2 
THE GARDEN ALBUM AND REVIEW. 
NEW FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 
The improvement of plants used for food is 
work of the highest importance in all advanced 
nations and populous countries ; and in this 
direction horticulturists who have concentrated 
their attention upon fruit or vegetables have 
produced extremely satisfactory results. British 
hybridisers have had to rely entirely upon the 
commercial value of the forms raised to recom¬ 
pense them for their efforts, and just as it is 
with many inventions in the mechanical world, 
the originators do not always reap the full 
reward of their efforts. It has been left for 
the United States to set an example that 
might be followed in other countries with 
advantage. The award by the Carnegie 
Institute of 100,000 dollars to the hybridiser, 
Mr. Luther Burbank, of California, to be paid 
in annual amounts of 10,000 dollars for ten 
years, is a record in history of plant improve¬ 
ment. Without detracting in the slightest 
from Mr. Burbank’s work it would not be 
difficult to find British horticulturists who are 
equally worthy of substantial recognition. 
Possibly, at some future time, when the Board 
of Agriculture has funds at its disposal pro¬ 
portionate to the importance of the work it has 
to perform, some part may be devoted to the 
encouragement of plant improvement. At 
present all that the producers of new plants 
can look to is the eagerness of growers and 
the public to secure any form which shows an 
advance on those already in cultivation. Even 
the protection of an interest in a new plant 
seems to present difficulties that have hitherto 
proved insurmountable in this country. 
CERTIFICATES. 
The advantage of decisions respecting the 
distinctness and merits of novelties being 
entrusted to a central independent body of 
experts is fully exemplified in the case of the 
Royal Horticultural Society’s Committees. 
The value of rewards secured for new plants, 
fruits, or vegetables exhibited before these 
adjudicators is widely recognised both by the 
trade and the public. Considering the large 
number of new productions submitted for 
certificates, the instances where those selected 
for honours have subsequently failed to justify 
the distinction are exceedingly few. Indeed, in 
a period of twenty-five years during which I 
have been familiar with the exhibits and the 
awards the numbers of conspicuous cases 
would represent a small percentage in the total. 
In the majority the failure has been traceable 
to the inadequate material submitted rather 
than to errors of judgment as regards the 
character of the exhibits. The fact that in the 
course of a dozen years large numbers of 
certificated plants pass into obscurity only 
proves the alteration in public taste, and the 
continued advance made. 
At the same time there are serious difficulties 
in the way of accurate decisions upon exhibited 
novelties which are particularly notable as 
regards fruits and vegetables. A few individual 
specimens may, as the result of good culture 
or various accidental circumstances, appear 
to possess distinctive characters which are 
not maintained in extended cultivation. For 
example, neither a dozen nor twenty fruits of 
a new Apple or Pear can afford the slightest 
indication of the habit of the tree, its fertility, 
or its constitution, all of which points concern 
the cultivator quite as much as the distinctness 
and merits of the fruit. It is in a measure 
the same with vegetables. It is always possible 
to select a few samples from a large crop 
showing exceptional characters, but the after 
results in their maintenance depend mainly 
upon the persons in whose hands the preser¬ 
vation of the strain rests. 
Much of the disappointment which occasion¬ 
ally results from the purchase of new fruits or 
vegetables that have been certificated might 
be avoided if it were made compulsory to 
furnish full details of their history and habit, 
such facts to be incorporated in the certificate 
as a qualification of the award. The length of 
time the variety or strain has been under trial 
should be included, and in the case of vegetables 
the extent of land under the crop from which 
the specimens were taken would also have a 
bearing upon the matter that ought not to be 
overlooked. It does not appear to me in the 
case of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Com¬ 
mittees that their duties consist only in deter¬ 
mining the distinctness and merit of the 
variation as it appears before them. They have 
a wider public interest to study, and what may 
well suffice for a Judge’s Certificate at a local 
Horticultural Show should not alone qualify 
for an award of the Central Authority. 
TRIALS OF NEW FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 
The necessity for further experience and 
information in the direction indicated led to the 
establishment of the trials at Chiswick, now 
carried out at Wisley Gardens, from which 
valuable information has , been derived in 
reference to the behaviour of many novelties. 
Awards are now often postponed by a request 
that the exhibitor send the variety under con¬ 
sideration to the R.H.S. Gardens for trial. 
Admirable and desirable as that custom is in 
many respects, it is under present conditions 
open to some question. If a raiser has waited 
for several years to prove the merit of a fruit, 
or has devoted a similar period to fixing a 
strain or type of vegetable, it is hard to have 
an award postponed, possibly for a year or 
more, when there must be ample evidence in 
the exhibitor’s possession in one direction or 
the other. 
The trial of all meritorious varieties by the 
Certificating Authority is eminently desirable, 
but it is an expensive undertaking to perform 
thoroughly, and unless the utmost care is 
devoted to recording every detail likely to 
