6 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Although the season 1888 was not by any means a favourable 

 one — the crops of fruit throughout the country being in general 

 considerably below the average — the exhibition at the Conference 

 was nevertheless one of great merit, and proved a decided suc- 

 cess both as regards the quantity and the quality of the fruit. 

 Seventy-three of the most prominent fruit-growers, both among 

 amateurs, market-gardeners, and nurserymen, took part in the 

 exhibition ; and the number of dishes of apples staged amounted 

 to 2,690, filling the large conservatory and the greater portion of 

 a tent on the lawn. 



The Committee, being divided into sections, made a careful 

 examination of the different exhibits, and corrected any errors 

 of nomenclature that were observed. The general correctness in 

 this respect was especially noticeable, and as being, to a great 

 extent, the result of the Society's labours in the 1883 Con- 

 gress, this was extremely gratifying. Special Certificates were 

 also awarded by the Committee to the most noteworthy ex- 

 amples of culture selected from the whole of the exhibits. A 

 list of these awards will be found in the body of the Report. 



Of necessity the varieties staged by the exhibitors in the 

 various classes were, in many instances, repetitions one of 

 another, but it has not been considered necessary in this Report 

 to enumerate these repetitions. 



An audit of the varieties exhibited places Warner's King at 

 the top of the list — 78 dishes of this variety having been staged 

 as against Blenheim orange 74, and King of the Pippins 71. 

 The total number of distinct varieties exhibited amounted 

 to 1,496. Of the newer varieties which seem to be steadily 

 advancing in public favour may be named Prince Bismarck, The 

 Queen, Bramley's Seedling, Lane's Prince Albert, Annie Eliza- 

 beth, Gascoigne's Seedling, Lady Henniker, and Peasgood's 

 Nonesuch. 



The Report of the 1883 Congress, entitled "British Apples," 

 prepared by Mr. A. F. Barron, having been for some time out of 

 print, and many of the most valuable statistics that it contained 

 having been incorporated with the present Report, it may be 

 well to point out that that Congress owed its origin to the 

 unusually abundant crop of all sorts of Apples in the year 1883. 

 So large was the crop and so fine the fruit that it attracted 

 attention on all sides, and it was at once recognised by the 

 R. H. S. to be an opportunity which should not be lost for 

 correcting any mistakes in the names, &c., of the large and im- 

 portant standard collection of Apples in the Society's Gardens 

 at Chiswick. At the same time it was felt that if, for the pur- 

 pose of such verification and comparison, examples of fruit could 

 be gathered together from all parts of the country and be 

 exhibited publicly, the occasion might be made one of the 

 greatest value and interest to all Apple growers in the United 

 Kingdom. 



