VISIT OF THE COUNCIL AND COMMITTEES TO AVOBUi;,N. CV 



have some reduction as I am a vegetarian.' Naturally, the landlady 

 replied with : ' Oh, then I suppose you are one of those new-fangled ones 

 what they call herbaceous boarders. Well, we don't take such as them 

 at all.' Our reception at Woburn Abbey has been very different from 

 that and has been greatly appreciated, and on behalf of my colleagues 

 on the Council of the Eoyal Horticultural Society and the other guests, 

 I return our most cordial thanks to the Duke and Duchess of Bedford 

 for their most kind invitation and for the opportunity of personally 

 observing most interesting and instructive experiments in the cultivation 

 of the various kinds and varieties of fruit trees. In this country, as 

 compared with the Continents of Europe and America, the State does 

 not do much in scientific horticultural directions, but leaves such matters 

 to individual enterprise and sacrifice, as at Woburn and Eothamsted, and 

 the opportunities of visits like this by practical horticulturists, such as 

 the members of the Council and Committee of the Eoyal Horticultural 

 Society, are a great national scientific service. Agriculture was the 

 most ancient of the arts which gained their name from the practice of 

 tilling. It was once the art, the art of ploughing, and art and science 

 are still at the root of agricultural progress and development. Those, 

 therefore, who, like the Duke of Bedford, open the portals of practical 

 science to the many who could not otlierwise enter them, create a 

 great and wide obligation, especially where, as at Woburn, they show in 

 actual and comparative operation cultural processes and effects extend- 

 ing over many years, and conducted with such scientific and skilled 

 direction and observation as that of Mr. Spencer Pickering, 

 who enables us to see the practical application of John Stuart Mill's 

 experimental methods applied to the cultivation of the fruits of the 

 earth, and scientifically tests and records the operations of Nature 

 and of the hands and instruments of man. For these, among 

 many other reasons, I will ask those who, thanks to our host 

 and hostess, the Duke and Duchess of Bedford, and to Mr. Spencer 

 Pickering, have enjoyed an instructive and intellectual as well as a most 

 delightful and generous day at Woburn Abbey, observing the beauties 

 of Nature and art, the effects of years of cultivation of trees under varied 

 conditioDS, rare animals in the park, and exotic fish in the lakes, to 

 show their heartfelt thanks." 



This toast of the health of their Graces the Duke and Duchess of 

 Bedford was received with great acclamation and enthusiastically 

 responded to. 



Luncheon was followed by a view of the interior of the abbey, with 

 its priceless treasures of art — pictures, furniture, and china; then a walk 

 through the adjoining grounds to the carriages which awaited the party 

 to drive it through the portion of the park containing the rare birds and 

 animals for which Woburn is renowned. In this way the fruit farm 

 was again reached, and, after further inspection, tea was served, and 

 the time arrived for the return journey to London. 



