348 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



easily ascertained ; the difficulty is to get them applied, except by 

 compulsion, and until they are generally applied progress cannot be 

 expected. 



General. 



Horticulture in South Africa is only on the threshold of progress. 

 In every line there is scope for improvement ; in most lines possi- 

 bilities are enormous. The climate varies from tropical to cold 

 temperate, the rainfall from nothing to 60 inches, and the soil and 

 subsoil vary immensely ; the range of available kinds is consequently 

 very large. 



But the population is small and scattered, and the literature 

 altogether inadequate. The Departmental Agricultural Journals of 

 the respective Governments are highly useful in so far as they touch 

 on fruit-culture and viticulture, but they leave the other lines almost 

 out, and even in these lines red-tape prevents free discussion where 

 Government action or non-action is concerned. An independent, 

 inter-colonial Horticultural magazine for South Africa would fill what 

 is meantime an empty void, and do good not only to the commercial 

 fruit grower, but also to the amateur and to the numerous class whose 

 members claim to know by natural intuition much more than the 

 professional man trained abroad, and sometimes show that they do 

 so. An occasional inter-colonial conference of fruit growers is also 

 a desideratum, at which practical work rather than parish politics 

 should be discussed, for it is evident that South Africa requires all 

 to pull together for action in this as in many other matters, rather 

 than lose time in petty jealousy. Cape Colony meantime has the 

 lead in hardy fruit culture, and supplies the other Colonies after 

 their supply is finished, but there is no inherent reason why Cape 

 Colony should not be also supplied with fruit from the other Colonies 

 months before its own supply is ready, and so by reciprocity allow 

 each Colony to enjoy a longer fruit season and live upon fruit more 

 than it does at present. 



A Conference as proposed above, representing alike the affiliated 

 Horticultural Societies of South Africa and the nursery and fruit 

 trades, would soon take up the central position in South Africa 

 meantime held in England by the Royal Horticultural Society, and 

 would do more to stimulate horticultural work than any agency mean- 

 time in existence. 



