G4 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



tees capable of distinguishing a Durham from a Galloway or even Devon : or a 

 Merino from a Southdown ; and a mistake of such a committee may generally 

 be readily rectified at the time. On the other hand, it is extremely difficult to 

 secure committees capable of surely determining the identity of many of even 

 our leading varieties of fruits; while thousands of planters are liable to be led, 

 in consequence of errors of this character, to select, plant and. grow up to 

 fructification, spurious and even utterly worthless varieties — a mistake which 

 it is oftentimes the work of a lifetime to correct. 



The existence of this difficulty seems to have become the occasion of an 

 arrangement by virtue of which the State Pomological Society has now for 

 several years assumed at the fairs of the State Agricultural Society, the task 

 of collecting and arranging the pomological and floral exhibits, together with 

 the duty of framing the premium lists, and awarding and paying the pre- 

 miums thereon. 



The grower of farm stock, of wheat, or of corn, nsually embarks in the 

 business for a livelihood or for profit. Unlike him, the average fruit grower, 

 (and in this class I include every owner of an orchard or fruit garden), com- 

 mences to plant with scarcely a thought of pecuniary return, but rather upon 

 the crude assumption that fruit is convenient as a means of adding variety to 

 the cuisine of his household ; regarding the whole matter as too unimportant 

 to demand care and judgment in the selection of varieties; and, in the great 

 majority of cases, leaving such selections to the nurseryman or even to some 

 unknown or irresponsible '^tree pedlar," who may perchance have a direct in- 

 terest in mis-advisinsr him. 



The assumption is natural, and in the main doubtless correct, that a greater 

 amount of practical knowledge and business consistency should be found 

 among those who undertake the planting of fruits as a business matter, and 

 for commerical purposes; yet in practice even such planters far too often ad- 

 venture npon the business with great lack of knowledge and experience. 



Iksidcs these difficulties, the cultivation, pruning and management of trees; 

 the gathering, selecting, ripening, packing, and marketing of fruits, taken in 

 connection with their more or less perishable nature, demand a knowledge of 

 the results of a very varied experience. 



To wield the means placed in its charge for the dissemination of knowledge on 

 these varied subjects ; to elevate the standard of culture ; to call to the aid of fruit 

 culture such information from kindred sciences as may conduce to its higher suc- 

 cess ; and to arm its devotees with such knowledge of the many and varied casual- 

 ties and diseases to which both trees and fruit are subject, as shall enable them 

 most elfectually to guard against them ; and even to educate the fruit con- 

 sumers of the country to a better knowledge of what is adapted to the supply 

 of their wants, are doubtless a few among the numerous objects coming witliin 

 the sphere of the Society's operations. 



Although the name of the Society would seem to require that its operations 

 be restricted within the sphere that such a name indicates, practice ^has long 

 shown that there is no proper line of demarcation between Pomology and Hor- 

 ticulture ; and that, no matter how carefully it may purpose to limit its opera- 

 tions within the sphere of the former, it will very probably be found occasion- 

 ally disporting itself, unawares, upon the proper territory of the latter. In 

 fact, though purporting to be only a Pomological Society, and notwithstanding 

 the resolute unwillingness of many of its most earnest friends, that it should 

 forego this time-honored title, it is, and has been, from the outset, in reality 

 a Horticultural Societv. In fact the culture and manag:ement of fruit trees 



