CONFERENCES AND SHOWS 7 



Conference at Edinburgh ; at both events the present 

 author acted as an expert. 



The palmy days of the Crystal Palace gave a great 

 impetus to the culture of fruit, as liberal prizes were offered 

 at the exhibitions. The trade collections were always an 

 attraction, whilst their educational value, and the oppor- 

 tunities they afforded for comparison and inspection of new 

 varieties, were much appreciated. On these shows being 

 discontinued, the Royal Horticultural Society whose re- 

 construction had introduced some practical men on the 

 Council saw its opportunity, and the Society's Autumn 

 fruit shows have since done a vast amount of good. They 

 have brought together such grand examples of fruit as would 

 have been impossible thirty years ago, when the culture 

 of the trees was less generous, the system of pruning less 

 perfect, and when the planting of Pears upon Quince stocks 

 and Apples upon the Paradise stock was unknown. 



Market-growers, however, were slow to move, and it is 

 only within the last twelve or fifteen years that such dwarf 

 trees have been planted by the thousand ; nevertheless, the 

 effect can be seen already in the greatly improved quality of 

 the fruit in the chief markets. Another factor arose about 

 the year 1883 I may say by accident. The great orchards 

 in the principal fruit counties, till that period, were never 

 manured, beyond that which resulted from the keeping of 

 cattle or sheep in them ; and even in these cases the 

 animals were not often fed with corn or oilcake, so that 

 the trees received little benefit. But in 1883 * ne main 

 drainage of London was being carried out ; millions of 

 bricks were sent from the Sittingbourne district in barges. 

 Now, the London scavengers were very glad to sell their 



