37S THE GARDENER. [Aug. 



them so much per hour, which helps them to buy books, for gardeners are not 

 overpaid, and especially young ones, I hope Mr Hinds will not think that 

 I am criticising his writing, but I certainly think that young gardeners want a 

 few encouraging words spoken for them occasionally, as well as a shake of the 

 hand, and a few lines on a piece of paper. An Old Gardener. 



[You are quite right : slovenliness ought not to be regarded as anything else 

 than a bad sign, and no young gardener should be called upon to work a moment's 

 overtime without being paid time and a half for it. — Ed.] 



HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITIONS. 



The Royal Horticultural Society's Show at Nottingham. — For many 

 months past this independent visit of the Royal Horticultural Society to the pro- 

 vince of Nottingham had been earnestly and anxiously talked of, written about, 

 and arranged for. The marked success, financially, of this first visit, without 

 being tacked on to the Royal Agricultural Society, will surely fully justify the 

 soundness of the judgment of those who chiefly promoted it ; for, looked at from 

 a pecuniary point of view, this meeting has been the most successful of any yet 

 held in the provinces. Considered as an exhibition of plants and fruits and 

 vegetables, there is also reason for satisfaction and congratulation ; unless, indeed, 

 it be in the case of the fruit exhibition as a whole, for, with the exception of a 

 few Pines, a few bunches of Grapes, and a dish or two of Peaches and Nectarines, 

 the- fruit was inferior. This, however, can in part be attributed to the extreme 

 coldness of the season. Of course, among such a vast assemblage of plants it 

 cannot be said that all were good. The great bulk were, however, fine. The 

 general efi'ect produced in so large a tent we thought might have been better, and 

 the squinting position in which many of the specimens were placed, suggested 

 the idea as if a hurricane had swept through the tent and laid prostrate many of 

 the plants. 



The assemblage of visitors was great, and such as might have been expected 

 during such fine weather; but the arrangements, at least the first day, for viewing 

 the plants and fruit, were bad in the extreme, inasmuch as the visitors were al- 

 lowed to wander in contrary streams in all directions, which, in so large a show, 

 or indeed any show, should never be allowed. "We do not know whether this was 

 allowed on the other days, but the first day was rendered irksome and unpleasant 

 to visitors who wanted to inspect the plants and fruits. Our space forbids our 

 giving a general or full report of so gigantic a show, especially as we are monthly 

 reporting on similar plants at the Metropolitan Meeting. We would suggest that 

 the Royal Horticultural Society should, by way of variety, hold a great international 

 fruit-show in August or September of some future year, at some central and popu- 

 lous town or district, say at Manchester, or, more central still, York. One be- 

 comes so intimately acquainted with the very same plants or style of plants year 

 after year, that any real interest in them becomes cloyed ; and a great fruit-show 

 we think well worthy the attention and patronage of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society of England. Surely if in Edinburgh a great fruit-show can be made to 

 pay with liberal prizes, there can be no fear of success at some central point in 

 England. 



Royal Horticultural Society — Fruit and Floral Meeting, June 2l8t. — 

 The subjects invited on this occasion consisted ^entirely of Zonal Pelargoniums, 

 Fuchsias, and Palms. 



