X PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to cultivate an allotment garden well, shall be enabled to do so. Whether 

 the actual present allotments can in all cases be continued depends on many 

 different considerations, but the Council are unanimous in expressing their 

 opinion that so far as accessible land can be found, an allotment garden ought 

 to be available for even' man in this country who, having no garden attached 

 to his dwelling, desires one ; and that the provision of them ought to be made 

 out of National Funds, and with fairness and even with generosity towards 

 the present land-owners. The President and Council are convinced that such 

 provision of National Allotment Gardens to all who desire them and work 

 them well will be of inestimable value to the country at large in promoting 

 the health, and happiness, and well-being of the community in general. 



7. Publications. — The Society's War Publications, Pamphlets, and Leaflets 

 have continued to be in demand. After the very heavy issue of 1917 and the 

 first four months of 1918, it was no little relief to the office staff to know 

 that their immediate purpose had, in the main, been accomplished, and some 

 little falling off from the previous demand for them gave welcome relief from the 

 heavy strain which the Publications Department had borne during the previous 

 months. 



8. The Society's Influence. — It is often felt that Fellows are insufficiently 

 acquainted with the far-reaching influence of the Society. Its correspondence 

 has, certainly for the last thirty years, been world-wide, and its Journal and 

 other publications are read even in the remotest parts of the earth wherever 

 a Botanic station or a garden of any pretension exists. In this connexion 

 Fellows will be gratified to know that the influence of the work the}'' have 

 been doing through the Society for the War has not been confined to Great 

 Britain only. Its influence has reached forth across the Atlantic to the Senate 

 of the United States, where letters from the Society, written in 191 7, were 

 read to the Members present and called forth the following replies from Dr. 

 David Fairchild, to whom the communications were addressed : — 



" United States Department of Agriculture, 



" Washington, D.C., February 19, 1918. 



" Dear Mr. Wilks, — Your letter of January 11 came in the nick of time, as 

 we say in this country. 



" A Bill was being introduced in Congress for the erection of Community 

 and Experimental Drying-plants, and I took the liberty of reading to the 

 Senate that portion of your letter dealing with the subject of public store- 

 houses, and the canning and drying of vegetables. The citations from your 

 letter added weight to the arguments which I presented. 



" Very sincerely yours, 



" David Fairchild, 

 " Agricultural Explorer in Charge." 



" Washington, D.C., July 6, 1918. 



" My dfar Mr. Wilks, — I have been so rushed with other matters that I 

 have not shown you the courtesy of acknowledging the receipt of your very 

 remarkable letter with regard to the situation as you see it from your point 

 of advantage as Secretary of the Royal Horticultural Society. I have taken 

 the liberty of using extracts from your letter in an appeal which we are 

 sending to all those who receive regularly our bulletin. . . . Copies of this 

 have gone out to about 250,000 people, and we are now running a second edition. 

 It will also be published in the National Geographic Magazine, which has a 

 circulation of 600,000, and extracts from it have appeared in many of the 

 largest magazines of this country. I presume that before the season is in 

 full swing five or six million people will have had a chance to read it. 



" If you, alter reading the bulletin, have an)' suggestions to make, they 

 will be most keenly appreciated by us. 



" Very sincerely yours, 



" David Fairchild, 

 " Agricultural Explorer in Charge." 



Letters of grateful appreciation from Fellows and others for the work of 

 the Society, and the influence it exercises, are received almost daily ; but when 

 the Society is found to have influenced so important a body as the Senate of 

 the United States, and on such an important topic, it justifies special attention 

 and permanent record. As our American cousins have so ably assisted in 



