150 HORTICULTURE LECT. x 



of strawberry picking and weighing in Kent. The 

 scene is enlarged from a photograph, and is therefore 

 exact. It is clear that fruit- growing affords work 

 for workers on the land. As showing the extent of 

 the culture, 78 tons were sent in one day from 

 Swanley station, and 605 tons in 97,000 baskets 

 of fourteen pounds each, or 1,358,000 pounds of 

 strawberries from one station in one month July, 

 1891. Yet there are pessimists, mostly failures in 

 working, who preach the miserable doctrine that this 

 grand old country is worn out ! It is just awakening 

 to a sense of the need and duty of better work and 

 greater effort for developing its resources. 



Let us all, then, do our best and not rest satisfied till 

 we have done our share in making England what 

 it may be the garden of the world ; and workers 

 on the land, as they should be, masters in the art 

 of cultivation. 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 



Q. In judging gardens by points, how is the work con- 

 ducted ? 



A. Every crop growing in each garden is noted and its merits 

 estimated and put down in figures. For instance, if potatoes 

 are as good as they can be, and the standard of merit is ten, that 

 number of points is put down, b\it if only so to say half good 

 only five would be entered, and so on, more or less, according 

 to the condition of the plot. It is the same with all other crops ; 

 but as indicated in the list on page 142, some cannot have more 

 than eight, others more than six, and the still less serviceable 

 more than four points, no matter how good the produce may be. 

 Cultivators are thus induced to give the most space to the most 

 useful and the least to the least useful kinds, while a little is 

 devoted to most of the kinds mentioned with any others that 

 may not be included in the list. 



Q. In exhibiting produce at shows, are the prizes given to the 

 largest examples ? 



