352 
February 6, 1892 . 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
• . y ■ J— { ► 1 
the London Exhibition we have yet to 
learn ; we have also to learn whether they 
have secured the sanction and support of 
the Royal Horticultural Society, for that 
body through its council made fuss enough 
over the proposed City International 
Fruit Show of next autumn, and after all 
accepted the inevitable with as good grace 
as possible. 
So far as is known Mr. H. A. Milner, son 
of the well-known landscape gardener, is the 
Chairman of tiie Executive Committee, 
and signs the prospectus, which oddly 
enough asks for no pecuniary help, a fact 
so strangely unlike British conduct that we 
are indeed surprised. The Exhibition is to 
be on a large as well as an ambitious scale. 
To realise all that is promised should, in the 
ordinary course of things, take several 
years to prepare with the aid of nature, but 
artificially almost everything now can be 
created as if by magic. We shall watch 
this proposed Exhibition with considerable 
and friendly interest, yet shall be pleased 
to learn more about it at the earliest 
possible moment. 
In a purely Horticultural aspect it bids 
fair to be a gigantic undertaking. If 
attempted we should be sorry to see it 
falling short of anticipations or promises. 
Our readers will be interested to learn that 
so far as the City International Fruit Show 
is concerned, if proceedings are moving 
slowly they are at least progressing favour¬ 
ably. 
JThe Royal Horticultural Society.— 
^ On Tuesday next the Council and 
Fellows of this Society will assemble in 
general meeting for the purpose of trans¬ 
acting the usual formal business. The 
Council have issued the customary report, 
which is neither heroic or unsatisfactory, 
whilst it offers few subjects for contentious 
discussion. Possibly the chief item of 
interest will be found in the proposed Horti¬ 
cultural School to be created in conjunction 
with Chiswick Gardens. Of course the 
matter is at present in the proposition 
stage only, but the Fellows have a right to 
learn from the Council some particulars of 
the proposed arrangements, such as how far 
the interests of the Society will be safe¬ 
guarded on the one hand, and on the other 
how it is expected that the gardens as at 
present existing can be made a fit practice 
ground for a Horticultural School. 
We have nothing to say against the pro¬ 
posed School of Horticulture, if the scheme 
can be made workable and successful ; but 
with a lively^ recol'ection of the complete 
failure of the last scheme of the kind tried 
at Chiswick, we venture to warn the pro¬ 
moters that they are undertaking a very 
serious responsibility, and that, in the true 
interests of the Society, their full proposals 
when published will be rigorously ex¬ 
amined by the light of past experience. In 
all sincerity we wish the Society well, and 
shall rejoice exceedingly if the proposed 
scheme can be made to further the interests 
of Horticulture, and add to the reputation 
of the Society. 
We are glad to see that the subject of 
the proposed Horticultural Hall has been 
finally dropped, and theguarantors released 
from their liabilities. As we ventured to 
point out at the outset, it was one of those 
things that could not be realised under the 
conditions upon which the scheme was put 
forth, and aspirations in its favour were 
vain. As to the proposed new members of 
the Council, we shall welcome the election 
of Mr. Owen Thomas as a representative 
Gardener. There is plenty of “grit” in 
him, but he will want it all if he is deter¬ 
mined to stand up for his order, and not 
submit to be treated as a cypher. 
echnical Education in Horti¬ 
culture.— We are constrained to draw 
attention to this subject thus early again, 
because of the obvious dead set made 
against it in a certain quarter, with the 
evident object of discrediting " whatsoever 
is being done in assisting to promote 
instruction in Horticulture by County 
Councils and their agents. To say that 
there is to be found much of evident 
jealousy with reference to Horticultural 
instruction as being now conducted, is to 
put the matter very mildly, as it is also to 
say that there seems to be not less an 
abundance of perverse stupidity exhibited. 
When it is found that County Councils 
have been able to find excellent lecturers 
and expositors of gardening science and 
practice without going to a particular 
place or authority for them, then is there 
gnashing of teeth, and a determined yet 
anonymous effort put forth to discredit 
what is being done, and to check praise¬ 
worthy exertions. It is so easy for those 
who understand these moves to read 
between the lines. Then we see on the 
part of those who profess to be indifferent 
observers, yet again anonymous, such utter 
incapacity to understand what it is the 
County Councils are aiming at. These 
bodies never did propose, as it never was 
their duty, to undertake the education of 
gardeners. What they really desire is to 
infuse a love for gardening generally 
amongst the rural populations, and to give 
with it some grounding in technical Horti¬ 
culture. To assume that the working 
classes cannot be taught anything useful 
about gardening through lectures is mani¬ 
festly absurd, because to admit the sugges¬ 
tion would be a condemnation of every 
lecture, essay, book, and gardening publi¬ 
cation of every description as instructors 
in Horticulture. 
The lecturers do not profess to instruct 
young gardeners, although there are few of 
them so clever that they may not learn 
something by attending the lectures. The 
audiences of ordinary working men do 
appreciate the lectures greatly, and such 
being the case, it does seem churlish to 
do anything which will deprive them of 
any advantages they can gain from them. 
he 'Winter,— Here have we got into 
February, and yet on the whole have 
had exceedingly little to complain of in 
the matter of weather. Since the fogg)'- 
frosts prior to Christmas last disappeared, 
the weather has been very pleasant 
generally and not at all unseasonable; what 
frost we have had in January has been 
rather wholesome and acceptable than 
otherwise, but it was not of long duration, 
and the latter part of the month was so 
comparatively open and mild that we fear 
some anxious gardeners may have been 
induced to sow or plant unduly early in 
the belief that winter was past and spring 
was at hand. 
Whatsoever may be the nature of the 
weather of the coming few weeks, be it 
indeed ever so open and mild, yet the soil 
is needing greater warmth and light. These 
very important essentials will be found only 
after the sun has begun to exercise greater 
power, so that after all there is more wisdom 
in patient waiting than there is in undue 
haste. The soil just now is not at all in 
bad condition for the reception of seeds, if 
properly prepared. After all how much 
hinges upon that condition. Rather than 
being in too much haste to crop it would be 
far wiser to have all the ground to be cropped 
well prepared for that purpose, because not 
only is a good seed-bed in all cases one of 
the surest aids to the production of a good 
plant, but the work of cropping is at a busy 
moment much more rapidly facilitated. 
We especially advise caution in sowing 
seeds this spring, for last season was a very 
bad one for the production of sound seeds; 
and it will be well to allow the soil to 
become as warm as possible before general 
cropping takes place. Although all trans¬ 
planting of deciduous trees and shrubs is 
best done before Christmas, still it is not 
an unfavourable time now to perform what 
has been left undone. 
Fruit-growing in the West.—We learn from the 
Western Mercury that a company has been formed 
at Torquay, to be known as the South Devon Fruit 
Farm Company, who have taken sixteen acres of 
ground at Cockington, where about 9,000 fruit trees 
and bushes are being planted for supplying the town 
with fruit In addition to this, about 30,000 feet of 
glass are to be erected for the production of delicate 
Fruits, Tomatos, Cucumbers, Mushrooms, etc. 
Damaging an Osier Bed.—Mr. C. A. Ellmore, a 
Leicester basket manufacturer, last week sued a 
butcher of the same town in the local county court 
for damages to a valuable osier bed alleged to have 
* been caused by defendant's cattle. After a cosider- 
able amount of evidence had been giveD on both 
sides judgment was given in favour of the plaintiff 
for ^19 10s. 
Death of Mr. William Groves. —We regret very 
much to record the death at Stanhope Lodge, Hyde 
Park, on Saturday last, of Mr. William Groves, aged 
54. Though for many years associated with the 
management of Hyde Park in the position of clerk 
to the superintendent, he was not widely known in 
the horticultural world, but had many friends in pri¬ 
vate life by whom he was very greatly respected. 
The cause of death was bronchitis following upon an 
attack of influenza. 
The Garden Oracle and Floricultural Year Book, so 
long edited by the late Mr. Shirley Hibberd, has 
been considerably enlarged and improved at the 
hands of his successor, Mr. George Gordon, and will 
be found a very useful horticultural annual by all 
who require a ready work of reference. It is pub¬ 
lished at the " Gardeners'Magazine ” office, 4, Ave 
Maria Lane, E.C. 
Hertford Horticultural Mutual Improvement Society. 
—The first general meeting of this recently formed 
society was help on the 27th ult., when Mr. J. Fitt, 
gardener to Earl Cowper, read a paper on "Apple 
Culture,” after which a discussion took place which 
lasted an hour. The next meeting will take place on 
the 10th inst., when Mr. C. Cox, gardener to J. 
Trotter, Esq.,Brickenden Grange, will read a paper 
on the Chrysanthemum, in the culture of which he 
is a past master, so that a very profitable evening is 
looked forward to by the members. 
Preston and Fulwood Floral and Horticultural 
Society. — The 44th monthly meeting of the members 
of this society will be held at the Legs of Man 
Hotel, Fishergate, Preston, this (Saturday) evening, 
when Mr. Robert Frisby, gardener to Miss 
ffarington, Worden Hall, will read a paper on 
" Hardy Herbaceous and Alpine Plants.” Chair to 
be taken at 7.30. 
The Kent County Chrysanthemum Society's next 
exhibition will beheld on November 1 and 2. 
Buttons made from Potatos. —The journal Semper- 
virens indicates that large quantities of buttons are 
made from Potatos in America. They are hardened 
with acids and take then the aspect of horn, ivory, 
or bone. It is with difficulty that specialists learn to 
distinguish the real from the artificial. These but¬ 
tons can also be easily coloured, and their price is 
extremely small. Soon we shall see small statues of 
Potatos, made in imitation of ivory. 
Fruit Trees by th 3 Way Sides. —The province of 
Hanover in Germany has given in 1890, upon the 
trees along the way sides, a crop of fruits of the value 
of 187,000 francs (/7,48c). The region of Hildes- 
heim has given fruits to the value of 64,000 francs 
(£ 2 ,56o), and that of Gottingen 41,000 francs (/i,64o). 
The Bulletin d'Arboriculture, &-c ,, asks, " when shall 
we in Belgium have planted the way sides with fruit 
trees ? ” The same question might well be asked in 
England. 
