140 
in judgment upon the competition, and let them dis¬ 
tribute the prizes liberally, judiciously, and with a 
virtue above suspicion. Let them do all this, and 
they shall reap a harvest of success; but never let 
them endeavour to promote horticulture by their 
example,—never let a local society have a garden; 
for, if they do, we warn them, from long experience, 
that it will be worse than a failure. A garden would 
swallow up their funds, and the things cultivated in 
it would, for the most part, be useless, except as a 
warning, enabling its members to say, “ If you wish 
to know how any plant ought not to look, go and see 
it in our garden!” We could name half a dozen 
instances where this was the result, but we forbear, 
inasmuch as the utmost penalty of the mistake has 
been paid—the funds of the societies have been 
involved, the plants sold, and the gardens abandoned. 
It would not be very difficult to enlarge upon the rea¬ 
son for this, but let it be summed up in one sentence— 
In such gardens there are not the inducements, 
always found to be requisite, to stimulate and to 
sustain us in our pursuit of excellence. But, instead 
of dwelling over the reason for such failures, let us 
point out their consequences, for these are far more 
important. Such failures are injurious to the credit 
and influence of the society; and they exercise a 
benumbing influence over the horticulture of a vici¬ 
nity. Subscribers do not care to belong to a society 
that is ridiculed ; and the gardening of a neighbour¬ 
hood is not improved when a cultivator is able to 
say, “ Yes, those plants do look bad, but those in 
the society’s garden are worse.” 
If such failures are productive of evil in a local so¬ 
ciety’s garden, how much more are they to be depre¬ 
cated when occurring in the garden of a society like 
the London Horticultural. If gardening in all its de¬ 
partments is not illustrated there in a state of excel¬ 
lence the most superior, it works a measure of harm 
instead of good. Now, that superiority does not pre¬ 
vail in some of. the departments at Chiswick; and we 
are about to quote a few extracts from our note-book, 
as a friendly nudge to awaken the society’s authorities 
from their slumbers upon some points, as well as for 
the information of our readers. 
We observed, on Saturday last, that the plum-trees 
were almost universally blighted at the Chiswick 
gardens—a fate they are unavoidably enduring with 
the rest of England; but why is the American 
blight allowed to spread upon the apple-trees, from 
branch to branch, and from tree to tree, without a 
remedial attempt? The persevering application of 
spirit of turpentine to each patch of blight by means 
of a brush would gradually subdue the pest, or 
restrain it within harmless bounds. 
The peach-trees are well trained, but, with the 
exception of one variety, the Acton Scot, almost 
without a single fruit. We should like to know 
whether shelters were employed, or whether the ex¬ 
J ONE 
ception was accidental, and one more instance 
added to many we have noticed that this early peach 
often escapes and bears a good crop when the later 
varieties are al 1 cut off. 
We should also like to be informed why the pyra¬ 
midal system of training standard pear-trees, by 
fastening the points of their branches downwards, 
has been neglected or abandoned. We remember 
that it was a system held up for imitation by some 
of the society’s authorities, and if it has proved to 
be a failure, as the trees in question intimate, this 
ought to be announced; for, to have committed an 
error is no crime, and the warning afforded by the 
confession of an error is a benelit only second in 
importance to the promulgation of success. 
In the kitchen-garden department we observed a 
state of affairs causing no little amusement to some 
of the visitors. Several of the beds of seedlings had 
only one plant in them, and all were wofully defi¬ 
cient. Whatever may have been the cause of failure, 
the beds should not have been left in that state. 
The peas were grown in single rows, with sticks on 
each side, which may be, or may not be, economical; 
but there cannot be two opinions that it is not good 
gardening to grow them in rows at most three feet 
apart, and the tall varieties nearer together than the 
dwarfs. 
When we turned to the glass structures, there 
the plants were almost entirely looking in a state 
of high culture; and we would only suggest that 
those in the great conservatory are becoming far too 
crowded, and that such miserable calceolarias as are 
there in pots should be at once banished. 
We make these observations with the anxious 
desire that every department of the Chiswick garden 
should exhibit horticulture in the greatest state of 
excellence consistent with our present knowledge of 
the science. We would not have even its seedling 
cabbage beds defective, for it ought, in all gardening, 
to be “ our great example as it is our theme.” If 
there is any one department which, from peculiarity 
of soil or situation, ©r other cause, cannot be main¬ 
tained so as to exhibit superiority in cultivation and 
produce, we should recommend that department to 
be abandoned, because, for the reasons we have 
assigned, it will always be quoted elsewhere as an 
excuse for inferiority. 
THE ERUIT-GARDEN. 
The Peach and Nectarine. —We had verily in¬ 
tended to have said a few words on the vine, in doors, 
but on looking over our fruit-trees, with a somewhat 
anxious eye, we are constrained to advise a little 
attention to the peach and nectarine, which at this 
period, and especially under the circumstances of the 
past spring, may bo expected to play some strange 
vegetable vagaries. We have before alluded to those 
monopolising shoots termed “gourmands” by the 
French; and, in common gardening language in this 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
