July 



1905 



HORTICULTURE 



THE AWARDS AT THE ROYAL 

 HORTICULTURAL SHOW 



The practiro whii h is s .-lu-linirs followed 

 of giving an award lu an old and well-tried 

 variety, hitherto, by some accident, over- 

 looked by the Society, has given rise to 

 adverse criticism and occasionally provokes 

 a sense of the ludicrous. It is aljsurd, say 

 some, to make an award, we will say by 

 the way of illustration, to Cox's Orange 

 I'ippin, to Black Hamburgh Grape, or to 

 any other variety whose merits are now gen- 

 erally recognized, although it may not have 

 been stamped with the hall-mark of the So- 

 ciety. Perhaps it is. But would it not be 

 equally absurd that such varieties should 

 never receive recognition from the Society, 

 and never be included in its honor-lists? 

 Quite lately, two excellent potatnrs, which 

 have long been in coninien c win au.inird 

 first-class rc-rlih. aU-s. Ii..|l. l-i-l i-m m.mi.Iv, 

 when gn.wn at ChisxW. k, u.: r,..\ auar.ls 

 of merit, and having now, afin -,. .1 lal u ais' 

 experience, proved to be first a lass standard 

 varieties, the award of merit has been found 

 to be inadequate, but in these cases fittingly 

 the stepping-stone to a liigher award. But 

 to many persons wedded to traditional 

 methods, and who think awards of the nature 

 referred to should be made to new things 

 only, the granting of first-class certificates 

 to comparatively old forms is a stumbUng- 

 blork. In their estimation it is better to 

 grant awards whilst the subjects of them are 

 new and scarce, even if a great mistake 

 eventually results, than it is to wait patiently 

 for a few years until experience has shown 

 whether the subject be worthy of an award 

 or not. . 



The whole matter hinges on the purpose 

 for which subjects are placed before the fruit 

 or any other committee. If staged in the 

 hope of getting a certificate that shall en- 

 hance the trade value of the subject, it is 

 evident that a belated award, after several 

 years' experience of its cultural value, can 

 be of no service in that respect. "If the sole 

 object in staging new or assumed new 

 things or varieties be to give the subject 

 publicity, and to secure an award on the 

 merits of the exhibit, without rrf. rence to 

 any financial result, then nothing but good 

 can follow if the granting of an award be 

 deferred until time has shown whether it is 

 merited or not. 



Exhibits that come before the fruit com- 

 mittee often come into a different category 

 from those presented to the floral c;ommittee. 

 Such a remarkable plant as Meconopsis 

 integrifolia tells its own story at once. Its 

 claims to immediate and first-( I iss honors 

 were incontestable. With fruits and vege- 

 tables the case is different. W'hal may be 

 described as remarkable products never crop 

 up with them. They come in the form of 

 improved varieties, or what are assumed to 

 be so, but beyond the sender no one has 

 any proof that they are such. )t is not pos- 

 sible for the committee to determine whether 

 they are so or not until time and rxperience 

 have determined the question. When it is 

 remembered how numerous are the varieties 

 of fruit, for instance, that are put into com- 

 merce with Royal H6rticult\ira! Society 

 awards, but which fail to secure any perma- 

 nent position in gardens, is it not 1 ertain that 

 the pra( tire of granting certificates on the 

 first appearance of a subject is a mistake. 



.\ simple way of getting over the difficulty 

 would, if it were only practicable be to make 

 awards of merit to all subjects provisionally, 

 these awards being granted and regarded 

 solely as evidences of prima facie or appar- 

 ent value or special usefulness, but subject 

 to advancement to a first-class certificate if, 

 as happily sometimes happens, the subject 

 proves to be distinctly meritorious. So far 

 as the fruit and vegetable committee is con- 

 cerned it is now happily possible 



one or several years at Wisley, that the 

 proposals now made w^ould create no hanl- 

 ship, and would 1 nvint i.istakes generally. 



A study of the honors bestowed during 

 the past thirty years is rather unsatisfactory, 

 because the lists contain so many records of 

 awards which time has shown to have been 

 given without due wanant. 



It is, to our thinking, most desirable that 

 awards of merit of any kind or degree should 

 continue to be made by the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society and its committees .->n other 

 than commercial considerations, though we 

 are afraid that in the case of individuals 

 these influences must continue to exert their 

 power till the millennium comes. Of course 

 we by no means wish to convey tlie notion 

 that financial considerations should not have 

 their due weight with exhibitors. What we 

 desire to see is that neither the committees 

 nor the rouncil should be unduly influenced 

 by them. What they have to do is to ex- 

 amine what is brought before them, and to 

 record their impressions as to their abstract 

 merits irrespective of their possible value 

 as commercial products. If a Welwitschia 

 or a RafHesia were brought before the com- 

 mittee neither would have any financial im- 

 portance, but the interest attaching to them 

 from the point of view of the Society would 

 be a thousandfold greater than that of a 

 "new" apple or of an Odontoglossum with 

 four spots instead of three. 



Take the case of the Meconopsis before 

 alluded to. It received a first-class certifi- 

 cate, but that, in our opinion, was decidedly 

 inappropriate, and offered an unintentional 

 insult to the plant by lowering it to the 

 category of the commonplace. Fortunately 

 it also received the far more appropriate 

 award of a botanical certificate. But some 

 will say that money value must be the ulti- 

 mate test. Very well; let it be so. Let us 

 have in that case a commercial committee to 

 deal exclusively with that aspect of the case. 

 This may sound Qtiixotic, but the higher 

 the idealthe Society strives after the more 

 will it gain in the respect of the public, the 

 better it will be for the traders in the long 

 run, and the greater good will it do to horti- 

 culture pure and simple. 



We are told that some propositions are 

 under the consideration of the fruit com- 

 mittee dealing with the matter of awards. 

 Till they have been thoroughly considered 

 and adopted by the committee it would be 

 premature to make further comments on 

 them. It is nevertheless a good sign to see 

 the committees taking steps to remove exist- 

 ing improprieties and anomaUes, and, as 

 we hope, to reduce the extravagant and pre- 

 mature award of certificates. 



The very extraordinary Primula shown 

 at the last meeting was, it is true, not in 

 condition as an exhibition plant, and will 

 doubtless receive a certificate wiien more 

 fully developed. In the meantime, the scien- 

 tific committee has saved lb' < \-<:V\i ,,| the 

 Society by awarding it a 1 nil mi' 'I ' ' ini" .ite, 

 otherwise the most rcmail'l'l' I'l "ii l".«n 

 on that occasion would li.i" 1"' n . miirly 

 passed over. — The Gardeners' Cliroiiirlr, 

 I.ondon. 



test I 



WINDOW GLASS MERGER 



Cleveland, Ohio, July 12 . 

 By the merging of the Interstate Win 

 Glass Manufacturers' .\ss<«iation with 

 tional Win'l'.w Cla^s Mannfa. lurcrs' > 

 ciation at \hr " 'HM-ntic m \\\n. h has rl 

 here, iti-< . •-iiinai'al iliai n.A I, ,s than ei 

 per cent ''f ih'- inilc|.(--n'l' nl "iitput is 

 trolled by the organization. .\ wage 1 

 mittee was appointed to meet with the f 

 workers and settle a scale of wages. 'I 

 it is expected by the workers, may be k 

 than it was last year, owing to labor 

 ditions. — Transcript. 



qited 



vaTi.'ir, 'l''|'ailiii'i]| -, "I lln-. I.i;-, 1 oncem. 

 The magnitudi- of the busiiKss \\\m\\ these 

 three companies — now consolidated — have 

 built up conveys some idea of the immense 

 advances made in horticultural industries 

 wiilnn III' i-a-i I' w years. We do not doubt 

 111 II :■ I'll ' i ill. highest practical value will 

 I'lll". il > I '-'I n.i^ of interests. Congratu- 

 lation., aiL cordially extended. 



SWEET PEAS FOR WINTER 



Editor Horticulture: — Will you please 

 inform me the best time to plant sweet peas 

 for winter in hothouse; also the kind that 

 sells best in Boston market. 



Yours trulv, 



From the middle of .\ugust until the mid- 

 dle of September is a good time to plant 

 sweet peas for early winter flowering. If 

 the beds or benches are idle then they can be 

 sown in rows right where they are to flower. 

 If not, as is usually the case, they ought to 

 be started about that time in 3^ inch pots 

 set in a corner of the greenhouse, or in a 

 frame outdoors and grown there until such 

 lime as the bench space is available. They 

 do equally, as well transplanted from pots 

 and no time is lost. 



."Xs to varieties, Mont Blanc, white and 

 earliest of all, pink and white are the best, 

 if not the only kinds for early flowering 

 purposes. 



Malcolm Orr. 



PERSONAL 



F. L. Atkins of Bobbink & -Atkins sailed 

 for Europe on July 12, on 5. 5. Staatendam. 



G. B. Moulder has been appointed super- 

 intendent .of the station grounds of the IIU- 

 nois Central railroad. 



^ Howard M. Eari, of W. .\t\ec Burpee & 

 Co., Philadelphia, reached home on Saturday, 

 July 8, from his European trip. 



,\rthur Merritt, of New York, mourns the 

 loss of his eldest son, fifteen years of age, 

 who died on Monday, July 10, at the New 

 Y'ork hospital, of appendicitis. 



Mi.ss Alice Luflfman, daughter of George 

 E. Luffman, was married to Volney Beckner 

 Goddard at St. Mary's-on-the-liighlands, 

 Birmingham, Ala., on June 28. Miss Amy 

 K. Luffman, sister of the bride, was the maid 

 of honor. 



Mr. Harry Balsley, Mr. A. N. Pierson, 

 Cromwell, Conn.; E. B. Sage, Bradford; 

 \V. J. Quinlan, Syracuse; W. J. Simmons and 

 family, Toronto, Ont.; Dr. Rowlands, Utiea, 

 M.Y.; P. Hauswirth, Chicago; Aug. [Krueger, 

 Mead\ille, Pa., visited Buffalo the past \veek. 



The rose and strawbcrr)' show of the 

 North Shore Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society on July 6, was a very excellent dis- 

 play of the cultural abilities of the ex])ert 

 gardeners of Manchester-by-the-sea, Beverly 

 and neighborhood. There was a fine exhi- 

 bit of aquatics from H. A. Dreer. 



