126 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 16, 1S64. 



days in the course of eight years. I have kept notes during 

 this period sufficiently to ascertain this, and for the last four 

 years with great care. — T. Collings Bkehatjt, Richmond 

 Souse, Ouemsey. 



SLE JOSEPH PAXTOX ON THE EOYAL 



HOETICULTUEAL SOCIETY'S EXHIBITION. 



The following letter has been addressed to the Assistant 

 Secretary by Sir Joseph Paxton, M.P. : — 



" 7, Pall Mall East, London, July 20, 1864. 



" Sie, — Having been requested to give my opinion as to 

 the nature and character of Exhibitions which the Royal 

 Horticultural Society should encourage for the true advance- 

 ment of Horticulture and its accompanying sciences, I have 

 drafted out this letter, in order to form a foundation, or data, 

 on which this matter can be discussed, and I trust with a 

 good result. 



" 1. No doubt the result of the Society's Exhibitions has, 

 in many respects, been very advantageous to the cause of 

 Horticulture, particularly the earlier ones. They have encour- 

 aged great improvements in the culture and management of 

 plantSj particularly in such plants as can be produced in 

 flower at what may be called the London fashionable season ; 

 but they have by no means been productive of unmixed gcod. 

 They have brought into existence an unnatural and artificial 

 condition of things, which is not only objected to in the in- 

 terest of gardeners themselves, but is also opposed to the 

 interests of the public, by causing what may be termed a 

 spasmodic effort and exertion, which at other seasons of the 

 year is unemployed and, to a great degree, unproductive. I 

 may illustrate this by stating that a good many years ago 

 (and the same state of things now exists to a certain extent), 

 I called to see a first-class London garden, forgetting that 

 it was one of the exhibition days, and I found only about 

 six or eight plants in the garden, the others having all been 

 trained, like a horse, for racing, and had been taken to the 

 show to win the stakes. In the same season, some time 

 after this, I called again, and found the plants, having been 

 their round of racing, all flowerless, and beginning to be 

 placed under training for the next season for the same pur- 

 pose ; and this training was effected by keeping some plants 

 back and forcing others, so that they might all flower toge- 

 ther, and such plants as would not bear this treatment were 

 not cultivated. 



" 2. Every one, of course, says he has a right to do what 

 lie likes with his own plants, which I do not deny ; and if a, 

 gentleman does not mind being ten months in the year with- 

 out flowers in order to make this great display, I have no 

 fault to find with him ; all I contend for is, that should not 

 be the main aim and scope of the Exhibitions of the Horti- 

 cultural Society. In one respect the Exhibitions of the pre- 

 sent day have produced a good result by giving prizes for 

 collections of beautiful-fbliaged plants, as the culture of 

 these plants, which look beautiful all the year round, is 

 thus stimulated, and they are a great improvement in the 

 garden. 



"3. But in other respects these great show-cultivators 

 grow very few plants which do not flower at the show sea- 

 sons, and therefore leave the flowers which might be culti- 

 vated with great effect for other seasons of the year without 

 much attention. 



"4. The true object of Horticulture should be, in my 

 opinion, to increase the enjoyment derivable from it, and to 

 diffuse it as widely as possible ; to enable the owners of 

 gardens to get the greatest amount of pleasure and satis- 

 faction from their possessions ; and to enable the general 

 public to procure the greatest number of fruit, flowers, and 

 vegetables in the greatest quantity, of the best kinds, and 

 at the cheapest prices. 



" 5. In order to carry out this, there should be something- 

 like a continuous exhibition, so that a gardener would have 

 no interest in forcing his plants unnaturally into flower; 

 but if he had a beautiful specimen at any time he would 

 know he could exhibit it where it would be seen and appre- 

 ciated, and its merits rewarded. When the Horticultural 

 Society was in its palmy day3, one of its great sources of 

 benefit and attraction was the fortnightly shows at their 

 great room in Regent Street. It was then the practice for 



any gentleman in the country, if he had a new plant or a 

 new fruit, to send it to one of these exhibitions at any time 

 in the year, and the nurserymen brought every new plant 

 there from their respective establishments. Dr. Lindley 

 explained the nature and properties of everything as it 

 appeared in each exhibition in his lucid and agreeable 

 manner, in which on this subject he has no rival, and these 

 meetings were intensely fashionable, and often densely 

 crowded. 



"6. When the Horticultural Gardens at Chiswick were 

 the leading gardens in the country for new plants, many 

 gardens were supplied thence, and so they were never 

 without great interest. They could not trust altogether to 

 country gentlemen and nurserymen for plants for exhibition, 

 and when the entries were deficient the shows were made up 

 of beautiful plants from the Horticultural Gardens, though 

 then a certificate of merit from the Society meant something, 

 and was prized at a high rate ; it insured the sale of any 

 plant which received it, and often practically represented a 

 prize of some hundreds of pounds sterling, as many nursery- 

 men had orders before the exhibition closed for very large 

 amounts. It therefore appears to me that these fortnightly 

 exhibitions should be renewed at once, and every attraction 

 given to them ; and, considering the increase of commercial 

 transactions relating to Horticulture, the facility of carrying 

 anything from a distance, and the great influx of visitors 

 into London in the season for a temporary sojourn for the 

 spring and summer months, it would be well to try a weekly 

 exhibition without the descriptions, which, in point of fact, 

 would almost amount to a continual show; and they should 

 be held in a place suitable for plants, where many nursery- 

 men would not mind allowing them to remain all the time 

 they were in full flower. One or two of the great shows 

 might be still held in the Gardens, where the fashionables 

 could attend to show themselves and look at each other, 

 which they do on these occasions quite as much as at the 

 flowers. 



" 7. It would be too much in a letter of this sort to go 

 into details as to how many branches of Horticulture have 

 remained stagnant for many years past; though it would 

 not be irrelevant, it would occupy more space and time 

 than I can now afford to give to it. But there is one subject 

 that has pressed upon me so long, and I am so convinced of 

 its damaging effects upon the commercial part of the supply 

 of the finer fruits in the public market, that I cannot help 

 reverting to it in this letter, and that is, the growth of fruits 

 for sale by private establishments, in competition with the 

 market gardeners. Many gentlemen keep gardens, partly 

 for their own use, and partly for the sale of the produce, 

 which they sell to cover part of the gardening expenses ; and 

 this is done to a very large extent, and by some of the 

 highest private garden establishments in the country. The 

 result is, that fruit, with all the facilities of cheap glass and 

 cheap coal all over the country (compared with forty years 

 ago) is absolutely dearer than it was forty years since : while 

 the produce of real market gardens is perhaps 50 per cent, 

 cheaper, and 100 per cent, better, the forced fruits in which 

 the private establishments compete have made very little 

 progress in goodness. If you went to Covent Garden 

 Market between thirty and forty years ago and looked at 

 the fruit, you would find the fine Grapes were grown by 

 Mr. Andrews, the great market gardener at Vauxhall, Mr. 

 John Wilmot, of Isleworth,- or some other good market 

 gardener of the day : whereas, if you gp there now, the 

 same kind of fruit is from some private garden; and suppos- 

 ing a large quantity of fruit is wanted for a big party, none 

 of the great fruiterers will undertake to supply you until 

 they have written or telegraphed to some private establish- 

 ments to know what they can get. 



" 8. The first question that naturally strikes you is, How 

 is the public worse o'.' for this change ? I can answer this, 

 I think, to everbody's conviction, in a few words : A private 

 establishment will very often sell in the early season 1 lb. 

 ©f Grapes or a dozen Peaches, regardless of cost, at a price 

 which it would ruin a market gardener to attempt. This 

 price will content a private gentleman who does not know 

 the cost of growing them, but competition at these prices 

 would ruin any market gardener, who is nearly deterred 

 from growing them at all; and, therefore, the regulation of 

 the supply of the market is left in the hands of these limited 



