EFFECT OF GARDENING ON THE RURAL POPULATION. 
437 
have placed Brown's Model above the Stan- 
dard of Perfection ? Was there a shadow of a 
chance to the uninitiated that such a decision 
was accidental ? Who in this wide world 
would believe it possible that the Fuchsia St. 
Clare could have been honestly recommended 
as worth a single penny, or the pot it was 
grown in ? Surely when things so utterly 
worthless can be recognised by anybody, we 
might be pardoned for attributing it to design, 
in the belief, that it was impossible to be the 
result of an honest opinion. Men who have 
no better pretensions to a sound judgment do 
not act honestly in undertaking the task, and 
they completely lay themselves open to what- 
ever animadversion people may make upon 
their extraordinary decisions. Strange as it 
may be, there is rarely a show in which there 
is not some strange muddle in awarding the 
prizes ; and often is it so outrageously in- 
correct, that exhibitors feel indignant and 
mortified beyond measure at the result ; we 
even now find it difficult to bring our mind to 
believe that men can be so thoroughly igno- 
rant as to commit such egregious blunders. 
A Pansy at the last Surrey Flower Show was 
awarded a prize, and called Perfection : the 
judges may have thought so, but if they did, 
they ought never to judge another. 
We have often made men very angry by 
rejecting their flowers; but, although we have 
been, in common with many others, disap- 
pointed at a flower turning out uncertain 
after it has been exhibited in first-rate order, 
we never condemned one that was, as com- 
pared with those we possessed already, at all 
worth growing ; yet have we been often 
obliged to battle a thing out against three or 
four people who have obstinately contended 
for giving a prize to a tiling not worthy of it, 
but which, in their eyes, from some cause or 
other, appeared to deserve one. We incline, 
therefore, to believe, that some men are not 
good judges, and never would be; they never 
see, or if they see, they lose sight of the most 
palpable blemishes, and they get angry with 
us for pointing them out. We have been 
now nearly fifteen years endeavouring to 
teach men how to estimate flowers and plants; 
but, although they agree with us as to the 
points, they overlook some of the principal 
ones, and when left to themselves, commit 
sad havoc in awarding prizes; as if they 
had never been shown the difference between 
a good and a bad thing. 
There is no personal merit in being a good 
judge, because it is not easily acquired. It 
must come, and does come natural. Those 
who really do understand it, see faults and ex- 
cellencies in an instant, and want no prompt- 
ing. Those who do not possess the faculty, 
may have the faults and beauties pointed 
out one half hour and forget them the next. 
Our conclusion, and it is a charitable one, 
therefore is, — the dealers who have put forth 
the most worthless things at high prices, and 
assured the public they were excellent, have 
thought they were so ; but if we allow their de- 
cisions to have been honest, which is allowing 
a good deal, we must, nevertheless, insist that 
no man who has done so, ought to trust himself. 
If the public trust him again, he is fortunate. 
G. 
EFFECT OF GARDENING ON THE RURAL 
POPULATION. 
The good effects of Cottage Gardening is 
already universally acknowledged. The emula- 
tion excited by exhibiting their productions at 
flower shows, has been doubled, not in all cases, 
but in many. It will be admitted that the 
temptation to labour cannot be too great, and 
to the excitement of this feeling ought all 
public exhibitions to tend. Many Societies, 
with the best intentions, have, nevertheless, 
done a good deal of mischief. They have 
given prizes for flowers among a class of men 
who could not, in justice to their families, 
afford to buy them, and the natural influence 
of this has been unfavourable. Cottagers, 
with not a shilling beforehand, have, notwith- 
standing, shown half-guinea dahlias, and seven 
and sixpenny roses, and two-guinea gera- 
niums, and ten-shilling tulips. These things 
are highly improper. If they were honestly 
come by, the money was withdrawn from the 
family ; if not honestly come by, the very 
people who tried to advance the morals have 
been engendering a vice which must end 
fatally. A Society with proper notions cannot 
offer premiums for extravagance any more 
than it can offer rewards for peculation, be- 
cause one engenders the other. If a cottager 
once is made to calculate on beating his rivals 
by the superiority of his collection, there is 
an end of all reliance on industry. It matters 
not whether he begs, borrows, steals, or buys 
his costly flowers, any or all of them are mis- 
chievous, and have a bad effect on the morals. 
Raise a man's ambition to produce better 
carrots, cabbages, potatoes, and useful vegeta- 
bles than his neighbours, and you will excite 
the ambition to shine in a right cause. 
Let us observe the effect of a certain county 
Society on the exhibiting cottagers. Prizes 
were given for dahlias, roses, tulips, and many 
other costly subjects perfectly inconsistent 
with the probable income of the people who 
were to compete, being persons limited in their 
rentals to under ten pounds. There were 
also prizes for vegetables. One man had won 
the head prizes for three years, and another, 
wdio struggled hard against him for the ascen- 
dency, was always just beaten. It chanced 
