1875.J 
THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY AND GARDENING. 
279 
degree is of material importance ; as soon as superficial growth is developed, let 
air be given carefully and with freedom. 
The Mushroom -house will need constant attention, now that it should be 
carrying crops. These latter will require constantly periodical syringings, or 
dampings over-head with tepid water. Continue to make up fresh beds, as quickly 
as the necessary materials for that purpose can be got together ; they must be 
moderately dry v and as I have so often urged, well beaten down; never spawn 
any until no doubt exists that a permanent heat not exceeding 70° or 75° is 
assured. Place into this structure the necessary supplies of Seakale for producing 
a constant or successional crop, the crowns being taken up carefully from the 
open ground and buried in soil therein, and kept well watered and away from 
either fresh air or light. Chicory may be also placed for a like purpose, and to 
insure a crop of well-blanched material for an aid to the salad-bowl. Sow Mustard 
and Cress for a like purpose. 
The general or main work in this department should consist of the necessary 
digging-up and trenching of all vacant ground. Manure heavily at all times when 
practicable, and dig or trench deeply, according to the capacity of the sub-soil to 
be worked upon. Finally, get all such operations as forward as possible, and so 
that, as Christmas and the New Year approach, all may be done.— William 
Earley, Valentines. 
THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY & GARDENING. 
SuHE able remarks of Mr. W. Paul in the Florist and Pomologist (p. 241) 
in regard to the Royal Horticultural Society and its influence on garden- 
f ing, are but the u clothed thoughts ” of many horticulturists, at least in 
part. It is very greatly feared that, however much one may wish to see 
gardening advanced through this medium, the results cannot at the best be very great. 
It is not in the Academy, but in the Studio, that genius searches out its favoured 
ones, through whom higher art attainments are to be displayed, from amongst 
its votaries. The trumpeters sound to the charge, but the single warriors do the 
deeds of daring which shed lustre on the united arms. So it is in gardening. 
It is in the many gardens, the workshops, where success will have to be wrought 
out, if at all, and that amongst all of them, from the best-furnished down to the 
most lowly. Let, therefore, no one mistake the facts. Horticulture is making 
rapid strides, not, as some would evidently have us suppose, by the light of any 
individual luminary, but rather, and let this be well marked, as the outcome of 
a spontaneously diffused desire for the beautiful amongst the masses, and a 
worthy system of emulation which has sprung up amongst gardeners themselves. 
To doubt these facts, or to be blind to their existence, or to pooh-pooh them, 
would tend to strangle the rising genius, which would recoil on those who 
attempted it. Let no one expect too much from the Royal Horticultural Society. 
Above all, let no one assume it to be the home of all the sciences. Treat its 
Directors, the Council, as men whose intentions are earnest, aiding as far as they 
are able the broad-cast advance of the art; not as demagogues who can coun¬ 
tenance no advance but such as is made in accordance with their exclusive 
dictum*— as some would lead us to suppose; It has been my happy experience 
