DIVISION III. 



FRUIT. 



This is always an important department in horticultural 

 exhibitions, and more particularly in the autumn, when the 

 tables are laden with the richest treasures of Pomona, culled 

 from the hothouse, garden, and orchard. In no other section 

 is there such keen and persistent competition, and the laudable 

 ambition of every good grower of fruit to win high honours 

 at first-class shows is a marked feature of the times. The 

 great enthusiasm displn3-ed, and the long anxiety and hard 

 toil cheerfully undergone by most cultivators who reap the 

 laurels in fruit competitions, are not excelled, if equalled, in 

 all other branches of gardening. The ever-increasing demand 

 for the very best fruit of every kind has led to a considerable 

 revival of the public interest in home-grown fruits, and the 

 culture of hardy fruits has received a great impetus during 

 the past decade, owing partly to the unremunerative nature 

 of agricultural crops and the desire to find something more 

 profitable than the growing of grain, and partly to the interest 

 which has been stirred up in the question by a series of Con- 

 ferences on Fruits, held at Ohiswick since 188.3 by the Royal 

 Horticultural Society of London, and at Edinburgh since 1885 

 by the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society. The former 

 Society has held Conferences and meetings on Apples, Pears, 

 Grapes, and other Fruits, at which their nomenclatvire was rec- 

 tified, the best varieties named, and the methods of culture 

 discussed, all of which has been embodied in the Reports of 

 the meetings issued by the Society, and form one of the most 

 valuable of pomological records in existence. The Scottish 

 Society held a Congi-ess on Apples and Pears in 1885, and on 

 Plums in 1889, and the mass, of practical information of the 



