2 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE -AND UOTTACE - GARDENER. 
—- [ January 6, 1887. 
competency—in favour of others whose services were 
obtained at a few shillings a week less, and who have 
failed by undertaking charges beyond their capacity, and 
the men at first rejected are now gladly taken in their 
stead to put as soon as they can things that have gone 
wrong right once again. We are recording stern facts 
which may possibly be suggestive in averting further evils 
on the ground of mere “ cheapness.” Nothing is cheap 
that is inferior, and the man or the article that can be 
had at a small outlay is often, if not always, the most 
costly in the end. 
Let it not he surmised that all young gardeners are 
necessarily inferior to the old. The exact reverse is the 
case in many comparisons. Competency is not altogether 
a question of age. Some of the greatest feats in history 
have been accomplished by men young in years, but notin 
experience. Facilities and antecedents are factors that 
cannot be overlooked, and assurance being had on these 
points the energy, zeal, and ambition to win a reputation 
have not unfrequently overborne all obstacles ; but there 
must be sound knowledge founded on experience, and men 
who have proved by their works have claims to considera¬ 
tion that cannot be lightly set aside without the possibility 
of a mistake occurring. 
It has been said that there is a disposition to regard 
the last cloud as the darkest, and it is certain that many 
persons are firm in the conviction that “times” were 
never so bad as now. They forget the past, if they ever 
knew it Lower wages, greater general privation, and far 
less business was transacted in the industry of horticul¬ 
ture some years ago than obtain at present, and recovery 
came then, as it will come now. Every obstacle is pro¬ 
claimed in these days of publicity that once remained 
obscure ; and difficulties are occasionally, if not habitually, 
magnified that were borne in comparative silence. More 
of the patient plodding of past days seems to be want of 
the times. It is gratifying to observe that gardeners as a 
body are alive to the importance of self-improvement, for 
they stand almost alone in their efforts to attain com¬ 
petency-through the mutual help that is afforded in the 
increasing societies that have for their sole object the 
making of better men and more profitable servants. That 
should be the aim of all in whatever calling they may be 
engaged, and this united action will sooner or later result 
in general improvement. There are not wanting signs of 
recovery in trade, and notably in agriculture, and there 
is good hope that the year on which we are now entering 
will mark the commencement of an era of better times 
for all. 
HORTICULTURE IN 188 G. 
An me! how the years roll on ; and surely they roll quicker as 
we ourselves are nearing the end of our journey. Is it not because we 
know that there cannot be many more ? Time was when we looked 
on and thought how many there were perhaps yet to come ; now we 
look forward knowing that there cannot be many. Happy they who 
can look back with thankfulness and look forward without fear. But 
I must not mount the pulpit stairs, but just from my potting bench 
take a run over the past year so far as it affects horticulture. It has 
hard lybeen an eventfu 1 year, although good work has been done. 
• c., 01 !? wntes of horticulture in England the natural feeling 
is nrst of all to revert to the Royal Horticultural Society, the sun 
and centre of the art in England. Alas! the sun is und^r eclipse 
and the cent-e_ somewhat difficult to find. There is this difficu’tv in 
writing about it, that if anyone finds fault it is considered that it must 
be done in a spirit of opposition, and that one must be actuated by 
he spirit of “ envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness-” but 
surely this is very childish. Then if alterations or improvements are 
suggested it is at once said, “ But there is the Charter.” I am sure 
all horticulturists are grateful to the present Council for undertaking 
the management of a Society whose position is so humiliating and so 
unworthy of that which it ought to occupy as the representative of 
English horticulture. For a long time its position has been very 
hard to define, and still more hard for its responsible advisers to 
endure, and yet they have not lest heart ; and not even Mark Tapley 
himself could have shown a more serene front in the face of diffi¬ 
culties than they have. The manner, too, in which the horticulturists 
of the kingdom took up, and still, notwithstanding all, repose 
confidence in it, has been shown by the Conferences which it has of 
late years held—the Apple and Pear Congresses at Chiswick and the 
Daffodil and Primula Conferences at South Kensington go far to 
show this ; and that of the latter flower held during the past year 
was in no point less interesting than its predecessors. It was unfor¬ 
tunate that the year was unfavourable for the flower on which the 
Conference was engrafted—the Auricula, but withal no one will 
regret that they had the opportunity of seeing so many and such 
beautiful species and varieties of this charming spring flower. 
Nothing could perhaps better show this confidence than the contrast 
exhibited by the Tercentenary of the Potato held at the Aquarium. 
I heard one of those who lectured there, one well known and greatly 
valued in the horticultural world, say he had before him when he 
lectured 200 chairs, a reporter, and a personal friend 1 I venture to 
say had it been held at South Kensington, and managed by Mr. 
Barron, the case would have been very different. The fortnightly 
meetings have continued to be a great enjoyment to horticulturists, 
and a great means of bringing them together and affording the 
opportunity of bringing new and interesting plants before the public. 
The future, both of the Society and the South Kensington Gardens 
themselves, seems involved in impenetrable darkness. Whether the 
scheme for making the upper part, with the Albert Hall, a place of 
amusement, connecting the Royal with it, and the building of the 
new Imperial Institute in the lower part of the grounds will be 
effected, or what may be its future none seems to know. One great 
evil connected with this inactivity is that those Societies, the National 
Rose, the Primula and Auricula, Carnation and Picotee Societies, 
which have made it their home, are unable to fix their arrangements. 
The sister Society, the Royal Botanic, has held on its usual course 
of usefulness and popularity. Its meetings has been well attended, 
and a fairly successful financial year been completed. I may also 
be permitted to notice the very successful season that the Horti¬ 
cultural Club has had. A series of papers has been read at its 
meetings, which have appeared in the leading horticultural papers, 
and some of which have elicited a good deal of correspondence, 
resulting in much valuable information being given. 
I do not think that horticulture gained a great deal by the 
magnificent Indian and Colonial Exhibition ; the plants seen there 
were pretty well known, and I think that the most interesting point 
connected with it was the very successful manner in which the New 
Zealand and Australian Ferns, especially the Todara, were managed 
by Mr. Ban-on. We must not omit the Shows at the Crystal Palace, 
which have been carried out in the usual extensive scale which 
characterises that Institution. Both the Rose Show and the Autumn 
Flower and Fruit Show were veiy successful. The exhibition of the 
National Chrysanthemum Society, held at the Aquarium, showed how 
widely extended the culture of this most valuable winter flower has 
become, and we of the National Rose Society must feel not a little 
gratified that a good deal of the success has arisen from the fact that 
they have gone upon its lines. 
The most remarkable of the provincial exhibitions held during the 
year was that of the Royal Horticultural Society at Liverpool, 
remarkable for its extent and for its utter financial failure. There 
are some of us who know Liverpool who anticipated nothing less ; it 
showed, too, very unmistakeably that it is a great error to suppose 
that another attraction at the same time enhances the probability of 
success. It is quite the reverse ; people who went through the 
Industrial Exhibition felt very little inclination to go to the Horti¬ 
cultural Show, and the fact of its being held during the election week 
was most unfavourable. Manchester as usual was carried out with 
great spirit and with a fair amount of success, despite of unfavourable 
weather. Other societies seem to have done fairly well, and the Rose 
societies especially were favoured in every instance with fine weather, 
and one comes to the conclusion that, notwithstanding the depression 
and the almost complete absorption of public interest in political 
matters, the progress of horticulture is unmistakeable. We have long 
been at the head of all sections in our devotion to the fascinating 
pursuit, and there are no signs of our lagging behind, but every year 
indicates advance. The world is ransacked to supply the eager 
desire for novelty, and in no flower has this been exhibited so 
strongly as in Orchids New growers are starting up on all sides, 
and the high prices obtained for really valuable specimens show 
how general the taste has become; while the immense im¬ 
portation of the commoner kinds has reduced their prices 
to a sura which I should hardly think can pay the cost of importa¬ 
tion. _The same may be said of Lilies. How can it pay to import 
