HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITIONS AND SCHEDULES. 507 



After the statement that " no person shall be allowed to compete 

 as an amateur who cultivates plants (or other garden produce) 

 for sale," it is recommended that doubts as to the qualification of 

 an exhibitor be referred to the committee of the show for decision. 

 Very good advice it is, but unfortunately many committees find 

 it difficult to decide the point, and disputes appear to go on as 

 briskly as ever among the several persons interested. 



"What puzzles thousands of ardent lovers of small gardens in 

 which they work so diligently, and who regard themselves as true 

 amateurs (as they are), is that, as they say, such " professionals " 

 as Lord So and So's gardener can show in the same classes ag 

 themselves at the exhibitions of the Eoyal Horticultural Society. 

 They never think, for instance, of his Lordship as the real ex- 

 hibitor, employing a Mr. Capability Brown to grow garden pro- 

 duce for home use and pleasure, but not for sale, and hence the 

 eligibility of the products. But then it may be asked, and is 

 asked, " Is Lord Somebody Else an amateur, and eligible to 

 compete as such through his gardener, who grows produce for 

 sale in a depot in London?" According to the precise rules 

 of the Royal Horticultural Society he is not. His Lordship 

 could compete in an " open " class, and his gardeners in a class 

 for "professional gardeners" ; but if he staged in the amateur 

 classes, and a protest were lodged, it would be bound to be 

 sustained, and the exhibitor disqualified. 



A fact to be kept in mind in considering this amateur ques- 

 tion is that the rich can, and hundreds of them do, love gardening 

 as intensely as the relatively poor, and the comparatively poor 

 can, and happily thousands of them do, love it as ardently as 

 the relatively rich. We must for practical purposes divide them 

 into two intelligible sections — both rendering good service in a 

 common cause, namely — (1) Amateurs as patrons of garden- 

 ing. (2) Amateurs as the actual workers of their own gardens. 



The former may employ as many gardeners as they wish 

 provided they do not grow for sale. They are then well within 

 the meaning of the term "amateur," from the Latin aviator, a 

 lover of any particular art, but not profiting by it. The definition 

 of the second and larger section, for the purpose of exhibiting, 

 varies somewhat in different localities, but generally the qualify- 

 ing conditions are well set forth in the rules of the " National 

 Amateur Gardeners' Association " as follows ; — " No person shall 



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