MAINE STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Transactions for the Year i888-g. 



There are so many ways in which our Society is doing a magnifi- 

 cent work in behalf of the various industries it represents, it is 

 extremely difficult to gather the fragments and arrange them in 

 intelligble form for publication. It may be an easy matter to set ito 

 order the papers read at our meetings, and to spread out before the 

 reader the various discussions which form so important a feature of 

 our public gatherings. The official action of the Society, so far as 

 it may become a matter of record, may be readily shown in its list 

 of officers, the votes passed, reports of committees, etc. The 

 annual exhibition as announced in premium lists looks well, and so 

 do the tables of fruits and flowers, but the list of awards is all we 

 are able to publish in connection with it. These represent what we 

 may call the visible work of the Society. 



Beyond all these the Society is the means of disseminating useful 

 information to the public which none can correctly measure. Dur- 

 ing the year the officers have been in frequent correspondence not 

 only with Maine fruit gi'owers, but with other persons outside the 

 State, and with other kindred societies. There have been frequent 

 calls for our annual volume of Transactions and for information 

 regarding varieties of fruits and cultural directions. So far as pos- 

 sible it has been a pleasure to respond to these inquiries, though in 

 the absence of any extended publication the answers have neces- 

 sarily been brief. The extent of the unorganized work is the 

 feature most difficult to determine. To illustrate : — Our last exhi- 

 bition was one of the best arranged we have ever held. Many of 

 its details are published elswhere, but the taste shown in the dis- 

 plays of fruits and flowers is the teslhetic feature and can not be 

 shown in print. The harmony of colors in the floral designs was 



