GARDEN BROOMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 282, 28 November 1931, Page 6 (Supplement)

GARDEN BROOMS.

The old fashioned birch broom, for use in the garden, has many advantages. It may be difficult to get birch twigs, but a good substitute is tea-tree, especially if cut a week or so before it is required, laid straight, arid a weighted board placed on top to keep the twigs flat. The leaves will fall in a few days and the branches can be used. The branches of other trees can be used. When making them arrange the wood so that the broom is evenly balanced, and not

too big and heavy. To tie firmly attach a rope to a hook in the beam and take a turn round the broom, have a loop at the bottom in which the foot can be placed and the weight of the body applied to draw the broom tight. Tie with wire or string and insert the handle after tying. Two ties at different places will be necessary, also a hole in the handle, and a peg-driven through the broom and hole in the handle to prevent broom from twisting when being used.

ENGLISH SUCCESS® IN AMERICA j It is not often that one hears of an English firm taking an exhibit to a U.S.A. show and cleaning up the awards. The usual description of an American show is so staggering in_ detail that the impression is that it is only in a large continent like America that there is room to hold such exhibitions, and only where there are unlimited areas that the exhibits can be grown. The head of a large English firm visited the Atlantic City flower and garden pageant on a previous occasion and carefully noted how much was bluff and how much "the real thing/' Later this firm practically swept the board with regard to all possible awards. They won the - first prize of 250 dollars, the cup valued at 50 dollars offered for an exhibit of not less than 500 square feet of vegetables, a special gold medal, and a trophy valued at 250 dollars offered for the best exhibit in the show. The exhibit weighed no less than five tons, and was dispatched in cold storage by the s.s. Mauretania. We are informed that it was the largest and the most comprehensive exhibit of vegetables ever staged in the United States of America, comprising as it did no fewer than 70 kinds and over 350 j different varieties.

CHESTNUT AVENUE AT BUSHY PARK' Chestnut Sunday is well known in London end suburbs, and although it is somewhat of a movable feast, according to "the season, it usually occurs between May 19 and 26. The width of the avenue is 170 feet, and its length about a mile. It was planted by the celebrated architect, Sir Christopher Wren in 1699. There ere 137 trees on each side, and they stand 42 feet apart in the line. A quarter of a mile from Hampton Court Palace end of the avenue, a round pool, 400 feet in diameter, with a noble fountain in the centre, forces the chestnut trees from the straight line to a circle, with magnificent effect. Some of the larger trees have died and are replaced by younger, smaller ones, but the show of blooms is wonderful, year after year; The largest trees are fully 100 feet tall, and from 10 to 20 feet in girth of trunk, with handsome crowns and branches* that sweep the ground.