THE STATE FAIR— 1873. 



THE EXHIBITION OF THE STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Grand Rapids, Michigan, Septemler 2^, 1873. 



As would very naturally be anticipated, visitors to Pomological Hall dar- 

 ing the recent State Fair, Ivnowing the severity of the past winter, were very 

 generally surprised at the great variety and high quality of the fruits exhibited. 

 The almost universal impression seems to have been that the trees, or at the 

 least the fruit buds, had been so seriously injured by the old of the past 

 winter that little Avas to be expected from an exhibition this fall. 



Perhaps nothing could have more effectually demonstrated the great value 

 of our lake protection than does the fact of our ability, at such a time, to call 

 together a pomological display very little if at all inferior to that of last year; 

 while in adjoining States the more tender fruits are understood to be almost 

 swept out of existence. 



One of the difficulties experienced at last year's exhibition was the extensive 

 duplication of showy and, in many cases, utterly worthless varieties, asa means 

 of creating impressions upon the minds of both committees and visitors not in 

 accordance with the real value of such collections. Since then the rules of the 

 Society have been so modified as to considerably obviate this difficulty. 



The gathering of collections of fruit for exhibition had also been done, to a 

 considerable extent, by persons very little conversant with nomenclature; 

 hence in many cases such collections had been placed upon the tables partially 

 or wholly unnamed, — collectors relying on the committee on nomenclature 

 for the attaching of the proper names, — a work, as every pomologist well under- 

 stands, of extreme difficulty, as well as of great uncei-tainty in the cases of 

 fruits separated from the trees, and without history or description. Last year 

 this difficulty was so serious that the committee in charge found it impossible 

 to complete the naming of the varieties in time for the action of the viewing 

 committee. To in some degree obviate this difficulty in the future, a rule 

 was adopied forbidding the awarding of premiums upon fruits except when, 

 correctly named by the exhibitor. 



The effect of these two rules has been to iveed out a large proportion of the 

 duplications of showy but worthless varieties, and to fill their places at least to 

 some extent with others perhaps of less pretentious appearance, but of greater 

 real value. Still the fact is mmilest that the persistent exhibition of a class 

 of showy but really worthless fruits, such as Twenty Ounce Pippin, Chessbro 

 Russet, Pound Sweeting, Pumpkin Russet, and numerous others, may be sup- 

 posed to have a tendency to encourage the planting of them to a considerai)le 

 extent; and it may be considered as an open question whether they should 

 not be subjected to such regulation of the Society as shall characterize them as 

 a positive discredit to the collection containing them, as they are certainly held 

 to be by the more considerate and intelligent of our growers and lovers of 

 fruit. 



