Fefcruai-y 16, 1371. ] 



JOtJRNAIi OF EOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



119 



tem of holiliug annual country shows. This, too, is tlie first instance 

 in ■wliicli tlie Society, accepting the invitation of a locality, has ven- 

 tured to leave the support ■which the presence of Rie Koyal Agricul- 

 tural Society was supposed to give, and to trust to its own efforts and 

 attractions "for securiug a sufficient number of visitors to render the 

 eshibition self-supporting. The Council are happy to report that the 

 zeal of the horticulturists of Nottingham, and that strong love of 

 flower-culture which has rendered this city so celebrated, has already 

 raised the special prize fund to no less a sum than £500. 



5. The bequest of £2000 left to the Society by the late Mr. Alfred 

 Davis has been invested in Consols. One of the conditions of the 

 gift was that the interest of the money only should be applied to the 

 nses of the Society. In accordance with this condition the Council 

 have determined to apply the first proceeds from the interest of the 

 bequest to the purchase of a challenge cup, to be called the Davis 

 Challenge Cup, to be won for a certain number of years as a distinc- 

 tion for successful culture. The terms of competition will be published 

 shortly. 



6. The Council for some years past have felt serious concern at the 

 gi'adually increasing burden which has been thrown upon the funds of 

 the Society for rates and taxes. The charge is made upon an arbi- 

 traiy. assessment by the parish, and not in reference to the actual 

 returns as a garden. An intention of stUl further increasing the rates 

 last year was announced to the Society, but was resisted, and the 

 amount remains unaltered. 



7. The Scientific, Fruit and Floral Committees continue to do good 

 service to horticulture, and that of the most valuable kind. The 

 Council much regi-et that the accounts published of their proceedings 

 at a very serious cost to the Society seem to be little appreciated by 

 the great body of the Fellows. This is doubtless in some measure due 

 to the fact that their contents are necessarily anticipated by the horti- 

 cultural joui-nals ; but whatever the cause, the Council do not thini 

 that they would be justified in entering upon additional expenditure, in 

 order to secure a more rapid publication of information, which can 

 readily be obtained at a trifiing cost by those who watch the proceed- 



^ings of the Committees with interest. The publications of the Society 

 prove to be chiefly valuable for communication and exchange with 

 Societies and individuals abroad. The Council fear that, having 

 regard to the interests of the large majority of the Fellows and the 

 limited means of the Society, they have not yet found the best mode 

 of employing the funds which can be devoted to the publication of its 

 proceedings. This subject will occupy their earnest attention during 

 the present year. 



S. The collection of economic entomology continues to mahe pro- 

 cess, and the thanhs of the Society are due to the Fellows and their 

 friends, who from time to time send contributions. One of the latter 

 {who desires to be anonymous), has offered a sum of money in prizes 

 for the best collection of entomological objects. The nature and 

 arrangement of the objects to be submitted in competition are to be 

 defined by the Council, and they now have this matter under their con- 

 sideration. Mr. Andrew Murray has also undertaken to give sis 

 lectures during the coming season on economic and forest entomology. 

 Due notice will be given both of the dat-es of these lectures and of the 

 terms on which the prizes are offered. 



9. The most important question dealt with in the Report of the 

 Council to the last Annual General Meeting, was that of the Chiswick 

 Garden. In this case also the increase of rates and taxes pressed 

 very heavily, and these coupled with a large rental and the working 

 expenses of keeping up a garden far more extensive than corresponded 

 with the present requirements of the Society, had, indeed, become so 

 heavy as seriously to cripple its resources. The Council, therefore, 

 distasteful as they knew such a step would be to many of the Fellows 

 whose wishes and opinions were entitled to great weight, concluded, 

 after much consideration, that the wisest plan would be to endeavour 

 to obtain a small working garden in a purer atmosphere than that of 

 Chiswick, at some distance from London. The Annual General Meet- 

 ing having left the question to the decision of the Council, they pro- 

 ceeded to make inquiries, hut whilst engaged upon them His Grace 

 the Dake of Devonshire, in a most liberal spirit, expressed his readi- 

 ness, if the Society chose to remain at Chiswick, to accede to an 

 arrangement for the renunciation of the lease of a portion of the 

 garden ; and accordingly a new agreement was entered into with Hie 

 Grace, by which the garden is reduced from thirty-two acres to less 

 than twelve, and the rent has sustained a corresponding reduction. 

 The Council are of opinion that the thanks of the Society are due to 

 the Duke for the liberality with which he has treated them, both in 

 respect of rent and the terms on which the renewed lease is granted. 

 These terms leave to the Society the option of relinquishing Chiswick 

 ■whenever they shall judge it conducive to the success of its operations 

 to seek another garden. They, therefore, recommend to the meeting 

 to record a vote of thanks to His Grace. 



10. An immediate consequence of the reduction of the space under 

 cultivation at Chiswick has been a reconsideration of the principle on 

 which the collections of fruit trees should be maintained. The original 

 idea was to keep up a collection of all the kinds of fruit trees admit- 

 ting of cultivation in the English climate, and it is believed that at 

 one time it was nearly, if not quite, a perfect one. Of late years, 

 however, the increase of varieties has been so rapid, especially on the 

 Continent, that it has for some time past ceased to have any preten- 

 -sions to completeness, and a very large proportion consisted of inferior 



kinds rarely or never cultivated. The advisability of keeping worth- 

 less kinds has been often questioned, and the moment the collection 

 ceased to have pretensions to completeness, the chief argument in 

 favour of preserving condemned kinds vanished. The Council believe 

 that theii- action in having weeded out, under the advice of the Hor- 

 ticultural Directors, all those varieties which were unworthy of culti- 

 vation, will meet with the general approval of cultivators of the present 

 day. The preservation of the best kinds has been effected, partly by 

 transplanting and partly by grafting, with the success which usually 

 attends the skill of the Superintendent, Mr. Barron. Similar success 

 has attended the removal of the hardy perennials to the part of the 

 garden which has been retained. Some new borders flanking the great 

 conservatory are devoted to them, and new varieties are solicited from 

 the Fellows. The extensive collection of bedding Pelargoniums has 

 also been preserved. 



11. In accordance with arrangements which have been contemplated 

 since Mr. Eyles has, with a degree of success highly satisfactory to 

 him, entered upon the profession of a practising landscape gardener, 

 that officer' will this year cease to be the Superintendent of the Ken- 

 sington Garden, but he will still remain with the Society as the Super- 

 intendent of Exhibitions, a duty which is quite compatible with the 

 exercise of the profession he has engaged in. He will also remain as 

 a resident on the gi'ounds of the Society, and exercise a general super- 

 vision over them in the absence of Mr. Barron, who will continue to 

 reside at Chiswick, and undertake the superintendence of both gardens. 



12. The Council cannot omit from their Keport th& expression of 

 their expectation that the Annual International Exhibition, to be 

 opened on 1st May next, under the direction of Her Majesty' Exhibition 

 Commissioners, will tend greatly to the progress of the Society's 

 operations. The unfortunate circumstances of the French people at 

 the present moment must necessarily interfere materially with the 

 horticultural competition, which might otherwise have been expected 

 from that nation, but both Holland and Belgium intend to do their 

 best to contest the prize for successful culture with the British nation, 

 notwithstanding the disadvantages under which they must labour from 

 the difficulties of transit to this country. 



13. It is incumbent, also, on the Council again to draw attention to 

 the extent to which the Society's future welfare is bound up with the 

 success of the objects which Her Majesty's Commissioners are en- 

 deavouring in so liberal a spirit to carry out, and to urge them to give 

 to the Annual International Exhibitions their best support. A Society 

 consisting of upwards of 3000 members, of whom the large majority 

 hold a high position in the country, may do much to add to that large 

 measure of success which may reasonably be expected from so impoi- 

 tant an attempt to add to the prosperity of the arts and industries of 

 the nation. The Council have felt it right, believing that they were 

 carrying out the wishes of the body they represent, to meet the Com- 

 missioners in every point in which it appeared that the proposed 

 arrangements would conduce to the success of their great undertaking 

 — an undertaking, of which the Society will share the benefits, being 

 pecuniarily interested in the number of visitors to the Exhibition. 



14. It is perhaps unnecessary to remind the Society that its Fellows, 

 by the arrangements entered into with the Commissioners, have the 

 privilege of obtaining season tickets for the Annual International 

 Exhibitions at one guinea lees for each ticket than the price charged 

 to the public. These tickets, will admit both to the Fine Art and 

 Industrial Galleries on each side of the gardens, and to the Daily 

 Musical Performances in the Hall during the continuance of the 

 Exhibition. The following modification in the terms of arrangement 

 with the Commissioners respecting the use of the arcades being more 

 favourable to the Society than the original -propositions, the Council 

 had no hesitation in concurring in it. 



O^ce of H.M. Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851j 

 5, UpjJer Kensington Gore, London, W. 



Sir, — Referring to the terms of arrangement entered into between Her 

 Majesty's Commissioners for the Exhibition of ISol and the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society, for the use of the Society's Gardens by the visitors to 

 the forthcoming Annual International Exhibitions, I am directed by Her 

 Majesty's Commissioners to inform you, that during the progress of their 

 preparations for those Eshibitiont*, the following modifications of the 

 terms in question have suggested themselvesto the Commissioners, who, 

 thinking that if adopted tbcy would prove beneficial alike to the Com- 

 missioners and to the Society, have directed me to communicate them to 

 you for the consideration of yonr Council. 



In Article 1 it was agreed that the Society should give to the Com- 

 miasioners the use of the Northern Arcades, the Commissioners providing 

 in lieu thereof, for the use of the Society, a covered communication on 

 the roofs of those structures, between the Orchard House entrances and 

 the Conservatory. 



Her Majesty's Commissioners now propose that the Society should 

 retain the North Arcades, thus preserving their present and more con- 

 venient means of access to the Conservatory, and should give to the 

 Commissioners instead tbe exclusive use of the Eastern and Western 

 Arcades, which would be enclosed, at the expense of the Commissioners, 

 bv a light trelhs-work fence. The covered communication over the 

 North Arcades, which has been erected by the Commissioners in com- 

 pliance with Article 1, would then be used by them as a means of access 

 to the Royal Albert Hall, and to the wings of the Exhibition Galleries, 

 the communication being completed by means of a passage along the 

 back part of the Gallery of the Conservatory. 



As the Commissioners have acquired from Her Majesty's Government 

 the temporary use of the South Arcades, they also propose, as a part of 

 this nfcw arrangement, to construct a passage beneath the Conncil-room 

 of the Society, and thus to complete the circuit of the Gardens. 



With reference to Article 8 of the terms of arrangement, securing to 



