FOXTON HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1082, 14 December 1911, Page 4

FOXTON HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

ESSAY COMPETITION

The following is the essay which obtained third prize in the above competition, written by Edgar McEweu : “On Wednesday, November 22nd, the local Show was opened, during the presence of a specially large attendance considering the weather conditions. The President, Mr Speirs, made a speech, thanking the people for their attendance and expressing bis regret that the heavy winds had prevented the people exhibiting more sweet peas. Every class of flowers was well represented, and considering the storms of late, compared favourably with last year's results. The roses were excellent, both in quantity and quality. The stage was the centre of beauty, as it was there that the decorated tables were placed. Another feature of the Show was the decorated baskets, as, decked in splendour, they rested on the benches. The floral designs looked very attractive, and the decorated hats, although the ladies would not care to wear them through town, looked splendid. The vegetables, as many noticed, were not judged by size, but suitability for household use. This was very conspicuous with the leek, as one exhibit was almost twice as big as the first prize lot. The cookery was such as to tempt any boy, and any girl, too, and I think some children must have had some troubje in resisting the temptation of handling, and even eating, some of the cakes, and the fruit looked very good. The vegetables were well represented, but ol course did not take up so much room as the flowers. The school work, I may fairly say, was very good, and was a decided improvement on former exhibits, especially in the brush work and mapping classes. The services of a horticultural society are invaluable to a town, and the Foxton Society is not proving itself an exception. People who went to the first show had flowers which they thought were not of tne best quality, but on seeing those exhibited, found that their flowers were of equal quality. The horticultural society, therefore, gives people an inspiration to care for their gardens and to encourage horticulture. By exhibiting at a show, the school work is improved considerably, and so both children and adults are benefited greatly. Needlework is improved, and the Society tends to make people more excellent in all lines of decorative beauty. Besides this, the populace is seized with a desire to beautify their homes, and are encouraged in neatness. The farmers of the place, seeing the vegetables at the Show, know which vegetables are suitable for the soil, and make it their duty to have a crop of these each season. The children of the schools around see the work exhibited by other pupils, and so gain a fair estimate of how their work is progressing, compared with that of other schools. The exhibits of the nurserymen fill the pec pie with a desire to have flowers of the same quality, and so they order fresh plants, the exhibiting of which assists the Society to become selfsupporting. As a great many of the people visit the Show, the social condition of the town is benefited, because the people who were at one lime strangers become acquainted, and associate as old friends. People who before did not take an interest in gardening were seized with a sudden impetus for the subject, and it may now be said that horticulture is "all the rage ” in Foxton. Lastly, but by no means leastly, the Society encourages industry amongst the people of the town and the district around. In short, a horticultural society is tor the educational, agricultural and general well-being of the people.”