MODERN PROGRESS IN HORTICULTURE. 



137 



Amongst the most potent factors of change and progress in nursery 

 management, so far as imported Orchids, bulbs, &c. are concerned, have 

 been the public or auction sales held in London, Liverpool, Manchester, 

 Birmingham, and other large towns. The expenses and risks of collecting 

 abroad and the lowering of prices consequent on competition both at 

 home and on the Continent, as combined with the effects of auction sales, 

 have revolutionised the nursery trade formerly done in these exotics and 

 other plants. 



The price of all nursery stock is lowered sooner or later by auction 

 sales ; but in the case of trees and shrubs, hardy plants, and Dutch flower 

 roots the effects are not so apparent, as the widespread public demand is 

 so enormous. In the case of Orchids, however, for which the demand is 

 comparatively limited, the effects were more immediately seen. As a 

 consequence Orchid collecting has been left in the hands of those who 

 import expressly for sales by auction, and one result has been that 

 those who can pay for glasshouses and fuel, and afford the necessary 

 attention and labour, may grow Orchids if they care to do so. An enor- 

 mous influx of new and beautiful home-raised seedlings and hybrid 

 Orchids is another result that has been encouraged by auction sales. In 

 other words new Orchids are now being raised by the thousand under- 

 glass roofs beneath an English sky. In this way the nurseryman can 

 protect himself and his creations. 



Good and beautiful as is the best of professional gardening in private- 

 places and nursery gardens, I think I may safely say that the greatest 

 upward horticultural progress has been made of late years in market 

 gardens, and especially those in which large areas are covered with glass, 

 and having all the modern " resources of civilisation " in the shape of 

 appliances for hastening, retarding, or otherwise growing and utilising 

 fruits, vegetables, and decorative plants and flowers. 



These glass -roofed market nurseries exist near all our large towns, 

 and they extend from the Land's End to John o' Groats. I never look 

 over one of these extensive glass-roofed gardens — like Rochford's at Old 

 Turn ford — without saying to myself that the demands of Covent Garden 

 and other large markets have led to some of the most remarkable phases 

 of horticultural perfection, both practical and economic, ever seen in 

 British horticulture. 



We all know the dictum of Adam Smith, who in writing his celebrated 

 " ^Yealth of Nations " in 1776 said market gardening was a poor calling, 

 because nearly all persons able to purchase garden produce were also able 

 to grow their own supplies. 



This was probably quite true at the time, but the growth of large 

 towns and manufactures, the increase of population, &c. have altered 

 things, and to-day, not only is there a good open market for edible 

 garden produce grown in England, but for imported fruit, vegetables, and 

 flowers to the annual value of many millions of pounds as well. 



To grow all our own cereals, meat, and milk products, and even our 

 own poultry, eggs, and honey, may be impossible — I do not say it really 

 is so, but we certainly ought to be able to grow a far larger proportion 

 of fresh fruit, vegetables, and flowers than we now do. 



High and able as is the cultivation in our best of private gardens 



