUEAL SHOW ADVERTISE- 
XX MBNTO ar« iaaerted in thin column at Six- 
MOO# per lin« miBimam oluirgpe b«ing Two Snil- 
liBga and Sixpence. Offioee, 146 And U9, Aldensgate 
Street. London, E.O. 
EXHIBITIONS AND 
MEETINGS. 
Horticultural Club. 
TRAVELS IN BULaARIA. 
On TueMay, December 7, after the usual 
manthly dinner at the Windsor Hotel, pre¬ 
sided over by W. A. Bilney, Esq., and at 
which a goodly uumtberof members and guests 
were present, a very interesting lecture, illu^ 
trated by lantern slides, prepared from ori¬ 
ginal photographs and entitled “ My Travels 
in Bulgaria,"’ was given by Mr. Herbert 
Cowley. 
The visit was made before the outbreak of 
the present war, but the lecturer gave a 
very vivid idea of the complioaited “ tangle,” 
as he termed it, involved by the curious 
mixture in Bulgaria of natives of various 
and, as a rule, hostile nationalities and reli¬ 
gions, which, of course, is not by any means 
ameliorated by the influence of the Turkish 
dominatiooi which has now presumably been 
thrown off by the recent outbreak. 
Apart, however from the political asso¬ 
ciations, the country is very interesting 
from the botanical and horticultural point 
of view, a range of fairly lofty mountains 
reaching altitudes of 1,200 feet or more, pro¬ 
viding habitats for a very varied flora and 
material for some very fine phoitographs of 
alpine and other plants in situ, which evoked 
much admiration. More particularly, the 
fact that Bulgaria is so much the home of 
the rose, that it is the source of that valu¬ 
able essence known as " attar of roses,” was 
of interest, and photos of the girls who are 
mainly the workers of that industry were 
reproduced in groups, which, however, 
failed to show such transcendent beauty as 
should be properly associated with so poetic 
an employment a® the culling of the Queen 
of Flowers. Inasmuch as about 100,000 
blooms had to be gathered to produce an 
ounce of attar, it is clear that its high value 
in the miarket is fully justified. Photos of 
natives and native priests, and also of their 
towns and villages, with the accompanying 
remarks, showed that cleanliness and godli¬ 
ness were not at all associated there ^ an 
article in the popular creed being indeed the 
sinfulness of washing at all, wbile the 
roads ” were qlearly rather preadamic than 
nmcadamic, being entirely unpaved even in 
the towns. 
Poverty seemed the rule everywhere, the 
dwellings being of the most ramshackle 
kind, the inhabitants, both in costume and 
habits, matched their domiciles to a nicety. 
A portrait was shown of the King of Bul- 
gpia, who, fortunately for Mr. Cowley, is 
himself an ardent horticuliturist, and, ^ a 
result, gave him every facility and a guide, 
wh ich Secured him a hospitable reception 
everywhere, to his great advantage. 
A short discussion followed, and a most 
cordial vote of thanks concluded a very plea¬ 
sant and instructive lecture. 
Bournemouth Gardeners’ 
Annua.! Supper. 
On Tuesday, January 7, the annual supr 
JJ^ck place in the Avenue Assemibly Roo 
I own Hall Avenue. There was a good i 
t^dance of members, presided ov'er by 'k 
Oharles Stewart, F.R.H.S., a vice-presidei 
TP P^^sident, Mr. J. H. Ralph Smytl 
F..R.H.S., was unavoidably absent. 
I he officials had very favourable repoi 
to make. There had .been a net ga.m 
eleven new members during the past yes 
iwo only had been lost to the society, o 
through dea;th and the other bad" go 
abroad. The total memibership was ii< 
aeariy one hundred and fifty. Ae finant 
ot the ^lety were in a very satisfacto 
state, there being a substantial balance 
ttrougho^!’ otfjoyable o 
Ulster Horticultural Society. 
The annual meeting of this society was 
held at Ye Olde Castle Restaurant, Castle 
Place, Belfast, on the 9th inst., with the 
High Sheriff of Belfast in the chair* There 
was a good attendance, among those present 
being: Mr. Alex. Dickson, Mr. R. Watson 
(the treasurer), Mr. Hugh Dickson, Mr. S. 
MeGredy,. J.P., Mr. Thomas Paul (the hou. 
secretary), and Mr. J. MacBride (the acting 
secretary). 
After the minutes of the previous annual 
meeting had been read and adopted, the fol¬ 
lowing report of the committee was sub¬ 
mitted to the meeting: The twenty-fourth 
show of the society will probably be remem¬ 
bered as one of the finest, if not the finest, 
held under the society’s auspices^ In prac¬ 
tically every department a distinct advance 
in quality and arrangement was noticeable. 
The spacious market was taxed to its utmost 
capacity to accommodate the numerous ex¬ 
hibits; never before has the cut flower sec¬ 
tion been of such extent and of such uni¬ 
formly high excellence. Although the past 
season was one of the most adverse to the 
successful cultivation of fruit, seldom has 
a brighter or better display been staged in 
Ireland, the exhibition of pears being far 
above the average. Vegetables were a dis¬ 
tinct and prominent feature of the show. 
The various collections shown were magni¬ 
ficently staged, and evidenced a high degree 
of cultural skill on the part of the exhibi¬ 
tors. This was particularly the case in the 
collection staged by Mr. Gibson, gardener 
to his Grace the Duke of Portland, Wei beck 
Abbey, which was probably, the finest collec¬ 
tion of vegetables ever staged in Ireland. 
The magnificent exhibits of the florist’s art 
staged by Messrs. Alexander Dickson and 
Sons, Lim., Messrs. F. E. Smith and Co., 
and Messrs. A. S. Ritchie and Co., were a 
prominent feature of the show, and drew 
from the English and ^ottish exMbitors 
and judges unstinted praise and admiration, 
and the encouraging assurance that in this 
department Belfast was far ahead of all 
other similar displays. The groups of 
stove and greenhouse plants and chrysanthe¬ 
mums were of a very high standard, and, al¬ 
though not quite so numerous as the pre¬ 
vious year, attracted admiring crowds 
throughout the show. Special mention must 
be made of the magnificent group of conifers 
shown by Messrs. Hugh Dickson, Lim., in 
connection with which were introduced 
groups of their new roses. 
Notwithstanding the fact that the society’s 
shows are amongst the most beautiful and 
educative in the United Kingdom, it was with 
regret that the committee had to record a 
falling-off in public interest, the gate re¬ 
ceipts having fallen about <£37, and that 
under very favourable weather conditions. 
That, unfortunately, had been tbe experience 
of almost every large horticultural society 
in the country, as a perusal of their annual 
reports conclusively proved. Many explana¬ 
tions were attempted, the most general being 
the number and popularity of picture houses, 
which have sprung up in such large numbers 
everywhere witbin the last two years. 
Whether this be the real reason or not, the 
committee feel that they are faced with the 
fact that further support from the general 
public is necessary if the society is to con¬ 
tinue its steady course of progress, and if its 
annual shows are to be in the future, as they 
have been since the inception of the society 
twenty-four years ago, a yearly record of 
the progress of horticulture in Ireland and 
an object-lesson of the possibilities of skilful 
cultivation and scientific methods. 
Through the generosity of the Department 
of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for 
Ireland, the committee was enabled to ex¬ 
tend the apple orchard competitions by in¬ 
augurating a new competition for young 
orchards from three to ten. years old. A 
competition of this nature was much re¬ 
quired, and they anticipated it would become 
a great stimulus to those p-lanting orchards. 
Mr. Robert Watson presented the financial 
statement, from which it was seen that the 
year was commenced with a credit balance 
of £83 5s. Id. The total receipts were £802 
19s. 5d., and the balance in bank at the 
close of the year was £66 15s. lid. 
The Chairman, in moving the adoption of 
the report and financial statement, said the 
falling-oft’ in the receipts was not so bad as 
it ^emed on the surface, as it only reduced 
their credit balance by a sum of about £17. 
The public had not during the year sup¬ 
ported the society as they ought to have 
done. The annual exhibition was immensely 
attractive, and it was surprising that a 
greater number of those resident in and 
around Belfast did not embrace the oppor¬ 
tunity of seeing the progress which is being 
made in horticulture, as indicated by the 
specimens of flowers, fruit, and vegetables 
which were sent in for competition. He was 
glad to learn from the report that their last 
show was the best which had been held under 
the auspices of the society, so far as quality 
was concerned, although the attendance 
should have been more satisfactory. He 
hoped that in the present year they would 
try to obtain more subscribers, so that at 
the next annual meeting they might be able 
to report an increase in their receipts. 
Mr. Alexander Dickson, who seconded the 
report, said, as one of the active workers on 
the committee of the society, he wished to 
thank the chairman for the encouraging re¬ 
marks he had made respecting the progress 
of the society and its educational value in 
horticultural matters in the North of Ire¬ 
land. It was very gratifying to the members 
of the committee to know that their efforts 
were being appreciated, not only in the city 
of Belfast, but throughout the whole pro¬ 
vince of Ulster. They received congratula¬ 
tory messages from all over Ireland; and it 
was generally acknowledged that of all the 
horticultural societies which had come into 
existence in the last quarter of a century 
none had enjoyed such long and eminent 
success in the face of such great difficulties 
as had the Ulster Horticultural Society. 
The election of office-bearers was, on the 
motion of Mr. A. J. Morrow, as follows: Pre¬ 
sident, the Lord Mayor of Belfast (Mr. R. J. 
M‘Mordie, M.A., M.P.); committee, Messrs. 
John R. Allen, Thomas H. Dickson, Wm. 
McLaren, F. W. Moneypenny, Wm. *T. 
Braithwaite, R. Meyer, Alex. Dickson, R. 
Jamison, W. J. M‘Clements, R. Draper, John 
Atkinson, A. Graham, D. Baillie, F. J. 
Dolan, R. Ewing, Robert Wilson, Thomas 
Bradshaw, John Harding, Alex. Dickson, J. 
B. Sproull, Hugh Dickson, Robert Irvine. W. 
H. Andrews, J.P., F. E. Smith, John Why- 
tock, S. M'Gredy, J.P., James Davies, James 
McCormick, P. j. Tiernan, J.P., S. Graham, 
A. J. Morrow, Isaac Smith, Thomas M‘Ervel, 
H. P. Pinkerton, F. J. Leitch, Wm. Watson, 
and A. S. Ritchie; hon. treasurer, Mr. 
Robert Watson; hon. secretary, Mr. Thomas 
Paul; secretary, Mr. J. MacBride. 
A hearty vote of thanks to the High 
Sheriff brought the meeting to a close. 
Royal Caledonian Horticul¬ 
tural Society. 
The annual general meeting of the Royal 
Caledonian Horticultural Society was held 
in Dowell’s Rooms, George Street, Edin¬ 
burgh, on January 8. Mr. D. W. Thomsou, 
senior vice-president, was in the chair, and 
there was an attendance of about 30. 
The report for 1912 stated that, notwith¬ 
standing the bad season, both the spring and 
autumn shows had been well maintained as 
regards entries, tbe latter being the best 
autumn display since the International Show 
of 1905. The abstract of the accounts 
showed a small balance of income over ex¬ 
penditure, and it was mentioned that it was 
gratifying to observe that the public was 
giving the shows more patronage, the draw¬ 
ings for the two shows representing an in¬ 
crease of £45 on the previous year. The 
report was adopted, o-n the motion of Mr. J. 
W. McHattie. 
Mr. J. Stewart Clark, of Dundas, was re¬ 
elected president, and Mr. J. D. Adair was 
elected vice-president. Messrs. Kidd (Car- 
berry Tower), Methuen (Edinburgh), and 
Plant (Edinburgh) were elected to fill tho 
vacancies on the Council. 
