PRIZES AT OUR HORTICULTURAL SHOWS. 



get their suggestions brought before the respectful notice of those who have the power of 

 carrying into effect that which they consider essential. 



The Pennsylvania Society, I believe, stands first in the annals of American Horticul- 

 ture. I was present at the annual meeting, and beheld two noble saloons filled with 

 fruits, vegetables, and plants. Plants! did I say, — yes plants, (but what had become of 

 their flowers I can't pretend to say.) Whoever has witnessed a Chiswick exhibition in 

 the great metropolis of England, or a Regent's Park show, will contrast the difference 

 between the two. He will contrast the difference between a plant five or six feet high, and 

 as much in the diameter of its branches, regularly trained from the rim of the pot, without 

 a stick, into a symmetrical bush, densely covered with flowers, and such as filled the sa- 

 loons of the show in Philadelphia. 



The latter plants had unshapely heads set upon branchless stems three or four feet high, 

 denoting a system of being grovm by the yard ; contrast the difference between what we 

 call exhibition plants on the two sides of the Atlantic, and then let us ask if a step in ad- 

 vance is not required here? But there was a time when the metropolitan exhibitions of 

 England had their commencement. There was a time when the gardeners of England ex- 

 hibited plants resembling hop poles ; there was a time when i/ieir plants appeared to be 

 grown by the yard ; there was a time when their pots were full of sticks, instead of flow- 

 ers, and there was a time when all this was thought to be gardening in perfection. But 

 the glory and ignorance of that day have all passed, and are only remembered as a dream. 

 Now, the hop poles are reduced to symmetrical plants, the shower of sticks is annihilated 

 by a short, stiff, self-supporting truss, and the plant itself defies you to detect any irregu- 

 larity, or any want of inherent strength and beauty. And what has worked this great 

 change? Nothing but a liberal spirit of competition. Not competition for money, nor 

 medals, but for ability; and this is the kind of competition we want here; some 

 of our competitors may ask, is there no ability displayed in our fruit department? 

 I answer none; that which you exhibit by the peck and the bushel, certainly has not oc- 

 cupied much of your attention. It is art combined with nature, that shows man's abili- 

 ties. Nature produces the bunch of Haraburghs, but it is by man's assisting ingenuity 

 that the full amount of coloring matter is produced there. We certainly can produce fine 

 peaches, pears, apples, and good native grapes; and what tailor, I ask, in the United 

 States, can't do the same? 



He v/ho makes Horticulture his profession, surely should excel the non-professional 

 man. But alas ! still the Hamburghs are red* huddled together like marrow-fat peas, and 

 polished as though they were intended for mirrors. Can't this be altered — can't the gar- 

 deners of America produce as high a colored bunch of grapes as those of England? Cer- 

 tainly if they like. Nature has laid a bounteous soil, a bright sun and a clear sky, and 

 these are superior advantages to those of England. Then try what can be done. I think 

 I hear the gardening voice of this mighty country crying, " A new beginning with the 

 new year," — let us see by our culture that the finger and thumb have superceded the 

 knife. Let us question the utility in allowing a branch to grow to be cut back by the 

 knife and thrown away; let us see plants grown in pots without long unsightly stems, 

 and grown into compact globular bushes by finger and thumb pruning. Show the nur- 

 serymen how to produce flowering plants, instead of bits tied up to sticks three times 

 larger than the so called plant itself. But, say the gardeners, the inducements are not 

 held out to us by our Societies — the arrangement of our Horticultural Society is too limi- 



lough ihere is some truth in our correspondent's criticism of the Philadelphia shows — we are bound to 

 in Europe are fuier foreign grapes to be seen than at the Boston exhibitions. Ed. 



