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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



sulphur, burning affected parts, spraying with Bordeaux mixture, 

 had all been tried as remedies, and now sulphide of potassium 

 seemed to be the great destroyer. Practical experiments, how- 

 ever, were the only reliable methods to depend upon, and he 

 thought Chiswick a place in which they should be conducted. 



The President said the Council had already considered the 

 question of making Chiswick a proper school of horticulture, and 

 a few years ago the matter had been thoroughly discussed, with 

 the result that certain difficulties were found to be in the way. 

 No doubt the County Councils were " squeezable " to a certain 

 extent, but as a rule these bodies wanted a quid pro quo for any 

 money which they expended. If some method of giving the 

 Councils a return could be devised, then something might possibly 

 be done. There was no doubt little progress would be made 

 until the question of diseases and how to meet them was taken 

 up more generally by gardeners. The Germans were ahead of 

 us in this respect, and they seemed to spare no pains in pro- 

 ducing expert chemists to study various diseases, and attached 

 great importance to their training. We, on the other hand, were 

 still satisfied with our old " rule of thumb " methods, while 

 America was going in for experiments on a large scale. If there 

 was any chance for the Society to improve matters he thought it 

 would do so, but it was useless to expect any help from the 

 Government. 



The Secretary of the Society, the Rev. W. Wiles, said that 

 he had received a great many letters from absent members of the 

 Committees, expressing regret at their not being able to be present 

 that day, and he asked leave to read two of them, coming, as 

 they did, from such diverse places and persons, viz., from Mon- 

 sieur Henry de Vilmorin, in Paris, and from Mr. Malcolm Dunn, 

 in Dalkeith. M. de Vilmorin wrote :" . . . . In my opinion the 

 tests of garden varieties of plants, as they are at present conducted, 



would alone suffice to make Chiswick eminently useful " 



Mr. Malcolm Dunn wrote : " .... I do not know the views that 

 are held by the Council upon the ' better utilization ' of Chiswick 

 Gardens, but whatever may be suggested, I sincerely hope nothing 

 will be done to spoil their great value as an independent testing 

 centre for the horticultural productions, new and old, of the 

 country. Whatever is said to the contrary by cranks and self- 

 interested and disappointed people, the gardens have been, and 



