and flavor to the Present de Malines, and Passe Colmar. The two pears now sent grew against a west wall, in my garden at Thames Ditton, in Surrey. (Excellent. Cond.)

I have kept back those pears as long as I conveniently could, in order to try the keeping quality of the fruit against the Poire d'Auch, heretofore our best keeping pear. A specimen of this last I send, that you may compare them together. It is scarcely treating these pears with fair play, to tumble them about before tasting, at this season of the year, as such usage is almost certain of deteriorating their flavour, by bringing on fermentation into their juice, which will render them mealy. To keep fruits well, they should be preserved in an equal dry temperature, under the fermenting point, from whence they should only be brought just at the time of using. This my experience teaches, and acting upon this principle, I have prepared the fruit room in my new habitation, for my choice keeping fruit, thirty-two feet under the surface of the earth, in the solid dry rock; the foundation being laid thirty-three feet and a half above the level of the spring in the well, a few yards off. The stone which was quarried out of these three stories of cellars, was all used in the building, and cost less than an equivalent of bricks at fifteen shillings per thousand.

Respectfully, I am,

Boughton Mount,

March 1.1826.

Dear Sir, &c.

JOHN BRADDICK.

ART. XV. Remarks on the Constitution and Administration of the London Horticultural Society. By a Fellow of the Society.

Sir,

I CONGRATULATE you very sincerely on the undertaking a Gardener's Magazine, which, if conducted with common care, and some spice of impartiality, will be as amusing as instructing to amateur gardeners like myself. I am not given to authorship, and have some hesitation in putting pen to paper, when I consider that it is to be printed; but the fact is, you have won my heart by the remark in your first number, on the laying out of the garden of the Horticultural Society of Chiswick; if the term " laying out" may, with any thing like decent propriety, be applied to such an arrangement of straight walks and kidney-shaped clumps, as are displayed in this garden of the richest and most highly patronized

society in England. I have a deal to say on the subject of the society, and I hope that I shall have the good fortune from time to time to be permitted to occupy a spare page or two in your Magazine. The society has done and will do much good; but, like most of these companies and societies it has the seeds of its own corruption within it "there is something rotten in the state of Denmark." I trust that notwithstanding you are a member, you will hear both sides, and freely admit the remarks of each.

The greatest benefit and the greatest evil to the concern is the secretary; benefit, because he is indefatigable in the establishment and management; his whole time, care, and attention is devoted to the furtherance of it; but then comes the evil-- the society receives the benefit of his care, time, and attention for nothing—and this to me is a great evil. Shall we not fall into the same error as other societies who have been patronized by honorary secretaries? Is not the society accepting too much? Seeing how rich it is, would it not be much wiser it all its officers, except those whose services are professedly of an honorary nature, were paid? The objection to the contrary is, that when this is not done, the individual has claims on it, which, from being undefined, are always dangerous. How can the different members with any grace gainsay the wishes of one who has done so much for them? How can the distribution of this patronage, or the donation of that packet of seeds, or that plant, be denied to him who has been such a benefactor? As far as I am convinced, and as my knowledge goes, I should say, that though Mr. Knight was the king, the secretary must, to all who dabble in the arrangement of the interior, be considered as the " viceroy over him." Is he not omnipotent in the council — in the committee of drawings -in the garden committee - and in short, in every thing? Suppose him to give offence to any member, to whom is that member to complain? Will the council venture to decide against the secretary?

Now you must not fancy for a moment that I am disinclined towards our secretary, or the society, far from it. I only mention these things for the benefit of the former, and the well being of the latter. At present it is going on swimmingly. Government, it is said, has, or is about to bestow, a large sum of money for the furtherance of its objects; and, as this is the case, the concern belongs to the public in some measure; and as such, all difficulty or delicacy as to observation is removed. It has been a matter of as much surprise as regret to find, that with such a vast annual subscription and a subscription of some thousands of pounds for the

garden, it has been thought necessary to go a begging to the government: let that, however, pass; but if the money is got, at all events let us see how it is spent.

I shall not overwhelm you with too much at once; but think you will agree with me that a great deal has been spent in objects which are not quite within the spirit of the meaning of the charter; or, what is of more consequence, the meaning or wishes of the subscribers. I think it certainly never was intended to form in the garden a botanical collection. And is there any occasion for it when we have Kew and the Linnæan Society? As for the introduction of new and beautiful flowers, that is quite consistent with the original foundation; but that a large part of the funds should be applied in sending collectors to all parts of the globe, to Canton, Columbia, the Cape, &c. I think it quite beside what the original founders meant.

There is another very questionable point. I am an original subscriber. Well, it has been determined to establish a garden on a larger scale than the first, and a particular subscription for it was set on foot. This was not done at a General Meeting, I believe; at least I, as a subscriber, was no party to this, as far as I know. To those who subscribe to the gardens there are particular privileges attached; they may have plants on application. They give tickets to view the garden to their friends; in fact, they are a "privileged class,” and I, an old subscriber, am turned into the lower orders, and am no longer a member of the society; and I must either do what my circumstances do not conveniently admit of, or I must remain in my degraded state. It is true, I continue to have the right of going to the garden myself; but when a friend asks me for a ticket, I am obliged to confess I cannot give one. Why not? is the answer; Mr. So and So has as many as he likes. There I am driven up into a corner, and obliged to confess that I am only one of the poor members, and cannot assist him. The same as to the distributions.

In short, the London Horticultural Society has ceased to be conducted on liberal principles for the benefit of horticulture; and its main efforts are directed to its own agrandizement; in some respects to the positive injury of horticulturists, by paralysing the efforts of individuals. Whether this will go on, or whether the energies of some individuals will lead to a general reformation of the system of management, it is in possible to foresee. But this much I think, you and most of the practical gardeners in the neighbourhood of London, who are fellows, will agree in, that a reformation is highly necessary. I am, Sir, &c.

A FELLOW of the Society.

Note by the Conductor. - The author of the foregoing paper will excuse us for having omitted so much of what he had written. We should not have inserted his letter at all, had it Deen the only one received on the subject; but as there seems among many practical gardeners in the neighbourhood of London a spirit of dissatisfaction with the society, whether well or ill grounded we do not pretend to say, we consider it our duty to attend to it; more particularly as it is practical gardeners who are the chief readers of this Magazine. Discussion on the subject can never do harm, and may do good. We perfectly agree with the writer on the subject of an unpaid secretary; but we question much, if any secretary, however well paid, would have raised the society to the same degree of eminence that has been done by the present one. It is only just, therefore, that he ought to be gratified, in return, with as great a share of power as is consistent with the dignity and safety of the society. To the friends of horticulture, the most interesting point is, the question whether, according to their present plan and proceedings, this society will be able to get income sufficient to go on with for many years. A plan, we think, should have been adopted, which would not have involved so great an annual expence. No society, in our opinion, should interfere with any thing that can be very well or better done by individuals; and on this principle, if that in question were to limit itself to absolute utility, its business would be very simple, and not very expensive. In the first place, there would be no occasion for an extensive garden; for we feel well assured that the only real good to be done by this part of the establishment, is to bring together all the varieties of fruits and culinary vege*ables now scattered over the country, and form complete descriptive catalogues of them. A few acres enclosed by a good wall, and a vinery of 150 feet in length, would have been more than sufficient for this purpose. There is not another point in the whole circle of gardening that would not have been much better done by individuals than by this or any society whatever. For example, to procure plants and fruits from abroad — offer handsome premiums for them. To propagate and disseminate them when received — give them to the nurserymen. To ascertain any point by experiment state the desideratum, and the reward you will give for the best account of the result - trials will be made by several, and instead of one result you will have a dozen. No experimental discovery of much importance was ever made by any society. The great strength of a country, whether politically or scientifically, is founded on the energies

of the individuals who compose it, and, therefore, any measure which has a tendency to repress individual energy, and induce a reliance on others, is injurious. Of this nature is all monopoly, and we think the horticultural society attempt too much in this way; from the one extreme of sending out botanical collectors to every part of the world, to the other of supplying gentlemen with practical gardeners. We consider the latter point, indeed, as so utterly at variance with the dignity of the society, that we are astonished it should be persisted in. An institution with "His sacred Majesty” as a patron, and emperors and kings as members, to keep an office for servants! And while all this is being attended to, the gardening comforts of the laboring classes is totally neglected. (See Art. I. p. 101.)

But we would not confine a grand, central, horticultural society, like that of London, to bare utility; we would wish it to have a splendid garden as an additional ornament to the metropolis, and a first-rate specimen of the art of gardening. This, once done, could be kept up at such an annual expence as it might reasonably be expected would be raised by the ordinary income of the society; but independently altogether of utility or splendour we think it very questionable if the present system of embracing so many objects both at home and abroad, can be continued for many years longer.

ART. XVI. Abridgments of Communications which want of room precludes our inserting at length.

THE authors of the following papers are requested to excuse the Conductor for the liberty he has taken in presenting their communications in an abridged state. There is not ong

of them that would not have done credit to its writer and to the magazine if printed at length; and some of them were actually put in type for that purpose; but want of room and the disadvantages of delay have compelled us to follow this

course.

1. On the Cultivation of Gourds and Pompions. By Mr. HENRY GRAY, Gardener, Camberwell. Dated December 12th, 1825.

MR. GRAY'S employer had lived a good deal in the West Indies, and there acquired a taste for using the different varieties of edible gourds, as a substitute for our common culinary vegetables. Mr. Gray plants in the paths between asparagus beds, and lets the vines run over them; and he