270 
The great horticultural exhibitions of the year having 
now closed, we naturally pause to consider—What good 
have they achieved ? And we respond at once, as our 
conviction, that their benefit has been great. We have 
seen gathered together, in the tents of the Regent’s Park 
and Chiswick Shows, thousands of specimens of perfect 
plant culture, and there exhibited to hundreds of culti¬ 
vators, who thence might learn what could and ought to 
he effected in their own stoves and greenhouses. Each 
specimen was a warning to some against neglect, and to 
others a stimulus to fresh exertion. Such meetings, too, 
bring together amateurs and gardeners from wide-apart 
districts : thus facilitating that interchange of ideas, 
that renewal of old intercourse, which does more in one 
hour than even the penny postage can promote in a 
year’s correspondence. There is nothing like personal 
evidence and cross-examining a witness to get quickly 
at the whole of a truth. Then there is, also, the worthy 
emulation among the exhibitors—that best stimulus to 
good cultivation, when a gardener who loves his em¬ 
ployment has the opportunity of seeing the specimens of 
his skill exhibited well-honoured among those of the 
best gardeners of the world, and before the critical eyes 
of thousands who know what ought to he the aspect of 
each flower and fruit. Eor such reasons the contest for 
prizes has ever been a cherished mode of promoting 
skill, and such contests have never ceased among civi¬ 
lized nations from the days of the Olympian games; 
nor will they cease from increasing, we hope, until every 
village has its cabbage and rose show. The principle is 
sound, therefore the results are salutary : and the more 
salutary, the wider it is brought into operation. 
But another question presses upon us for an answer: 
Do these exhibitions effect all the good of which they 
are capable ? and most emphatically do we answer— 
No ! We look upon the Horticultural and Royal Bo¬ 
tanic Societies as national institutions, and we think 
that, instead of holding their- meetings year after year 
at Chiswick and the Regent’s Park, that each of their 
meetings in every year should be in some distinct dis* 
trict of England. The legitimate intention of such 
societies is to promote throughout the length and breadth 
of the land the onward progress of horticulture; and the 
prizes they have to give away, and the worthy emu¬ 
lation they call into activity, should he as widely 
diffused as possible. Why are the plants of Mrs. Law¬ 
rence and of Mr. Colyer, year after year, the only com¬ 
petitors for the greatest prizes ? Not because there are 
no other collections that could bring twenty such plants 
into the arena, but because tliose praise-worthy ex¬ 
hibitors are near to the place of competition; and it 
would not be difficult to point out many counties which 
would turn out their thirties, twenties, fifteens, and 
sixes, if tho Societies had their arenas opened within a 
come-at-able distance. It is a reply, but of no weight, 
to observe, that Messrs. Veitch send up plants from 
Exeter, and Mr. Epps from Maidstone; for these, and 
such as these, are the exceptional cases—the rule is, that 
growers at a distance from London do not send. 
[August 1. 
What we have said about the benefits derived from 
such exhibitions apply with redoubled force to them if 
held in country districts, whereby thousands of ama¬ 
teurs and gardeners would have the opportunity of 
seeing the results of the best gardening of our times, 
who now have no such opportunity once even in a life¬ 
time. It is not for us to enter into details to show that 
all difficulties in the way of such country meetings 
might be readily obviated; but tliey could be so obvi¬ 
ated, and we aro quite sure that railway companies and 
every one else interested in the prosperity of garden¬ 
ing—and who is not?—would unite in facilitating so 
desirable an object, as they have done, and still do, to 
promote the similar meetings of the Royal Agricultural 
Society. 
Lastly, we are quite sure that it is bound up witli the 
prosperity of the two societies to hold such country 
meetings, for they may rest assured that their incomes 
will go on gradually declining if they do not. That of 
the London Horticultural Society fell off no less than 
five hundred pounds last year ! and why, but because 
distant subscribers grow weary of receiving but little in 
return for tbeir annual payments, and of having none 
of the advantages enjoyed by London resident members. 
He knows little of human nature who expects that year 
after year a man, living in a distant county, will pay 
two guineas a year, to receive in return a quarterly 
journal, which he can obtain through his bookseller for 
half the money. But if the meetings were occasionally 
held within such a distance of his home that his own 
plants might sometimes have a chance of being placed 
in the floral race,—and if he could thus be enabled occa¬ 
sionally to exercise some of the privileges of other 
members resident nearer London, not only would each 
old subscriber continue to contribute, but largely would 
the list of members be strengthened. Gladly should 
we see this, for we know the good such societies can 
work out; and we also know that tbeir power to work 
out that good is proportioned to the strength of their 
funds and the wide diffusion of their members. 
So great has been the advantage which we have found, 
during the present year, from the use of the ammoniacal 
liquor of gas works to Asparagus, Rhubarb, Cabbages, 
and other kitchen garden crops cultivated for their pro¬ 
duction of leaves, that we wish to have a little pam¬ 
phlet, advertised in our columns to-day, distributed as 
widely as possible, for the purpose of inducing others 
to give it a trial. 
A correspondent ( F.L .), referring to our observations at 
p. 234, inquires, “ if there is any simple means of testing 
the difference between hard and soft water?" The fol¬ 
lowing is a satisfactory reply to his query:—Let him 
dissolve a piece of white soap, the size of a nut, in a 
wine-glassful of alcohol (spirit of wine), and put a small 
teaspoonful of this into a wine-glassful of the water to bo 
tested. In distilled water no change is apparent after 
this addition; but it will cause in any other water a 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
