THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 8, 1860. 
list, in order that they may have the opportunity of being pro¬ 
vided for should any of the first subscribers be willing to reduce 
the amount of then - subscriptions. 
From this it appears that the sum of about £62,000 has been 
placed at the command of the Council for the execution of the 
works in the new Garden. But the Council trust that no outlay 
beyond the stipulated £50,000 will be needed. 
As soon as it had been ascertained that the funds required would 
be provided, measures were taken for settling the plan of the 
Garden. Mr. Nesfield, whose knowledge of the principles and 
practice of geometrical garden designs, ranks amongst the highest 
in Europe, was intrusted with this operation. Many Meetings 
of a Sub-Committee of the Council, and of the Council itself 
with Mr. Nesfield, to determine on general principles, were held 
by command of the Prince Consort, at which Ilis Royal High¬ 
ness presided, and the Council can now refer to the detailed 
design itself, which is before the Meeting. While tills has been 
proceeding the arcades have been very fully considered by the 
Chief Officers of the Department of Science and Art, where we 
arc now assembled, by the special permission of the Lord 
President of the Council, and specimens of what it is intended to 
construct are at hand, where any Fellows of the Society can 
inspect them. 
The Garden itself is at present in the earliest stage of con¬ 
struction. The heavy preliminary earthworks and the arterial 
drainage are nearly completed. Mr. Eyles who has been 
appointed the Garden Superintendent:, is prepared to push 
forward the Society’s part of the execution with the utmost 
possible speed, and measures have been already taken to admit 
Fellows and their friends to inspect the progress of the works. 
The object of first necessity in connection with the Garden 
was an office and general entrance to the ground, where the 
business of the Society could be carried on, and the meetings, 
whether monthly, or those for exhibitions of the Floral and Fruit 
Committees, could be held in a manner worthy of the Society. 
A single room in a small house near Trafalgar Square was 
obviously altogether unsuited to any purpose of the Society in its 
new position. Plans of such a building to form the principal 
entrance to the Garden, prepared by Captain Fowke, R.E., have 
been accepted, and the building is now rising rapidly. From the 
plans and elevations suspended in an adjoining room, the Society 
will be able to see how beautiful an edifice this will become. 
And here the Council desire to give public expression to their 
sense of the very valuable assistance that has been rendered the 
Society by that most intelligent officer; with whom they must 
also associate Mr. Henry Cole, C.B., and Mr. Redgrave, R.A., 
the two principal officers of the Department of Science and Art. 
The arrangements for the great Conservatory demand such long 
and serious consideration, that no report can as yet be made on 
that subject; but the Council are promised the detailed plans 
and specifications by the 10th May ; and they hope and believe 
that in the absence of unforeseen obstacles, the Garden will be for 
the most part completed by Midsummer in next year. 
The Council have always expected that works of high art, 
suitable to garden embellishment, would be offered to the Society 
as soon as it was known that a place worthy of them was ready to 
receive them. That expectation has already begun to be realised. 
A group of sculpture, commemorative of the Great Exhibition of 
1851, and costing above £6000, has been most liberally placed 
at the disposal of the Society by the Committee entrusted witli 
its execution, and will form a noble object at the head of the 
great basin on the upper level of the Garden, the Society having 
only to pay for such alterations as are necessary in order to make 
it harmonise with the surrounding objects. 
An account of the money received and expended on the Ken¬ 
sington Gore account, up to the 31st of March, will be found in 
the Appendix. 
From Kensington the Council turn to Chiswick and the ordi¬ 
nary working of the Society. It has now been finally settled 
that Chiswick, although no more to be the scene of brilliant 
exhibitions and agreeable promenades, shall be maintained for 
the purpose of experimental cultivation, and of rearing plants 
both for Kensington and lor distribution among the Fellow s. In 
consequence of the forced economy of the Council it had fallen 
into decay ; but under Mr. Eyles’ superintendence it has already 
so greatly revived, that the Council are now able to say that it 
deserves a visit from all interested in the progress of practical 
gardening. Large additions have been made to the collections 
of fruit trees, spaces vacant and unprofitable have been filled with 
them, new Cherry and Plum gardens, each containing upwards of 
one hundred varieties, have been formed ; all the known sorts of 
Strawberry have been brought together for comparison ; and the 
great Conservatory, now containing the largest collection of Yines 
in Great Britain, is preparing to be loaded with a noble crop of 
fruit. Kitchen-garden produce is being dealt with in the same 
spirit; for example, preparation is made, among other things, for 
proving a very large number of so-called varieties of Cucumbers, 
Peas, and other esculents. In carrying out this work the Society 
is greatly indebted to the nurserymen and seedsmen who have 
liberally contributed seeds and plants, and to Mr. R. Hogg, now 
the Secretary of the Fruit and Vegetable Committee, who lias pre¬ 
sented his entire private collection of Pear trees to the Garden. 
Nor are flowers to be neglected ; numerous varieties of which, 
annual, perennial, and shrubby, hardy and tender, have been con¬ 
tributed by the trade for examination by the Floral Committee. 
A considerable number of plants has been provided for ballot 
in May, June, and July; and a much more extensive collection 
is coming forward, although at present too young for the purpose. 
But the Council feel that no provision for this purpose will be 
satisfactory until the Society shall once more import its own 
supplies ; and they are only waiting to find a collector who can 
be depended upon before despatching him to some rich and 
uninvestigated country. 
Some years ago the noble Duke, who so long presided over the 
Society, and from whom the Garden is held, most liberally 
reduced the rent from £300 to £200 a-year, until the Society 
should again be in a condition to pay the full rent. Acting in 
the same munificent spirit, the Dowager Countess of Granville, 
who has succeeded to the estate since the decease of the Duke of 
Devonshire, has also relinquished her claim to more than £200 
a-year till March 25th, 1861. The Council feel that this im¬ 
portant aid to the finances of the Society calls for the warmest 
acknowledgment. 
They have also the satisfaction to report that the income from 
the sale of produce at the Garden was last year considerably in¬ 
creased, notwithstanding the almost total destruction of out-door 
fruits by spring frosts. In 1857-8 it amounted to £112 18*. 3 d .; 
in 1858 9, to £190 10s.; and last year it rose to £292 13s. 8d. 
In the course of the year the Flower and Fruit Committees 
have been reconstructed and placed upon a more active footing, 
Mr. Thomas Moore having been appointed Secretary of the 
former, and Mr. Robert Hogg of the latter. Their operations 
having been recorded in the Monthly “ Proceedings ” of the 
Society, sent free to all Fellows, require no comment. The 
Secretaries have laboured earnestly to do all that has been prac¬ 
ticable under the circumstances ; but until a proper place of 
meeting and exhibition shall have been provided at Kensington, 
it will be impossible to render them as efficient as they must be 
when suitable accommodation shall have been found. 
With regard to (he monthly issue of what aro called “Pro¬ 
ceedings,” it is obvious that it can only be regarded as a tem¬ 
porary expedient to furnish the Fellows with periodical accounts 
of the progress of the Society. The Council contemplate giving 
it a new and very different form as soon as the numerous other 
subjects that press upon their attention will permit them to con¬ 
sider its futuve plan. 
The present state of the accounts of the Society will be found 
in the Appendix, and the Council trust that they will be regarded 
as satisfactory, when it is seen that the entire debt, everything of 
every kind included, which on the 31st of March last year stood 
at £10,752, is now represented by the comparatively small sum 
of £4,296. 
Liabilities so small as these have ceased to have any signifi¬ 
cance, and the Council entertain the confident belief that the 
Society is now entering upon a career of utility and prosperity 
such as it has never before experienced. 
WHAT CONSTITUTES A COTTAGER V 
Would you be kind enough to let me know wliat constitutes 
a cottager ? and whether he may be allowed to keep a green¬ 
house, and still come within the limits of a cottager’s class at a 
public exhibition ?—Yekbena. 
[It would prevent much uncertainty if horticultural prizes 
were designated by tire name of (he class of persons who were in¬ 
tended to contend for them, instead of by the kind of dwelling 
they inhabit. There are “Nurserymen’s Prizes,” and though 
the Nurserymen often five in cottages, no intrusion into a contest 
for prizes for an inferior class occurs on that account. Instead of 
