90 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



How many of the dead societies made their cradles and their graves in 

 public-houses ? More, perhaps, than would be supposed, even by those 

 who admit that such places are most unfit for meetings of the kind. Many 

 as are the legitimate uses of a tavern, it is not the best, but the worst 

 place in which a mutual improvement society of any kind can be located. 

 That gardeners meet for mutual improvement is of course granted ; if they 

 meet for conviviality, their transactions do not come within the range of 

 our criticism. Suppose the subscription to be six shillings per annum, and to 

 be paid at the rate of sixpence a-month; there are of necessity twelve attend- 

 ances, most probably twenty in all, when the whole year's transactions are 

 included. Show us the man who will go to a tavern twelve times and 

 spend nothing, and we will pronounce him a paradox ; nay, a paragon. 

 But as paragons (whatever they are) are scarce, the probability is, that each 

 visit will entail an expenditure of sixpence, and thus virtually the subscrip- 

 tion is doubled, and, worst luck, the society gets but half what is spent upon 

 it. Social meetings are good, and taverns are good when rightly used, but 

 public-house meetings invariably do mischief when men must of necessity 

 attend them at stated times, and on business which begets conversation, 

 exchanges of friendship, and lengthened deliberations as to important pub- 

 lic proceedings. Gardening makes men domestic, but meetings at taverns 

 undo all the good work, and, whether the purse be long or short, the 

 money will run out of it as the gunpowder ran out of the heels of some- 

 body's boots, in Quin's "Incoherent Story." Another evil — which many 

 of our friends will say is no evil — is the custom of holding at the place of 

 meeting an annual dinner or supper, paid for out of the funds of the 

 society. If the members choose to eat salt together once a -year, well and 

 good; there is nothing like good cheer and good fellowship, but public- 

 house societies are generally careless of their funds, and the payment of 

 costs for a dinner stultifies the society by a diversion of its moneys to an 

 illegitimate purpose. In the case of a society to which the subscription is 

 five shillings, the dinner will cost at least three. So horticulture gets two 

 shillings, and the publican three — a very unfair division of the spoil for 

 people who meet "purely in the interests of gardening." If the subscrip- 

 tion proves to be sufficient for the prosperity of the society and the provid- 

 ing of dinner too, would it not be better to enlarge the schedule, give more 

 prizes and larger prizes? or, if the members want something for their 

 money above and beyond the advantages of association, why not give half 

 the amount of subscription in tickets, and have an annual supper for those 

 who like to pay for it, independently altogether of the association funds ? 



"We must not be understood, however, to advocate the offering of large 

 prizes as necessary to the success of a show. The majority of those who 

 compete at local exhibitions do so more to show what may be done than 

 for what they can get. Exhibitors like to win, and strive hard for it ; but 

 the value of the prize is not so much an object as the fact of taking one at 

 all. At the great shows, where there is less local interest and a good deal 

 of trade speculation instead, "the value of the prizes is another matter. 

 Those who send from great distances ought to make it pay if they can, 

 both in honour and hard cash; and we all rejoice to see a successful exhi- 

 bitor rising in the world and enjoying the fruits of his industry in an im- 

 proved social status. But what do the thousands of amateurs want with 

 money prizes ? What would be the feeling of a victor in the Olympic 

 games if his golden garland melted into thin air before he had fairly rested 



