August 27, 1887. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
825 
was fortunate that this portion of the day s proceedings 
had not been longer delayed, for shortly afterwards a 
violent thunderstorm swept over the district. 
It will be observed from the preceding remarks, 
that the ex-Premier still advocates the more extensive 
cultivation of home-grown produce by farmers and 
others, by which England, if she bestirs herself, will 
be more and more able to cope with foreign competition, 
and feed her millions with the produce of her own soil, 
and at the same time give employment to thousands 
that wander about in compulsory and involuntary 
idleness, or swell the 
already teeming and 
overcrowded centres 
of civilisation. In 
opposition to this, it 
has again and again 
been reiterated that 
our markets, especi¬ 
ally the metropolitan 
ones, are overstocked 
already, and the 
statement may be 
true in a measure, 
but not with English 
produce. What we 
want is a develop¬ 
ment of our resources, 
which shall render 
foreign competition 
less possible than it 
is at present, by the 
production of fruit 
and vegetables, which 
shall be on a par with 
the prices that not 
only tempt, but en¬ 
courage foreign cul¬ 
tivators to sell in our 
markets. There can 
be no doubt about the 
quality and excellence 
of both home-grown 
fruit and vegetables, 
and English soil and 
climate is quite com¬ 
petent to meet the 
exigencies of the case. 
We cannot depend on 
our climate for early 
supplies ; but while 
our markets are open 
to continental coun¬ 
tries in that respect, 
our main and late 
crops should be equal 
to the demand, and 
more than sufficient 
to defy foreign com¬ 
petition. The quality 
of home-grown pro¬ 
duce, and the prices 
they command would 
be a guarantee for this. 
The home supply, 
as regards cereals, is 
out of the question at 
present; but it must 
seem paradoxical to 
many that thousands 
should go starving for 
lack of food or em¬ 
ployment while broad 
acres of land are lying 
practically useless, and fast going to waste. The 
allotment question, practically and skilfully managed, 
would, no doubt, bring about a satisfactory change of 
this deplorable state of matters, if not an entire 
solution of the difficulty of obtaining employment for 
thousands that would turn the soil to better account, 
and furnish us with a supply of food, the profits of 
which would rightly go into the pockets of our fellow- 
countrymen. The existence of small gardens or pieces 
of land in France has been a source of great wealth to 
the owners, and a mine of strength to the country at 
large ; why should not the same thing or something 
similar to it be so here ? Labour is the most serious 
impediment to growers on a large scale in this country; 
and although horticulture is in a much more efficient 
well as with reference to inclination. What is called 
the small culture forms, my friends, in France a 
very large share of the means of subsistence and of 
relative opulence for the small proprietary of that 
country, who, as you know, are a very important and 
numerous body, and I am perfectly convinced that as 
the means of this kind of cultivation—the cultivation 
of vegetables and fruits—are enlarged in this country, 
partly by awakening public attention to them, partly 
by the multiplication of gardens and allotments—a 
matter of the utmost consequence—and I must also 
MR. GLADSTONE ON ALLOT¬ 
MENT GARDENS. 
The annual exhibition of the Hawarden and Buckley 
Horticultural Society took place on August 18th in the 
grounds of Hawarden Castle, the weather being glorious. 
The show was an excellent one, and was visited by a 
large number of persons in the course of the afternoon. 
Mr. Gladstone, after inspecting the exhibits, said : 
“I cannot allow this anniversary to go by withoqt 
saying on the part of us—my wife and myself—with 
what great pleasure we witness its recurrence. It is 
quite plain, I think, 
from what we saw 
to-day in the tent, 
that there is no dimi¬ 
nution of interest 
among the population 
of the district in the 
practice of horticul¬ 
ture. On the con¬ 
trary, if the judges 
of the day are as well 
satisfied with- the 
show of the present 
year as the unin¬ 
structed eye is, I 
cannot but think 
that what we have 
seen indicates not re¬ 
trogression, not even 
stagnation, but real 
advance in an under¬ 
taking which is of 
the utmost interest 
and value. I hope I 
am not going beyond 
the mark in saying 
this much—it has 
prospered. I trust, 
and I sincerely hope 
and desire, it may 
continue to prosper. 
It is, in every sense, 
a most valuable in¬ 
stitution in each of 
its branches—I mean 
that which relates to 
flowers for the satis¬ 
faction and the de¬ 
light of the eye, and 
that which relates to 
the production of 
fruit, and more par¬ 
ticularly of vege¬ 
tables. It is a highly 
civilising and human¬ 
ising pursuit. It is 
also a pursuit which 
associates labour with 
recreation, interest, 
and pleasure. That 
I take to be no small 
advantage. More¬ 
over, in one of its 
branches—that of the 
production of vege¬ 
tables and fruit — I 
believe, and am 
firmly convinced, and 
have been convinced 
all along, that it is 
of very great and 
serious economical 
importance. Not¬ 
withstanding stagnation in trade,' notwithstanding 
distress here and there, the people of this country, I 
rejoice to say, are acquiring, upon the whole, an 
increased command over the necessaries and the neces¬ 
sary comforts—or, at all events, the primary comforts— 
of life. Whenever that is the case, it is a matter of 
moral certainty that a considerable proportion of any 
available increase of means will and must go in the 
direction of food for the mass of mankind. Though a 
portion of mankind are superabundantly fed, yet the 
mass of mankind are not superabundantly fed, and 
some portion of them, perhaps, still insufficiently fed— 
or, at all events, so fed that an extension of their 
means of feeding themselves, and of the variety of 
food, is of great importance and value for health, as 
Abronia UMBELI.ATA. 
say by the increasing disposition of farmers here and 
there to include these important objects in their view, 
and to add to the variety of their resources—by trying 
something in this direction we shall have a large 
increase on the one hand of the means and wealth of 
producers, and on the other hand of the advantages 
enjoyed by the consumers of food, both for the reason¬ 
able satisfaction which the Almighty never intended to 
be severed from the use of food, and likewise in that 
most important view with reference to the sanitary 
condition of the country, and to the health of the 
people. I must not detain you any longer, my 
friends.” 
At the conclusion of the right hon. gentleman s 
speech, the distribution of prizes was continued. It 
