April  11,  1901. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER . 
301 
Bicentenary  of  the  Sweet  Pea. — The  committee  have  decided 
to  publish  in  the  form  of  a  report  the  whole  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
recent  bicentenary  celebration,  which  will  take  the  form  of  a  book  of 
octavo  size  of  from  eighty  to  one  hundred  pages,  bound  in  cloth  boards, 
to  sell  at  the  price  of  one  shilling. 
National  Sweet  Pea  Society. — A  meeting  of  the  General 
Committee  of  the  National  Sweet  Pea  Society  was  held  on  Tuesday 
afternoon  at  the  Hotel  Windsor  to  receive  the  recommendations  of  the 
Executive  Committee  in  relation  to  the  schedule  of  prizes,  and  the 
rules  of  the  society,  and  to  transaot  other  business.  The  schedule  and 
rules  were  passed,  and  will  be  immediately  placed  in  the  hands  of  the 
printers  for  distribution  at  the  earliest  possible  moment.  The  date  of 
the  show  was  fixed  for  Thursday  and  Friday,  July  25th  and  26th,  at  the 
Royal  Aquarium,  Westminster.  Mr.  Horace  J.  Wright  was  appointed 
general  secretary,  and  Mr.  Richard  Dean,  V.M.H.,  exhibition  secretary. 
A  substantial  amount  of  financial  support  was  promised  at  the  meeting. 
Bees  and  Fruit. — Bees  might  puncture  ripe  fruit  if  they  felt  so 
inclined,  but  they  never  do  it.  It  is  only  when  the  fruit  is  dead  ripe 
and  cracks  open,  or  has  been  punctured  by  birds,  wasps,  or  in  other 
ways,  that  the  bees  work  on  it.  Experiments  lately  on  foot  prove 
conclusively  that  bees  never  molest  sound  fruit,  no  matter  how  ripe  or 
thin  skinned  it  may  be. 
Royal  Gardeners’  Orphan  Fund.  —  The  thirteenth  annual 
report  and  list  of  subscribers  for  1901,  together  with  the  rules  and 
regulations  of  the  above-named  gardening  charity,  has  been  issued. 
We  are  reminded  by  a  notice  on  the  outer  front  page  that  the  Fund 
was  established  in  1887,  in  commemoration  of  the  Jubilee  of  her  late 
Majesty  Queen  Victoria.  That  success  has  rewarded  the  efforts  of  the 
promoters  and  supporters  of  this  valuable  Fund  has  been  amply 
demonstrated  at  each  succeeding  annual  general  meeting,  and  the 
publication  containing  the  report  seems  still  further  to  impress  one  in 
regard  to  the  amount  of  business  and  work  transacted  through  the 
Fund.  Exclusive  of  advertisements,  the  report  extends  to  forty-five 
pages.  Subscription  forms  and  forms  of  bequest  are  fittingly  provided 
for  the  use  of  anyone  into  whose  hands  these  reports  may  fall,  and  who 
is  disposed  to  aid  the  subscription  list.  The  report  and  balance-sheet, 
of  course,  were  printed  in  the  Journal  of  Horticulture  at  the  time  of  the 
annual  general  meeting  in  February.  The  objects  of  the  Fund  are 
fully  and  clearly  detailed  along  with  the  report,  so  that  those  who 
recognise  a  duty  in  the  upkeep  of  so  deserving  an  institution  would  do 
well  to  write  to  Mr.  B.  Wynne,  8,  Dane’s  Inn,  Strand,  London,  W.C., 
for  a  copy  of  the  publication  here  referred  to. 
A  Book  on  Tomato  Culture. — Mr.  W.  Iggulden  has  just  issued 
the  fifth  edition  of  his  popular  and  useful  shilling  book  on  “The 
Tomato.”  Up-to-date  cultural  directions  for  maintaining  a  continuous 
supply  of  fruit,  including  special  instructions  for  amateurs,  growers 
of  fruits  for  market,  and  exhibitors,  together  with  a  chapter  on 
diseases  and  insect  pests  and  their  prevention,  are  features  which 
give  the  book  its  high  value  in  the  hands  of  praotitioners.  The 
good-wife  of  the  household  is  not  forgotten  either,  for  the  publication 
ends  with  a  chapter  giving  a  list  of  good  and  useful  recipes,  moat  of 
which  we  hope  may  prove  appreciable  when  put  into  praotioe.  We 
are  gratified  to  find  that  considerable  attention  has  been  bestowed  on 
Tomatoes  in  the  open  air.  After  referring  to  the  British  growers’ 
drawbacks  as  regards  olimate  in  the  attempt  to  produce  crops  from 
the  open  ground,  Mr.  Iggulden  goes  on  to  discuss  practical  details. 
He  says  : — “  The  great  point  to  be  borne  in  mind  is  that  our  summers 
are  often  very  short,  and  unless  a  good  early  start  is  made  much  of 
the  fruit  may  form  too  late  to  ripen  properly.  The  cultivator  should 
aim  to  produce  a  good  lower  cluster  of  fruit  as  early  in  the  season  as 
possible,  this  usually  ripening,  whereas  the  later  set  clusters  may 
become  diseased  and  worthless.  Where  only  a  few  plants  are  put  out 
extra  pains  may  be  taken  with  these,  some  growers  turning  strong 
plants  out  of  6-inch  pots  already  furnished  with  some  fruit.  Not  only 
has  this  entailed  extra  labour,  but  unless  particularly  well  attended  to 
for  a  fortnight  or  so  after  planting,  these  large  plants  do  not  take 
readily  to  their  surroundings,  and  a  severe  check  to  growth  is  the 
consequence.  This  plan  is  certainly  much  better  than  keeping  early- 
raised  plants  standing  about  in  small  pots  and  a  semi-starved  state, 
from  which  they  never  properly  recover,  the  plants  producing  late  and 
also  light  crops.”  The  book  is  one  to  be  recommended  to  all  classes  of 
growers,  and  the  fact  of  this  being  the  fifth  edition  justifies  our  opinion 
of  it.  Copies  can  be  obtained  at  the  office  of  this  journal. 
Water  Freezing. — Water  expands  by  freezing,  because  it  is 
converted  into  solid  crystals,  which  do  not  fit  so  closely  as  partioles 
of  water  do.  Hence  when  ice  is  reduced  again  to  water  it  will 
occupy  less  space  than  it  occupied  before.  *  *  *  It  is  computed 
that  an  Oak  tree  of  average  size,  with  700,000  leaves,  lifts  from  the 
earth  into  the  air  about  123  tons  of  water  during  the  five  months  it 
is  in  leaf. 
Gardening  at  School. — The  latest  study  for  children  in  New 
York  public  schools  is  gardening — window  gardening.  The  schools  are 
to  have  hotbeds  and  conservatories,  as  well  as  maps  and  blackboards. 
The  Society  of  Intensive  Gardening  in  Philadelphia,  which  teaches 
young  people  how  to  plant  and  cultivate,  is  “campaigning”  in  New 
York.  “Anyone  can  make  a  plant  grow  in  the  darkest  flat  if  they 
know  how,”  an  American  journalist  remarks  profoundly,  and  with  the 
sage’s  contempt  for  grammar. 
Peanuts  In  London. — A  great  variety  of  most  peculiar  “  wares  ” 
find  themselves  for  sale  on  the  barrows  of  the  London  gu.tter-costers. 
Peanuts  are  at  present  selling  lively.  The  plant  which  provides  the 
“  peas  ”  is  a  straggling,  more  or  less  trailing  annual,  with  leaves 
characteristic  of  the  Legumes,  and  the  butterfly  shaped  blossoms,  whose 
ovaries  develop  into  a  seed  pod.  As  the  flower  withers  the  stock  or 
spike  of  the  ovary  rapidly  lengthens  and  pushes  into  the  ground,  so 
that  the  pod  is  matured  beneath  the  surface.  Peanuts  are  widely 
grown  throughout  the  Southern  States  of  America,  and  are  used 
extensively  in  that  section  as  a  food  for  hogs. 
laecture  at  'Wrotham  Heath. — To  the  regret  of  all  the  students, 
the  last  of  the  course  of  lectures  on  cottage  gardening  was  given  on 
Tuesday  evening  in  the  Mission  Room.  The  lecturer  took  for  his 
subject  “The  Culture  of  Tomatoes,”  and  ably  showed  the  proper 
mode  of  culture  to  be  followed  to  insure  a  successful  crop.  At  the 
close  of  the  lecture,  on  behalf  of  the  members  of  the  class,  Mr.  Dover 
said  that  all  felt  they  were  much  indebted  to  Mr.  Hollingworth. 
The  latter,  in  acknowledgment,  said  the  attention  throughout  that 
had^been  given  to  the  lectures  had  been  practically  shown  in  more 
than  double  the  number  of  entries  for  the  coming  competition  compared 
with  last  year. 
The  Weather  at  Belvolr  Castle  Gardens,  March,  1901. — 
The  wind  was  in  a  northerly  direction  sixteen  days.  The  total  rainfall 
was  1'95  inch,  this  fell  on  twenty-one  days,  and  is  0'39  inch  above  the 
average  for  the  month.  The  greatest  daily  fall  was  0  53  inch  (part 
snow)  on  the  19th.  Barometer  (corrected  and  reduced)  ;  highest 
reading,  30-520  inches  on  the  23rd  at  9  a.m.  ;  lowest,  22‘006  inches  on 
the  2nd  at  9  p.m.  Thermometers  :  highest  in  the  shade,  53°  on  the  5th 
and  12th;  lowest,  21°  on  the  26th.  Mean  of  daily  maxima,  4109°; 
mean  of  daily  minima,  31'35°.  Mean  temperature  of  the  month,  37  72°  ; 
lowest  on  the  grass,  17°  on  the  26th  ;  highest  in  the  sun,  104°  on  the 
5th  and  9th.  Mean  temperature  of  the  earth  at  3  feet,  40-19°.  Total 
sunshine,  91  hours  40  minutes,  which  is  10  hours  28  minutes  below  the 
average.  There  were  four  sunless  days. — W.  H.  Divers. 
Meteorological  Observations  at  Chiswick. — Taken  in  the 
Royal  Horticultural  Society’s  Gardens — height  above  sea  level  24  feet. 
Date. 
Direction  of 
Wind. 
Temperature  of  the 
Air. 
Bain. 
Temperature  of 
the  Soil. 
At  9  A.M. 
Lowest 
Temperature 
on  Grass. 
1901. 
March 
and 
April. 
At  9  A.M. 
Day. 
Night 
At 
1-ft. 
deep. 
1 
At  1  At 
Dry 
Bulb. 
Wet 
Bulb. 
-id 
a 
© 
A 
bL 
3 
© 
1* 
o 
2-ft. 
deep. 
4-ft. 
deep. 
Sunday  ..31 
Monday..  1 
Tuesday  2 
Wed’sday  3 
Thursday  4 
Friday  ..  5 
Saturday  6 
S.S.W. 
W. 
S.S.W. 
S.S.W. 
W.N.W. 
S.E. 
S.E. 
deg. 
439 
44- 1 
45- 2 
619 
44-8 
404 
44-2 
deg. 
43-2 
89-9 
41-8 
60-0 
40- 9 
38-4 
41- 5 
deg. 
50*9 
50-4 
54-0 
56'7 
68-2 
46-6 
65-3 
deg. 
42-1 
35-2 
27’9 
45-7 
41-7 
332 
29-7 
Ins. 
0.02 
0.58 
0-02 
0*13 
deg. 
40- 8 
41- 9 
41  2 
43- 9 
45-6 
44- 6 
42- 4 
deg. 
41- 2 
42T 
42- 5 
42-8 
437 
44-4 
44-2 
deg. 
43-6 
43-6 
436 
43-7 
43- 9 
44- 0 
44‘2 
deg. 
37-3 
24-8 
201 
40'8 
40*0 
27-2 
21-6 
Means  ..j  44 *6 
42-2 
532 
36-5 
Total 
0-75 
42-9 
430 
43-8 
30-2 
The  weather  for  the  past  week  has  been  mostly  dull  with  very  cold 
winds.  There  were  sharp  frosts  on  four  mornings,  and  heavy  rain  on 
the  3rd  inst. 
