500 JOUENAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and if it told A he might show as an amateur, A is in no way to 

 blame for doing so, and all protests by B are useless. But it can 

 never be either politic or right for a committee to depart from its 

 own rules. They must always be literally and strictly interpreted 

 according to the genius of the English language. If the rule is wrong, 

 revise it by all means on the first possible occasion; call a special 

 meeting of the Society, if needs be; but a rule, so long as it exists, 

 should be adhered to. The E.H.S. Code of Eules for Judging says, 

 " The Eules and Eegulations under which the Show is held cannot 

 too clearly be stated" (Sec. 25). Even " Alterations in the arrange- 

 ments should be avoided, except in cases of actual necessity, and then 

 every possible means of publicity should be resorted to for making them 

 generally known " (Sec. 26). 



Whilst considering disputes between committees and exhibitors, 

 I feel bound to notice another most unfortunate and frequent source 

 of trouble. An exhibitor has worked with diligence and care to pro- 

 duce prize stuff, and has attained a leading position, say, as a grower 

 of vegetables, in the district. Year after year he carries off all the 

 first prizes in the vegetable classes. Perhaps jealousy, and certainly 

 disappointment, takes hold of his fellow-competitors, and they leave 

 off, or threaten to leave off, showing against him. Fear, for the future 

 success of the Show and the Society, at once springs up in the minds 

 of the committee. They find — or if they cannot find, possibly they 

 manufacture — a reason for disqualifying or excluding the too success- 

 ful exhibitor; and they think to have saved the Show, but by a 

 somewhat unjust, or at least a questionable act. Eather should they 

 have sought, by a remodelling of the Schedule, to have overcome the 

 difficulty of the position. So many ways offer themselves. For 

 example, exhibitors can be restricted to a stated number of classes 

 (say eight or ten, or any other number), leaving an ample number for 

 less successful growers to compete in; or they may be restricted to 

 certain classes thus: " Exhibitors in classes 1, 4, 7, and 10 cannot 

 enter in 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, and 9," and so on. A better way possibly than i 

 either of these is to put a maximum limit on the amount of money value j 

 which any one exhibitor may take — allowing him to show in any ; 

 number of classes in which he is qualified to show, but making a j 

 clearly worded rule that as soon as his prizes mount up to the maximum j 

 value allowed to any one exhibitor to take, he drops, ipso facto, out j 

 of all further competition, being credited with the honour of having j 

 been adjudged first or second or third in other classes, but being | 

 debarred from taking the money attached to such classes, beyond the 

 maximum amount fixed. 



5. The words " Kinds and Varieties." 



The confusion of these two terms, or their careless substitution 

 one for the other, often land Schedule-makers in far-reaching diffi- 

 culties. Here is an example which occurred only a few days ago. The 

 Schedule reads thus : ' ' Fruit — Collection of Six Varieties ; White and 



