THI;; ROYAL INTERNATIONAL HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITION, 1912. 517 



Taking first a branch of great interest to the members of this 

 Society, we should look for particulars of the great nursery, flower, 

 bulb, and seed trades. Incidentally, we might hope to learn the extent 

 of the acreage of tRe most highly or intensively cultivated land to be 

 found in the country, and we might estimate roughly therefrom the 

 number of employes occupied and maintained in the handling of these 

 great industries. 



Well organized though they may be, thanks in a great measure to 

 the Eoyal Horticultural Society, these trades represent in volume, how- 

 ever, but a small proportion of the horticultural industry in full, or 

 even of that part concerned with the management of gardens. 



To realize this, we need only picture the comparatively few gardens 

 we know personally, and think of the quantity and value of the 

 materials used in their construction and maintenance, the architectural 

 features and adornments in conservatories, horticultural buildings, 

 garden ornaments, fencing and gates, the varied machinery, imple- 

 ments, tools, manures, fertilizers and all other details which repre- 

 sent some branch or other of the craft. 



Among other points of information we might glean from the census 

 . some idea of the number of owners of private gardens of a considerable 

 area and how many thousands of acres of land in this country are 

 devoted altogether to gardens and parks, both public and private, or 

 compare the area of glass-covered land now existing in the country 

 with that of fruit and market gardens. 



In these days of small-holdings, innumerable market gardens, and 

 fruit farms, it is difficult to say exactly where horticulture begins and 

 agriculture ends, and it is not unlikely that the latter industry will be 

 credited in the census returns with a large share of these, the most 

 extended branches of the tree of horticulture. This point will be noted 

 by those anxious to assert on behalf of the art all the importance that 

 rightly belongs to it. 



In short, an ideal census of the productions of horticulture in all 

 its branches would contain statistics concerning nurserymen, seedsmen, 

 : and florists, vegetable and fruit growers, in field and under glass, 

 wholesale and retail distributors, manufacturers of horticultural build- 

 ings and the many accessories required for the maintenance of gardens, 

 professional gardeners, artisans, and labourers. We must not forget 

 the scientific, literary and artistic professions and crafts which influence 

 so greatly the practice and popularity of the industry and do so much 

 to initiate trade and employment. 



There is little doubt that it would be possible to extract from a 

 comprehensive census of horticultural production a strong case for the 

 I formation of a special Department of Horticulture subordinate to the 

 j'Board of Agriculture devoted to the consideration of the interests of 

 ; the former. A decision to this effect by the Board of Agriculture would 

 I be an appropriate coincidence with the great demonstration which the 

 horticultural industry is preparing for next year. 



I have laboured somewhat this question of the economic importance 



mi 



