STATE POJIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 39 



to test the fruit, and our word for it, the man does not alwaj^s wait 

 to receive it from the hand of the woman. 



There is a lack of public taste in these matters. How rarely does 

 one find the best apples placed before him at the hotels. In many 

 cases it would seem as if the proprietors bought only No. 2 apples, 

 and that the best of these were eaten by the servants. The fruit 

 dishes are too frequently filled with inferior fruit, and that, too,, with- 

 out any efl^ort to make it attractive. Often one is disposed to refuse 

 such fruit when ofl^ered. It is terribl}- provoking for a fruit grower 

 to think of, for he knows there is no necessity for using inferior 

 fruit any more than there is of using inferior potatoes. Let the 

 hotels use the best dessert apples in the market, polish up their 

 crimson cheeks and arrange them tastih' before their guests, and 

 they will find few who will care for other fruits. 



In a standard work it is stated, that " For the kitchen the apple is 

 certainl}-, of all fruits, the most useful ; and perhaps it is here that 

 its utility to man is most conspicuous, because it proves, when 

 cooked, a nutritious and wholesome food." There are few indeed 

 who realize the full extent to which fruits may be advantageously 

 used. The testimony of physicians is uniformly that cooked fruit 

 is one of the most healthful articles of food in diet, and scattered 

 through the books on materia medica are frequent recommendations 

 to use fruit both in health and sickness. When our people know 

 how to make the fullest use of apples we shall have less occasion for 

 eating so many meats, and the doctor's calls will be less frequent. 



Future pomologists have many surprises in store. Here and 

 there we have their shadows in view at times, though in our thought- 

 less methods we do not recognize them. The surprises are in the 

 direciion of plant or flower study. It has been the habit of our 

 society to give liberal premiums for flowers, and the flowers form 

 one of the most beautiful and instructive features of our exhibitions, 

 but until the last fair I think the society has never ofl^ered a pre- 

 mium to directly encourage the studj- of our beautiful Maine flora. 

 Heretofore the society has offered premiums for basket of wild 

 flowers, bouquets, etc. But the last season as an experiment, for 

 so it seemed to some of the committee, a premium was offered for 

 best collection of correctly named wild flowers. There were two 

 fine collections, but in one case the exhibitor omitted the essential 

 condition, failing to give the botanical names. 



