206 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



his was the first visit that they had received for many years, or witK 

 the fact that remediable diseases are still rife in hundreds of gardens, 

 or that few small growers understand the principles which should guide 

 them in deciding whether or not to spray their potatos, or that West 

 Country orchardists exist who let dessert fruit tumble to the ground 

 and sell it in ignorance of its true value, or that unthrifty fruit-trees 

 may be top-grafted but are not, or that it is often ignored that arsenate 

 of lead as a spray fluid for fruit pays over and over again for its use, 

 or even that growers in plenty still do not know that Scotch or Irish 

 or once-grown Lincolnshire seed potatos are generally more profitable 

 than is home-grown or local seed. The truth is that great skill and 

 sure knowledge exist among small cultivators side by side with much 

 ignorance and moderate practical ability. Hei'ein lies the opportunity 

 of the kind of education which I have in mind. But for any such 

 intensive system of education to prevail the isolation both of cultivators 

 and of Government Departments must be aboHshed. Out of that isola- 

 tion hostility arises, in which medium no seed of education will 

 germinate. It is troublesome, but not difficult, to abolish hostility. 

 It vanishes when direct relations are established and maintained between 

 a Department and those whose affairs it administers. The paternal 

 method will not do it. The official life, lived ' remote, unfriendly, 

 alone,' with only underlings as missionaries to the heathen public, 

 will not do it. 



There is only one way to prepare the ground for the intensive 

 cultivation of education, and that is to secure the full co-operation of 

 officials and cultivators. If this be not done the official must continue 

 to bear with resignation the unconcealed hostility of those he wishes 

 to assist. That a state of confidence and co-operation may be esta- 

 blished is proved by the record of the Horticultm'al Advisory Committee 

 which was set up by Lord Ernie during my controllership. The Com- 

 mittee consisted of representatives of all the many branches of Horti- 

 culture — fruit-growers, nurserymen, market gardeners, growers under 

 glass, salesmen, researchers, and so forth. That Committee became, 

 as it were, the Deputy-Controller of Horticulture. To it all large ques- 

 tions of policy were referred, and to its disinterested service Horticulture 

 owes a great debt. That its existence has been rendered permanent 

 by Lord Lee is of good augury for the future of intensive cultivation. 

 As an instance of the judicial temper in which this Committee attended 

 to its business I may mention that when an Order — the Silver Leaf 

 Order — was under discussion the only objection to its terms on the 

 part of the fruit-growers on the Committee was that the restrictive 

 measures which it contemplated were not drastic enough : a noteworthy 

 example of assent to a self-denying ordinance. 



It may be asked What are the subjects in which growers require 

 ■education? To answer that question fully would require an Address in 

 itself. Among those subjects, however, mention may be made of a 

 few : the extermination or top-grafting of unthrifty fruit, the proper 

 spacing and pruning of fruit-trees, the use of suitable stocks, sys- 

 tematic orchard- spraying, the use of thrifty varieties of bush fruit and 

 the proper manuring thereof, the choice of varieties suitable to given 



