ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING. 



V 



Our " Book of Arrangements " will have raised hopes that the Chelsea 

 Exhibition Meeting, a very popular " Annual " of the Society, will be arranged, 

 and I have now the great pleasure to tell you that this will take place on 

 May 20, 21, and 22. 



It has been thought best not to attempt the Summer Meeting at Holland 

 House this year. There are certain Military difficulties still in the way ; and, 

 moreover, it would follow too quickly on a Floral Fete which is to be held at 

 Chelsea on June 24, 25, and 26 by the Committee of our War Relief Fund, to 

 winch it is hoped that Fellows will give their most cordial support by their own 

 presence and that of all their friends. 



When the Society's Hall will be released by the War Office from Military 

 occupation and again made available for our own use is still uncertain ; but it 

 may be confidently hoped that this will be so in ample time for the Society's 

 Meetings in 1920, and that the Society's patriotic self-sacrifice, throughout the 

 War, will have then achieved its purpose — help to Victory and Peace. 



Fellows will be interested in a correspondence which has passed between 

 our Secretary and Professor Fairchild, of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, in which the latter complimentarily refers to the far-reaching and 

 most valuable influence of your Society. 



It will be remembered that at the last Annual Meeting a resolution was 

 carried by the Fellows that an effort should be made by the Council to obtain 

 from the Food-Controller for Home-Growers of Fruit sufficient sugar for the 

 preserving of their crops. This resolution I strongly supported on the strictly 

 economic ground that the result would benefit not only such private growers, 

 but the whole community, by encouraging land cultivation and food-production, 

 and by withdrawing such growers from competitive purchasing of jams in the 

 open market, thereby leaving more fruit — which is not only a food but a most 

 necessary and wholesome diet — for general buyers. The Council at once 

 appointed a Deputation, which I had the honour to introduce to Lord Bledisloe, 

 the Chairman of the Sugar-Control Department, who, convinced by the argu- 

 ments addressed to him, made the provision asked of him, and thus preserved 

 the crops, especially the exceptionally large one of Blackberries, and so enriched 

 many a household, and established a precedent which we quite hope to induce 

 His Lordship to follow again this season, in the national interest no less than 

 in that of our Fellows, for whom we shall again attend and argue by a similar 

 Deputation. Then, may we again be able to say : " Jam satis ! "* (Laughter.) 



I now welcome the presence among us to-day of a very representative French 

 Horticulturist in M. Truffaut, of Versailles, whom we shall be glad to hear, and 

 I assure through him, as myself an Officer of the Legion of Honour of France 

 and an active advocate of L' Entente Cordiale, as well as for many years a French 

 Citizen, and a Juror at the Floral and Fruit Exhibitions in Paris, at the Cour 

 La Reine, our most cordial sentiments of friendship with France and with 

 Frenchmen. (Loud applause.) 



Finally, it is my very pleasant privilege to award two of the Society's Medals. 

 There is, happily, only one vacancy in our Roll of the Victoria Medal of Honour 

 (V.M.H.) this year, and that Gold Medal has been bestowed by the Council 

 upon Sir Frank Crisp, Bt., whom all our V.M.H.s and myself will welcome as a 

 colleague and as a notable collector of Alpine and Rock plants in his Henley 

 garden. 



The Lawrence Medal has been awarded to Messrs. Sutton & Sons for the 

 excellent quality and great educational value of their wonderful exhibits of 

 summer-sown vegetables. If ever a Medal was well deserved it is this one, for 

 Messrs. Sutton are not merely constant exhibitors at our Meetings, but their 

 exhibits are always of the very first quality. 



Now, I have to move formally from the Chair, on behalf of the Council of 

 the Society, the adoption of our Annual Report and Accounts, and, in doing so, it 

 is both my desire and my duty to pay the highest tribute to that most " Admirable 

 Crichton," our Secretary, the Rev. Mr. Wilks, and his assistant, Mr. Gaskell, 

 and also to Mr. Chittenden, Mr. Wright, Mr. Reader, and our Staffs both in 

 London and at Wisley, who are too numerous to name individually, but who have 

 not only surmounted immense and innumerable difficulties during the War, but 

 have also made possible and prosperous the great services of the Society for its 

 Fellows and for the Nation, for no work has been of greater national importance 

 and utility. (Applause.) 



The adoption of the Report was seconded by Sir John Llewelyn, Bart., 

 who remarked upon its excellence and the vast amount of work it represented 



* The Deputation has since attended, and even a more liberal allowance of 

 sugar has been made for the coming fruit season. 



