FOUETEENTH EXHIBITION OF COLONIAL-GROWN FRUITS. CCXXXiii 



there is any danger in fruit-eating, providing the fruit is in good con- 

 dition and of good quahty. Therefore I regard it as true that fruit- 

 growing should be stimulated as being one of the pleasantest and most 

 wholesome of our industries, whether carried on here or in the 

 Colonies. 



The public has a great deal to learn yet about fruit in order to 

 discriminate between the different qualities ; and the more we dis- 

 criminate the more it will tend to produce good qualities. Here, in 

 this Hall, we are not in a position to test the flavour of all the fruit 

 shown ; but I would appeal to you all, whether you have ever seen a 

 more magnificent Fruit Exhibition than this which has been brought 

 here to-day. Look at the exhibit from British Columbia, which has 

 already, I believe, gained a prize in the face of great competition in 

 America as well as in Canada. Does it not make one feel what a 

 beneficent thing the action of the sun is in those lands when we see 

 such wonderful colour ! We in London, especially, may envy such a 

 sight as that which now lies before us. Then New Brunswick and 

 the West Indies. The West Indies produce fruit which comes into 

 competition not at all with the home market nor with Canadian fruit. 

 The West Indies produce Grape-fruit and Limes ; Grape-fruit is 

 becoming more and more popular, and it comes into competition with 

 nothing else. With regard to Dominica I am glad to be able to say 

 that I have later news than even our President has. Their exhibit 

 has already left Waterloo Station and will be here very soon. 



I should like to compliment the Eoyal Horticultural Society on the 

 success that has attended these Exhibitions. The Society is promoting, 

 encouraging, and developing one of the most wholesome recreations a 

 man can have, and that is, gardening; it is a long time since Lord 

 Bacon said that God Almighty first planted the garden an^ gave us 

 the purest of human pleasures. In the last two generations the 

 pleasure of gardening has developed enormously in this country, and 

 that is very greatly due to the action of the Eoyal Horticultural 

 Society; and more than ever we need, as one of our human needs, 

 gardening as a recreation to-day. The Fruit Exhibition could not be 

 held under better auspices than those of the Eoyal Horticultural 

 Society, and I can only, in conclusion, express a desire for the success 

 —the increasing success— of such exhibitions. They must be a source 

 of great gratification to the President, who has presided at so many of 

 these exhibitions which have done so much, and to whom we owe so 

 much. I congratulate the Society on having added to its other work 

 that of exhibiting Colonial fruits, which I hope will go on year after 

 year with increasing success. 



I have much pleasure in declaring the Exhibition open. 



The President announced that the Council of the Society had 

 awarded an entirely unprecedented award— a Hogg Memorial Medal 

 in gold— to the fruit collection of British Columbia. The late Dr. 

 Bobert Hogg was a very great fruitarian, and some few years ago 



