MODERN PROGRESS IN HORTICULTl'IiK. 



185 



MODERN PROGRESS IN HORTICULTURE. 



By F. W. Burbidge, M.A., V.M.H. 



[A Paper read before the Horticultural Club.] 



" There never was a period when the science of gardening was so univer- 

 sally and so ardently cultivated as it is at present." This statement is 

 as true to-day as it was when Speechly wrote it in the preface of his 

 celebrated treatise on the Grape Vine, published in 1790 — over a cen- 

 tury ago. We must never forget, however, that individual opinions are 

 apt to be rosy or drab, according to the good or bad position or circum- 

 stance in which the individual who expresses them is placed for the time 

 being. Environment influences men's judgment, as it also does many 

 other things. 



The highest point to which any art or craft can rise is not altogether 

 expressed by the highest and best results attained by any one gifted 

 individual, or even by a small set of individuals, but rather by the highest 

 average excellence attained by the whole community. 



When we try to judge of horticultural progress, we must be clear as 

 to what the main premises really mean. We may also ask if garden pro- 

 gress has risen all along the main trunk or line, or whether some par- 

 ticular branches have not been improved and elevated to a higher standard 

 than ethers. 



Well, on the whole, I think that upward progress in all ways, 

 however great, has really been less than is generally supposed, and that 

 what many call progress is rather a wider diffusion or outspreading of 

 good culture. In a word we have probably a hundred good gardens 

 to-day for every ten good gardens of fifty years ago, this increase being due 

 to improved trade, better education, and other social and economic 

 conditions. 



The richest people in England to-day are not all aristocrats and 

 landlords, and many of our best present-day gardens really belong to 

 merchants and others connected with our manufactures and export or 

 import trade. 



When we look at the particular branches of horticulture we find that 

 there is nothing stable : everything is in a transition stage as the years go 

 by. Broadly speaking, it is best for horticulture that fashion and tastes, 

 or hobbies, should thus change from time to time. It brings into focus 

 new things, new interests, and affords opportunities for new and able men 

 of all classes. 



In the garden there are certain products that nearly all must have, 

 such as fruit and vegetables and hardy flowers ; and then there are things 

 which middle-class people may have, ending at the top of the ladder with 

 horticultural luxuries which only the rich can afford to grow or other- 

 wise obtain. 



In exotic flower culture especially change has been and is still rife. 



