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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



below the cost of production and transportation the shipper must bear 

 the loss. This places the long-distance gardener in a very precarious 

 position. At certain periods in the year, when the market first becomes 

 available to him, prices are, as a rule, remunerative ; but as the fields of 

 production become nearer and nearer to the centres of consumption, 

 through the change of the seasons, it is evident that the grower most 

 distant from the market will be at a disadvantage in comparison with 

 the producer who has a shorter distance to bring his products. It 

 therefore requires a very keen insight into the demands of the market as 

 well as a varied knowledge of the limitations of the seasons in any 

 given locality in order to determine with a fair degree of accuracy the 

 variety and amount of any crop to grow. The time for planting and 

 harvesting a particular crop in any given locality must be thoroughly 

 understood. 



Along floricultural lines tastes are changing, though somewhat slowly. 

 The rose, the carnation, and the chrysanthemum hold the popular atten- 

 tion. Roses and carnations are considered necessary accessories to all 

 social functions, and are standard decorative fiowers throughout the whole 

 year. Violets perhaps stand third in the list of commercial plants in the 

 American trade list ; while the chrysanthemum, during its reign from 

 September to December, is supreme. Commercial florists grow them by 

 the thousands, amateurs give special attention to the production of single - 

 stem blooms or to pot plants bearing as many as 100 or more blooms, and 

 some who are especially ambitious resort to inarching for the purpose of 

 producing upon a single root as many as twenty-five or fifty or more 

 varieties. The chrysanthemum shows or exhibitions which take place 

 annually in every large city, and which have grown up in the last twelve 

 or fifteen years, serve as an index of the popularity and importance, both 

 from a commercial and amateur's standpoint, of this remarkable flower. 



One of the important agencies which cannot be passed without com- 

 ment, which is now at work in this country, the influence of which will be 

 felt in later generations, is the movement now taking place throughout the 

 educational world to bring the so-called " nature study " or school-garden 

 work into, and making it a feature of, the instructional work of the com- 

 mon and graded schools. Every child who has attained the age of seven 

 is brought in direct contact with natural objects and is unconsciously 

 taught the wonders and beauty of life as exemplified in the green grass, 

 the unfolding bud, and the expanded leaf. This work of popular educa- 

 tion has not yet become fully developed — in fact it is not fully under way. 

 It has made a start and is rapidly growing in popularity ; each year 

 records a decided increase in the amount of attention given to this par- 

 ticular phase of the aesthetic as well as of the scientific education of the 

 little people. The results of the seeds which are now being sown in the 

 fertile soil of the juvenile minds of America can only be measured when 

 they shall develop fruit in the decoration of the homes, the embellishment 

 of the parks and gardens, and the extension of pubhc improvements of 

 future generations. Those who have given this subject most thought and 

 attention, and who are most deeply interested in it, feel that time alone 

 will show the fruits of this labour. 



Another important factor which has been recently developed in America, 



