COUNTRY LIFE
Gardening Shows It is excellent news that the Royal Horticultural Society is to reintroduce its programme of small monthly shows in West- minster. In peace-time nothing seemed to bring the country to London so effectively and with such charm, and the small mid-winter shows, fresh with clusiana tulips and new narcissi out before their time, and fragrant with rarer daphnis and coloured fuchsias, were more intimate, and to the real gardener more satis- factory than Chelsea. It occurs to me that the Ministry of Agriculture might follow the courageous example of the R.H.S., or even co-operate with it, and hold similar monthly shows at which early produce could be shown and sound advice be given to a vast and rather bewildered gardening public. A large part of that public still does not know whether it will serve the country better by growing peas or potatoes, or which varieties to grow, or which fertilisers to apply. A regular programme of shows in the larger cities, where the eye and ear could take in quick and instructive lessons for the experts, would be of im- mense value. Indeed, I believe that one inch show, with its essentially practical and visual appeal, would do more good, and do it more quickly, than a mountain of official pamphlets.
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