REPORT 



OF THE 



COMMITTEE ON ORMMENTAL GARDENING, 



FOR THE YEAR 1874. 

 By H. weld fuller, Chairman. 



Favorable as the season has been for horticultural pursuits, few 

 places have been offered this year for inspection. Invitations from 

 three only have been received by your committee ; and it may be 

 well to seek the cause of this apparent apathy. Judging from the 

 demand for decorative trees and shrubs, and from the number im- 

 ported and sold, there appears to be no lack of interest in the 

 subject. But some persons, of large taste and smaller means, 

 perhaps, may think it would be presumptuous or useless for them 

 to enter into competition with men of long purses and broad acres, 

 or that anything they could show would, in comparison, be too 

 meagre for a formal exhibition. Others may regard an " official 

 visit" as a sort of " party " demonstration, to be supplemented by 

 a " spread," with edibles and refreshments, which they cannot af- 

 ford. All such ideas are mistakes and hindrances, and the sooner 

 they are discarded, the better it will be for those concerned. It 

 should be clearly understood that the Committee are not looking 

 for signs and wonders, or expecting to find perfection. Progress, 

 right progress ! is the watchword, and no other spread is asked 

 for than that which Nature, fitly treated, offers to the eye. Taste, 

 neatness, and beauty may be found in limited domains ; and choice 

 plants may flourish in cunning hands, without an acre of ground 

 or a rood of glass ! 



Let us remember that the great object of our association is to 

 improve and adorn the homes of the people, and to create and 

 diffuse a love of the beautiful, b}'^ noticing and presenting examples 

 worthy of imitation, and encouraging, by all means, everything 

 which tends to that end. 



