CVlil PKOCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Council and Committees, which had enabled so much progress to be 

 made. Their object had been, and was now, education, not merely 

 academic but practical and progressive ; and in those respects he thought 

 very much had been achieved. He expressed his gratification at the 

 presence of so many from our Overseas Dominions. The history of our 

 Colonies was very diversified : first, they were called and treated as 

 "plantations," which was at least horticultural; but they were ex- 

 ploited for the benefit of the Mother Country. That lost us much of 

 the New World. Next some statesmen, so called, counted the cost of 

 our Colonies, and even cried, with French doctrinaires, " Perissent les 

 Colonies plutot qu'un principe, " a parsimony which was certainly not 

 economic ; but we had now arrived at the happy stage when we sought 

 to make common bonds of commerce and trade, and to effect not only 

 a union of hearts but a union of interests. In that respect he thought 

 the E.H.S. had contributed a great deal by its Colonial Fruit Shows 

 and otherwise. The other day he was struck by a remark he heard from 

 Sir Wilfrid Laurier, that it did not much matter what we did or did not 

 do at the Imperial Conferences, provided we maintained and developed 

 them ; and in that connexion he might say that at the London Chamber 

 of Commerce they were now developing something equally important, 

 namely, an Imperial Council of Commerce, in which the Dominions 

 would be adequately represented, for Imperial trade. In this very 

 Flower Show, in which he acted as one of the judges of fruit and 

 vegetables, the Council had made an award in favour of an exhibit 

 of fruit from New Zealand, of which he was v-ery glad, because there 

 was a great desire to do all they could to encourage the Colonies in 

 such industries. The other day he read that a newly married couple 

 wished to raise their own vegetables ; and, in addition, they 

 thought tomatos would be both tasty and refreshing. So the 

 wife planted tomatos, and planted them as they came from a 

 Colony in tins, and when the crop was expected and the 

 husband asked about it she confessed that she had forgotten to open 

 the tins before planting them. From that he gathered that the saying 

 of British Columbians that " We eat what we can, and w'e can what 

 we can't," was capable of some abuse. That was their first year atj 

 Olympia, — the Olympic Games had had similar contests, and the 

 Greek awards were only a crown of laurel or a bunch of parsley ; 

 but the E.H.S. had gone further and had given a Coronation: 

 Challenge Cup and other most valuable prizes. He hoped thatii;jyjQ 

 next year at the International Flower and Fruit Show, not merelyj lifjjj^ 

 our own and foreign nations would be represented, but that our great| t,j]j 

 Colonies w^ould take part in honourable rivalry, and help to maintain 

 the British Empire and keep the E.H.S. at the head of the horti-i ) jjjj 

 culture of the world. British industry, organized and aided by thd 

 Eoyal Horticultural Society, had already attained that position ; and i: 

 the case of the Colonies they hoped to encourage and carry forward th 

 great work of the cultivation of the earth and its fruits, and thus 

 leave a legacy of having done their best for the safety, honour, ani 



