24 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 9,.18f>0. 
cheapest sugar in the world, have the world for a market, and 
establish an export trade far greater in extent and far more 
valuable than the imports of raw hardy fruit into this 
country. 
The Fruiterers’ Company are endeavouring to afford guidance 
to those who need it on fruit culture. There can be no doubt of 
their earnestness and disinterestedness in the matter. It is not a 
company of wealth, but of influence, and the confidence it enjoys 
is apparent in the contributions towards raising a sum of £5000 for 
investment, the income therefrom to be devoted to the encourage¬ 
ment of the object in view. Large professional fruit farmers need 
no encouragement. They can look after themselves, and prizes of 
a few pounds would neither do them nor anyone else any good. 
With cottagers and small farmers it is different, and it is that great 
class—the least well-to-do of all workers on the land—who require 
such assistance as can be given for bettering their condition. In 
what way this can be best accomplished will no doubt be the sub¬ 
ject of grave deliberation. On this subject the Midland Counties 
Herald makes a suggestion that is bound to have the consideration 
it merits. Our contemporary says :—“ Let the Fruiterers’ Com¬ 
pany search out a few competent men and set them to teach our 
country folks how to cultivate fruit trees profitably by a series of 
lectures and practical illustrations of the art of pruning, which can 
rarely or never be acquired from books alone. They can com¬ 
mence operations on a small scale, and might start in one or two 
parishes in favoured districts during the winter months, and in the 
spring and summer following outdoor illustrations might be given 
of the various operations involved. Under no circumstances would 
such efforts made to instruct the people be quite without effect, 
and the chances are they would prove most beneficial.” 
There cannot be a doubt that practical teaching of the nature 
indicated, or lessons given in the garden, so to say, by persons who 
are competent to show by example how to plant and prune, and to 
explain the reasons of the different operations, would be the most 
effectual. The Fruiterers’ Company can no doubt find the men if 
the means are forthcoming to do what is suggested. It is a ques¬ 
tion of means, and it is conceivable there are landowners suffi¬ 
ciently wealthy who would be glad to engage, through the Company, 
men who could give such lessons as would enable their tenants to 
grow much more and better fruit in the future than has been 
grown in the tpast for the benefit of their families and the in¬ 
habitants of the surrounding districts, while the value of the land 
would be enhanced. Also I know there are persons who have a 
few hundreds, and even a few thousands of pounds at command who 
are most desirous of investing in fruit culture, but entirely without 
experience, who would most decidedly find it to their advantage 
to engage a competent man at the outset who could advise on the 
suitability of the land inspected, its preparation for planting, the 
selection of varieties of fruit, and all other matters on which 
success depends. Fruit will be so plentiful in the course of a few 
years, when the seasons are favourable, that only those who have 
commenced its culture on a good foundation will realise with 
some approach to their expectations. There are plenty of teachers 
by the tongue and the pen who can neither plant nor prune, but 
they are not the men to inspire confidence as guides in the im¬ 
portant work in question. Perhaps the time may come when the 
Fruiterers’ Company will be in a position to recommend advisers 
who have proved their competency in fruit culture by long ex¬ 
perience and successful work. These alone are to be relied on, 
and it is only those that a responsible body could afford to invest 
with authority to represent them.—J. WRiGnT. 
PLANTS CERTIFICATED IN 1889 . 
The commercial value of certificates awarded to new plants 
was illustrated in a legal action that attracted much attention 
during the past year, and it was also convincingly shown that those 
awards only carry special pecuniary value when the person to 
whom they are adjudged possesses the entire stock of such a novelty.. 
At the same time, any plant that has been certificated acquires a 
certain general importance that nurserymen are not slow to take- 
advantage of by announcing the fact in their catalogues, even 
though they were not the recipients of the honour in question.. 
AVhere a stock is in hand of the identical plant this course is per¬ 
fectly justifiable, and is equally open to all. The special object of 
a certificate is to stamp an exhibit, whether plant, fruit, or vege¬ 
table, as meritorious, and distinct from others of its class. The 
benefit derived by the trade is incidental, but no doubt considerable. 
If the onerous duty of awarding certificates be performed justly 
and with the exercise of keen discrimination, the value of such 
awards to purchasers should, however, be much greater, and it 
speaks volumes for the honesty of British nurserymen that they 
voluntarily submit so many of their acquisitions to the critical 
examination of independent experts. It is sometimes urged as 
indicating certificates do not possess the value supposed, that 
many useful garden productions have found their way into general 
cultivation and favour without such recommendation. This is 
true, but the process of gaining popularity is a longer one,, 
and possibly more expensive too. At any rate, this is being 
recognised by the majority of those concerned with the intro¬ 
duction or raising new plants, and the numbers submitted to 
the Floral Committee increase rather than diminish, as some have 
predicted. 
Since 1859 the Floral Committee of the Royal Horticultural 
Society has performed invaluable service in according official recog¬ 
nition to deserving novelties, and a complete descriptive record of 
the plants exhibited and certificated during these thirty years 
would constitute a most important work of reference. For some 
years certificates in two grades, first and second class, were adopted, 
but as some dissatisfaction was expressed with this arrangement, 
and the second class certificates not only failed to possess any value,, 
but even came to be considered a stamp of inferiority, they were^ 
discontinued. The awards were then restricted to first class only,, 
with botanical certificates for plants possessing some interest, 
structurally or otherwise, but not sufficiently attractive to rank as 
garden plants for decorative use. Last year a new system was 
inaugurated, which caused a little confusion at first, but ultimately 
was found to work well, and it will no doubt be continued. Thet- 
“ first class certificate ” was continued for plants of special distinc¬ 
tion and merit ; and for those that still deserved notice, while not 
perhaps of such pronounced characters as the others, an “ award 
of merit ” was instituted, thus permitting the Committee to re¬ 
cognise many plants that would otherwise have been passed or 
placed on an equality with those of a superior character. It was- 
also stated in the new rules that “ in quite exceptional cases gold, 
silver, or bronze medals may be awarded for objects of extra¬ 
ordinary merit,” but in the only case where advantage was taken 
of the latter privilege, and a silver medal awarded in addi¬ 
tion to the first class certificate for a new Orchid, a differences 
of opinion arose between the Committee and the Council, and 
whether the medal was ultimately awarded or withheld has not 
transpired. 
Another useful condition was also introduced to the following 
effect :—“ The Committees will recommend awards to be made 
to very superior seedlings or novelties, or to recently intro¬ 
duced, re-introduced, or very rare objects, or to highly decorative- 
plants, according to their merits. In the case of plants commonly 
grown from seed every year, the award will be made to the ‘ strain' 
and not to individual plants.” Something of this kind bad become 
necessary, for in the case of Calceolarias, Cinerarias, and even of 
Chinese Primulas and Tuberous Begonias, the varieties have been 
so rapidly multiplied, such a great advance has been made with 
these and other plants, that from a good strain of seed scores of 
varieties are obtained every year quite as good as those formerly 
certificated. Of course even now exceptionally distinct novelties- 
are occasionally secured, and special awards are then justifiable. 
The cultural certificate, an important award that ought to be- 
granted freely in all cases where really good culture is displayed in 
the production shown, was continued. Botanical certificates were 
entrusted to the Scientific Committee, and beyond these were the 
Chiswick certificates. Here some explanation is needed, as there 
has been a misunderstanding with regard to the awards made at 
Chiswick. Plants, fruits, and vegetables sent to Chiswick for trial 
are inspected by the Committees at special meetings during the 
year, and certificates are awarded to those considered worthy 
of recognition, but these are more of comparative than absolute 
value, and are distinct from the certificates granted at the ordi¬ 
nary meetings of the Committees. With regard to most vege¬ 
tables it is, however, indispensable that they be tested in the 
Chiswick gardens before they can gain an award from the Fruit 
Committee. 
From the time the Fruit and Floral Committees were established 
