502 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
abundance of growers and plants too, separate 
classes may do better. But to give, as we 
have seen many do, separate series of prizes 
for very many different subjects, without any 
regard to whether they are objects of interest, 
or deserve particular encouragement, or contri- 
bute much or little towards the show, is really 
quite ridiculous, and exceedingly vexing to 
all true friends of gardening. We have, 
among other preposterous schedules now 
before us, one which gives a first and second 
prize only to each of the following : — -Balsams, 
Cockscombs, Hydrangeas, Heaths, Roses, 
Annuals, Stove plants, Orchideous plants, 
Pansies, Dahlias, Cinerarias, Petunias, Apples, 
Pears, Gooseberries, Currants, Melons, Pine 
Apples, Grapes in ■■ doors, Grapes out- 
doors, Pigs, Peaches, Nectarines, Raspberries, 
Lettuce, Cabbages, Potatoes, Peas, Beans, 
Carrots, Turnips, Beetroot, and thirty other 
articles ; and the show was not worth going 
to. Plates of fruit that would be almost 
thrown away in some places, and would 
hardly be tolerated at a stall in London, 
covered the tables, — four-fifths of them out of 
one garden ; and the award of the prizes was 
as might be expected from such a schedule. 
Mr. A. B. C. of D. was almost the only 
name that appeared, and he made a regular 
sweep of prizes, because there were none to 
compete with him, from the fact, that for 
two or three years the prizes had all been so 
parcelled out as to make him the recipient of 
a vast majority. Had there been a series of 
ten prizes for the best collections of fruit — not 
less than five or six or any given number of 
varieties, so that he could have taken only the 
first — there had been twenty competitors for 
the others, and a better show of fruit : but 
to give all these prizes where there was but 
one first-rate establishment in the neighbour- 
hood, was to throw every prize into the 
owner's lap; and rather than miss any thing, 
raspberries long gone by their prime, goose- 
berries dead ripe and out of all colour, and 
a dozen other things perfectly unfit for table, 
were brought, as if the judges were bound to 
give prizes for rubbish : the fault was in the 
.schedule. But it is time all this nonsense were 
done with. We see it more or less in most 
schedules, and hope to see an alteration in 
very many respects. 
It is a pity that any exhibitor should have 
a voice in the management, unless he can 
look to the advantage of the science of hor- 
ticulture, instead of himself; for, unless this 
be done, the best supported society will 
dwindle into a little community of selfish 
grasping sharpers, eager to seize upon any 
thing that is to be had, and careless how the 
thing be accomplished; and the public will lose 
all interest in time. By far the most valu- 
able supporters of the science — those who 
aspire to win prizes for the honour of them — 
Avill be shaken off, and all honourable rivalry 
will cease. It is requisite that those who have 
been acting as we have described — and we 
know whole committees who have — should 
begin to think it time to desist ; and first 
making out an honest and judicious schedule, 
they should find honourable men for judges, 
publish the laws by which things are to be 
judged, and if it be only to prevent exposure, 
give every cultivator a fair field. 
RULES FOR JUDGING. 
The necessity of publishing a resolution 
or regulation, as to what standards are to be 
used forjudging the productions exhibited at 
public shows, ought long since to have been 
manifest to the committees or managers, and 
yet more than half the schedules of prizes are 
issued without the slightest intimation ; so 
that the adoption of proper standards only 
does half the good that might be done if the 
proper notice were given. Exhibitors do not 
know what they are about, because they know 
there is but little dependence on taste ; and 
in consequence, some speculate on large 
flowers, some on perfect flowers without 
reference to size, some upon colour, and some 
on novelty, without considering any other 
point. Now those societies which have re- 
solved on judging by the standard laid down 
by Mr. Glenny* (and a vast majority have so 
done), and instruct their judges to that effect, 
have only half done their work unless they 
communicate that fact in their schedules. We 
know, indeed, that even where the committees 
have come to no decision on the subject, they 
nevertheless calculate on judges adopting them; 
for, indeed, the advance of florists' flowers in 
particular has been so great under the new 
standard, that they have already surpassed 
what our predecessors called the criterion, and 
have left the assumed perfections far in the 
rear. This was the natural consequence of 
setting up a standard which could not be 
reached; and if the Floral Societies would at 
once avow that they will have the productions 
judged by that standard, every exhibitor would 
become a judge, and almost know his fate by a 
glance round the stands; each would know 
exactly what he had to strive for, and his 
study would simply be to produce his flowers 
as nearly like it as possible. 
ADVERTIZING THE INTENDED SHOWS. 
Some of those Horticultural Societies which 
apparently depend on their own resources 
only, are too apt to neglect giving publicity 
to their intended meetings, from a mistaken 
Glenny's " Properties of Flowers and Plants." 
