pose a magnificent painting of the chief source of 

 the Amazon by Russel Smith was introduced, and 

 the greenhouses of Philadelphia contributed their 

 large specimen tropical plants. Heal water was in- 

 troduced to combine with the artificial stream in 

 the picture, and nature and art were so beautifully 

 bended as to produce an effect probably never lie- 

 fore seen " on any stage." The designing of this 

 beautiful scene is due chiefly to Mr. J. E. Mitchell, 

 one the Vice-Presidents of the Society. 



It may not be out of place here to show how this 

 successful effort ot the Horticultur 1 Society origi- 

 nated. For many years there has been a wish, on 

 the part of some of the members of the Society, 

 that it should have a hall of its own, — but the old 

 Chinese Museum suited the Society's purpose so 

 well that there was no chance of a new hall in 

 Philadelphia, of such a size, proving self-sust:.ining. 

 Mr. Caleb Cope, however, for so n any years one of 

 the most successful Presidents of the Society, per- 

 sistently advocated the "permanent home" policy. 

 After the burning of the Chinese Museum, Tx em- 

 bers became more united in this viev/, but no one 

 seemed to have nerve enough to maKC a start for 

 fear of fliilure in so stupendous an enterprise. The 

 first step gained was through the exertions of Messrs.- 

 Wm. Saunders, J. E. Mitchell, A. VV. Harrison, 

 D. K., King and perhar.s a few others who urged 

 the leasing, for a term of years, a large hall, which 

 should be, nominally at least, the Society's own. 

 This was done, but with fear and trembling on the 

 part of some, — but it proved a safe operation, and 

 the old " Plorticultural Hall'' was always a favorite 

 idea. For the annual exhibitions, however, an ex- 

 pense of some thousands had to be incurred for 

 temporary tents and fixings, and after one had been 

 thus held on the lot now built on, Miss Percival, a 

 lady lonx c nnected with the prosperity of the So- 

 ciety, expressed a wish that it could be purchased 

 and a permanent h 11 built on it. This was repeat- 

 ed, one evening, in the presence of half a dozen 

 gentlemen, Charles Harmer, S. S. Price, A. W. 

 Harrison, C. P. Hays, W. L. Schaffcr and perhaps 

 one or two more, and they resolved that it "should 

 be done," and commenced trying a^ once. In a 

 few daj's the idea took shape. The late Vice-Pre- 

 sident Baldwin gave a handsome subscription, and 

 others followed in proportion. Finding that they 

 could not raise enough money to budd so large and 

 handsome a building as was desirable by the aid of 

 the members of the Horticul ural Society alone, the 

 Legislature all wed them to issue certificates of 

 stock to outsiders, and as the Society will rent out 

 the hall for musical and other purposes, and wili 



223 



be, in all probability, a very profitable investment, 

 the money came in pretty well, so much so, that at 

 this writing there are probably not more than twen- 

 ty thousand dollar!? worth unsold. 



But the labor of carrying th . ough this great work 

 has been enormous, and has fallen on a few princi- 

 pal members who should ever receive the thanks ' 

 of horticulturists. Among those the President, J). \ 

 B. King; Secretary, A. W. Harri.^on ; have had a i 

 hard share, — and Messrs. Charles Harmer, J. E. ' 

 Mitchell, Thomas P. James, Charles P. Hays, W. 

 L. Schaffer and Miss Percival have been constant 

 in their efforts, — While amongst the nurs rymen 

 of Philadelphia, H. A.Dreer, Peter Mackenzie, Jas, 

 Bitchie and B bert Buisthave done a good share of 

 valuable service. 



Altogether the success of this enterprise shows 

 that in horticulture as in all th ngs else, "some 

 thing can e done as well as others," — all that is 

 wanted is a determined start and persistent appli- 

 cation, and the result will encourage horticulturists 

 all through the land to "go and do likewise." 



I-IAMMONTON (M, J.,) STUAWBEE^Y SHOW. 



Every student of English history has read of 

 the king who died through a "surfeit of straw- 

 berries." 



In our youth we were noted for a tendency to 

 unbelief unless in very straight forward s ories, and 

 we never could understand how any one could sur- 

 feit f f such " good things as strawberries." There | 

 might be " too much of a good thing" once in a | 

 while thought we, but not of strawberries. But 

 since we have seen these Hammonton strawberries 



e think even a king might die of too much of them. 



The people here talk of nothing but strawberries, 

 grow nothing but strawberries, eat nothing but 

 strawberries, can see nothing but strawberries, and 

 all they have to sell is strawberries. They sleep on 

 strawberries, and in short the strawberry is food, 

 drink and raiment to them. One thousand acres of 

 strawberries, and only 3000 inhabitants ! can any 

 place beat this? 



But they grow good strawberries, that is some 

 excuse for their enthusiasm. We have seen heavy 

 crops in our time, and we should judge from what 

 we saw there, 150 bushels to the acre, was not an 

 uncommon crop, and this not bad for a plot of land 

 which ten years ago would have been passed over 

 as " barren" sand. 



The average size of the berries was equal to wliat 

 we have seen on the best strawberry land, and as 

 to vaii?.ies it was remarkable to note that though 



