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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



VEGETABLE CONFERENCE. — Third Day, Sept. 26, 1889. 

 Mr. Shirley Hibberd, F.R.H.S., in the Chair. 



THE FOOD OF VEGETABLES. 

 By Mr. J. Wright, F.R.H.S. 



Whatever difference of opinion may exist in respect to methods 

 of procedure, all will agree that before vegetables can be used as 

 food they themselves must be fed. Food is the motive power of 

 growth, and just in proportion as the food is suitable in quantity 

 and kind, in the same proportion will the crops be satisfactory 

 for the purpose for which they are grown ; or, in other words, 

 they will contain the desired properties and flavour that are pecu- 

 liar to the different kinds when produced and prepared in the 

 best condition. 



It is necessary to allude briefly to the qualifying " condition," 

 for few persons can have had many years' experience in growing 

 vegetables without becoming aware that all the care and skill, 

 and even success, of the cultivator may count for little through 

 the ignorance of the girl in the scullery, and the want of care, if 

 not something more, of her superior the cook. It is due both to 

 gardeners and the owners of gardens to mention this, not with 

 the object of suggesting an excuse for any shortcomings on the 

 part of the former, but in the interest of fairness, justice, and 

 truth. 



I am not aware of any achievement of which a gardener has 

 more reason to be proud than that of supplying the different 

 vegetables in season of the highest order of excellence, and I have 

 a strong conviction that the man who does this will not be far 

 behind in anything he may undertake in other departments, if 

 a fair chance is afforded him. But all men cannot succeed 

 equally in high-class vegetable production. All do not, and 

 cannot, work under equal conditions. Physical obstacles, such 

 as work preponderating over workers, and natural sterility of soil, 

 are much more formidable obstacles in some cases than in others. 

 But even with no great differences in those respects there may 

 be far from uniformity in results. Some persons fail, more or 



