THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



true position among hnman industries. 

 Doubtless their wisdom in this respect 

 will also be seen in the magnificent dis- 

 play that will be made, and in the 

 throng of interested spectators that 

 will crowd the building devoted to these 

 products. 



The great railway lines leading to 

 New Orleans, we are informed, have 

 already made concessions in rates which 

 are without parallel for cheapness. We 

 ai'e not yet informed what arrange- 

 ments, if any, have been made for the 

 accommodation of the vast throng of 

 visitors that will crowd the city to its 

 utmost capacity. The premium lists 

 will shortly be issued, meanwhile those 

 wishing to obtain fuller information 

 will please apply to Mi*. Parker Earle, 

 Cobden, Illinois, U. S. A. 



We shall endeavour to keep the 

 Fruit Growers of Canada fully informed 

 of everything of interest to them re- 

 lating to this great exhibition of the 

 fruits of the world, and feel confident 

 that they will not let pass unimproved 

 this grand opportunity of making the 

 world acquainted with our truly splen- 

 did winter fruits, that for high flavor 

 and long keeping ai-e unexcelled. 



FLOWER-GARDENING IN SCHOOL 

 GROUNDS. 



We ai'e much pleased to notice that 

 Mr. W. E. Smallfield, of the Renfrew 

 Mercury, has offered a prize of five 

 DOLLARS to be awarded to. the school 

 makiiig the best display of flowers at 

 the annual exhibition of the South 

 Renfrew Agricultural Society in 1884. 

 He lias also made arrangements through 

 Mr. James Vick, seedsman, of Roches- 

 ter, N. Y., to supply the five schools in 

 that county which first apply, with 

 twelves packages of flower seeds to each, 

 FREE OF COST, the application to be 

 made by the trustees or teachers. Mr. 

 Vick himself offers as a second prize 

 a beautiful floral chromo on cloth and 



stretcher ready for framing, worth a 

 dollar and a half. 



This has been done by Mr. Smallfield 

 in order to stimulate a taste for the 

 improvement and adornment of school 

 grounds, of which in truth there is 

 great need. Many, yes, so far as the 

 writer's observation extends, most of 

 our school grounds in both town and 

 country are a disgrace to our Canadian 

 civilization. A barren, treeless waste, 

 designates too many of our school sites, 

 in some part of which stand a bare 

 looking school house and, conspicuously 

 planted in the rear, a couple of sentry- 

 box outhouses, having about them a 

 scanty growth of grass but luxuriant 

 growth of weeds. 



These prizes have not been offered by 

 Mr. Smallfield as in any sense to be 

 regarded as compensation for the labor 

 of cultivation, but sim])ly to draw pub- 

 lic attention to that which in itself is 

 recreation to the scholars, while at the 

 same time it is refining in its tendency 

 upon the school, and calls into exercise, 

 if not into being, a taste for rural 

 adornment that will be seen sooner or 

 later about the homes of our people. 



Can not this example be repeated in 

 every county in our land ? Are there 

 not other gentlemen who sufficiently 

 appreciate the value of a refined taste 

 among our people, and the influence 

 which the cultivation by the scholars of 

 beds of flowei s in their school ground 

 must have for good upon the school 

 itself, to offer like prizes in every county 

 in Ontario 1 Surely an arrangement 

 could be made with any of our Cana- 

 dian seedsmen to supply the needed 

 seeds for a beginning without cost to 

 the schools. 



But we must not stop even here. In 

 some way we must offer in each county 

 prizes for the best laid out and most 

 api)ropriately plaiited school ground, 

 and which is also most tastefully adornee- 

 with beds of flowers, and kept in the- 



