ENGLISH GROWERS 23 



Chrysanthemum raising has always been a struggle for 

 supremacy, and the rivalry has at times been very keen. 

 Sometimes the French have been in the ascendant, some- 

 times the English. There was a period in the history of 

 the flower when the American grower looked like con- 

 testing the claims of the Gaul and Anglo-Saxon, but the 

 transatlantic rivalry was of short duration. It is curious, 

 however, that the keenest opponent to the most success- 

 ful French grower should have been found in Australia. 

 Mr. T. W. Pockett, of Victoria, commenced to distribute 

 his novelties about fifteen years ago, and many of his 

 flowers have helped the grower of big blooms to win prizes 

 at the best shows. 



The work is still going on and it will continue. It is 

 only in recent years that English growers have contri- 

 buted first-class novelties, but owing to repeated efforts 

 they have raised a large number that equal the best obtain- 

 able for exhibition purposes, whilst in other directions, as, 

 for instance, the raising of early-flowering border varieties, 

 the English growers cannot be said to be less successful 

 than their more favourably placed Continental or Australian 

 rivals. 



Of these men, Messrs. C. E. Shea, Weeks, J. H. Silsbury, 

 Agate, H. J. Jones, H. Cannell, Norman Davis, W. Wells, 

 and W. }. Godfrey, have done good service towards main- 

 taining a high standard of excellence at English exhibitions, 

 which are always characterised by displays of cultural skill 

 unequalled at Continental shows. Mr. Thomas Stevenson 

 is one of the best exponents of this high-class culture, 

 and in this volume he describes the means by which his 

 successful results are obtained. 



