64 GENERAL HISTORY. 



Of this last display, the Philadelphia Sunday Times said: ''This magnifi- 

 cent display from Michigan opens the eyes of Philadelphians to the great 

 resources of that State in fruit culture. Michigan may congratulate herself 

 on the genera] admiration the display has excited." 



Mr. Ilgenfritz says (Michigan and the Centennial, page 495,) that *'|th& 

 people of our sister States were not alone, but were joined by the foreign 

 visitors in showering encomiums on the Michigan fruit exhibit. The French 

 commissioners would not be satisfied until they carefully packed a box of 

 twenty-eight of our most popular varieties, with their correct names attached, 

 that they might take them with them to show to their Horticultural Society. 

 Michigan exhibited during the season three hundred and seventeen varieties 

 of apples, seventy-four varieties of pears, twenty-eight varieties of peaches, 

 nineteen varieties of plums and thirty-eight varieties of grapes. Total num- 

 ber of plates, three thousand four hundred and seventy-four." 



These were the free gifts of numerous contributors whose names may be 

 found in the pages of the memorial work of S. B. McCracken, of Detroit ; 

 but lack of space forbids their insertion. 



The judges were classified by the Centennial Commission in groups, and 

 to one of these groups was assigned the Department of pomology. Prior to 

 the grand display of northern pomological products in September, this group 

 of judges had been represented solely by those members of the group resid- 

 ing at or near Philadelphia; who had met weekly to examine and pass upon 

 such exhibits as should from time to time make their appearance upon the 

 tables, which, up to the time of this grand display, had remained in one aisle 

 of Agricultural Hall. The opening of this northern exhibit at once com- 

 pelled a resort to the annex, in which was provided a capacity for the dis- 

 play of fully 15,000 plates, and nearly the whole of which was densely filled 

 during the period of this exhibit. 



To provide for the press of work in this emergency, this group of judges 

 were, during this week, reinforced by members appointed expressly for this 

 occasion; and on the arrival a meeting was held, and it was resolved to divide 

 the exhibits into classes, and to assign each class to a relative subdivision of 

 the group of judges. Under these arrangements the work was subdivided 

 and assigned as follows : 



Apples — T. T. Lyon, Mich. ; Suel Foster, Iowa ; "W. S. Schaffer, Penn. 



Fears — Parker Earle, 111. ; A. W. Harrison, Penn. ; Edwin Shatterthwaite^ 

 Penn. 



Stone Fruits — Wm. Parry, N. J. ; M. Martin, ; J. Yellowly, Miss. 



Miscellaneous Fruits — Josiah Hoopes, Penn. ; J. T. Suit, Del. ; Thos. 

 Meehan, Penn. 



The work under these supervisions, covering as they did such an immense 

 mass of material, was necessarily very laborious and protracted ; esj^ecially 

 that upon apples, which comprised a very large proportion of the whole 

 exhibit. 



The judges also found themselves somewhat embarrassed by the somewhat 

 novel and peculiar regulations established by the Centennial Commission for 

 the making of the report and the reading of awards. The sole award to be 

 made 1)y these, or in fact any of the judges, was a bronze medal accompa- 

 nic'] by a diploma, which were to be bestowed upon each meritorious exhibit, 

 without reference to competition ; and the function of the judges consisted in 

 recommending such awards and stating explicitly, in each instance, their reason 

 for sucli recommendation, such recou)mendation being subject to examination 



