Viii PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



REPORT OF THE COUNCIL FOR THE YEAR 1918. 



1. The Year 1918. — In issuing the one hundred and fifteenth Report of 

 the Society, the President and Council feel that they have very great cause 

 to congratulate the Fellows, not only on the conclusion of the most terrible 

 war which this country (or indeed any other country) has ever had the 

 misfortune to have been forced to engage in, but also on the fact that, not- 

 withstanding the financial strain which has fallen upon all classes of the 

 community, the Society itself has been able to weather the storm, and even 

 in this last year to restore, to some slight extent, its numbers, which the 

 first year of the War had so greatly depleted. 



Through the Food Production Department, the Government have made 

 great use of the Society's experience and organization, and the President and 

 Council have been only too glad to place themselves and their officers at the 

 Government's disposal. This has added vastly to the work of the office, but 

 the whole of the staff have wrought with a will to make themselves thoroughly 

 useful in the hour of their country's necessity, and the President and Council 

 have the satisfaction of knowing that the prestige of the Society never stood 

 higher than it does at the present moment in every part of the Empire. 



2. R.H.S. Food Production Campaign. — It will be remembered that the 

 Director-General of Food Production enlisted the Society's organization and 

 technical staff for the work of his Department when it was first set up early 

 in 1917. Dr. F. Keeble, F.R.S., C.B.E., the Director of the Society's Gardens 

 at Wisley, was released to take the post of Director of the Horticultural Section, 

 and subsequently Controller of Horticulture, in the Food Production Depart- 

 ment : whilst Mr. F. J. Chittenden, V.M.H., the Head of the Laboratory and 

 Technical Instruction at the Gardens, Mr. S. T. Wright, the Superintendent, 

 and other members of the Wisley Staff, have also rendered most useful services 

 of a special nature. This work has been steadily continued during the past 

 year with the object of increasing the fruit and vegetable production of the 

 country. 



3. R.H.S. Panel. — The Society's Panel of Expert Garden Advisers, which 

 now contains 2,000 names enrolled upon it, has also rendered inestimable 

 services, the full extent of which can never be actually determined. Their 

 periodical reports clearly indicate the influence they have exercised by the 

 lectures, demonstrations, and instructions they have given to those who have 

 been growing their own vegetables during the years of the War. 



4. Special Lecturers. — Similarly the work done by the Society's Special 

 County Representatives and Lecturers (32 in number) cannot fail to be pro- 

 ductive of good and enduring results. After attending a ten days' Conference 

 at the Society's Gardens at Wisley, these Lecturers were sent forth all over 

 the country. The object of the Conference was to discuss the best methods 

 of growing food-stuffs in gardens and allotments, and the Lecturers were thus 

 brought to a uniform line of instruction, so that all might be teaching the 

 same general principles and practice of cultivation. A Report made by the 

 Society to the Director-General of Food Production on the work of the twelve 

 months ending March 191 8, showed that over 400 lectures had been delivered 

 by them during the winter of 191 7-1 8, and that no fewer than 39,000 people, 

 mostly cottagers and allotment holders, had attended them. 



Both this and the Panel work has involved a very large amount of labour 

 and thrown considerable strain upon the organizing staff at Vincent Square. 

 The work of the Special Lecturers is being continued on still wider lines during 

 this passing /inter, but the complete figures will not be available till the 

 end of March. 



The figures given in the preceding paragraphs do not include the lectures 

 given by Mr. Chittenden, V.M.H., the Head of the Wisley Educational 

 Department, who has been in great demand all over the country for lectures 

 of a specially high order. His work in this.direction has been very influential 

 and has gone far to establish the pre-eminence of the Society's teaching staff. 

 Amongst the centres at which his Courses of Lectures have been delivered 



