The 



Progress in Vegetable Cultivation 



during Queen Victoria's Reign. 



By ARTHUR W. SUTTON, F.L.S. 



JOBABLY no more fitting subject could be chosen for one of the papers to be read 

 at a Conference of the Royal Horticultural Society in the sixtieth year of Her 

 Majesty's Reign. Appropriate as the subject undoubtedly is, I cannot but think 

 that our worthy Secretary might have made a far happier choice when selecting 

 a speaker. It is manifestly impossible for anyone of my age to state from personal 

 knowledge what the condition of the Vegetable Garden was in 1837, and it is there- 

 fore impossible for me to say from my own observation what progress has been made. 



Mr. WILKS invited my father (now in his 83rd year) to contribute a paper on 

 this subject, but, like many others whose memory carries them back over the past 

 sixty years, his physical powers are not equal to his mental activity, and he was 

 compelled to decline. Although yielding to Mr. Wilks's somewhat pressing request 

 that I would myself prepare a paper, I feel I owe this assembly an apology for 

 attempting what others could do so much better. It was only possible for me to 

 glean the necessary information from those who were actively engaged in 

 horticultural pursuits at the time when our Gracious Sovereign came to the throne, 

 and though I have met with the greatest willingness to impart knowledge, it is a 

 somewhat remarkable fact that my correspondents had a far clearer recollection 

 of fruits, methods of culture, and even the scale of garden wages, than they had 

 of the Vegetables grown in 1837. I can only conclude that there was nothing 

 particularly striking about the Vegetables in use at that time, at least as regards 

 their intrinsic merit. 



It will be noticed that the title refers to Progress in Vegetable Cultivation, but 

 I do not suppose I was intended to speak so much of the cultivation as of the 

 improvement of the Vegetables cultivated. Had it been otherwise, I cannot doubt 

 that one of the many able gardeners connected with the Society would have been 

 invited to read a paper rather than myself. 



In sketching the outline of my paper I therefore felt that I could not do better 

 than take the leading Vegetables, enumerating the kinds in cultivation in 1837, 

 and then briefly mention the improvements that have since followed. It is obvious 

 that unless there had been a very marked advance in the Vegetables grown, the 

 progress in cultivation would have been comparatively insignificant. In saying 

 this, I do not for a moment suggest that the gardeners of to-day are not far in 

 advance of those of 1837, but that whatever method of culture might be adopted 



