THE ANNUAL MEETING. 181 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON PEARS AND PLUMS. 



To tliG President and Members of tlic Micldgan State Fomolorjicat Society : 



Gektlemex — As cliairraau of the committee appoiuted at the State fair 

 last September, to award premiums in divisions F, G, K and N, embracing 

 collections and plates of pears, plums, quinces and cranberries, I would report 

 as follows : 



There were in these various divisions 289 entries, embracing 450 plates of 

 fruit, of which there were 158 single plates of pears, 98 of plums, 8 of quinces 

 and 1 of cranberries, besides 17 collections of pears and 7 collections of 

 plums. These were entered by 37 exhibitors, of whom 9 were from Detroit, 8 

 from the West Shore, 3 from Grand Rapids, and 17 from various other parts 

 of the State. Twenty-two exhibitors received premiums, of whom C were from 

 Detroit, 6 from the West Shore, and 10 from other points. 



Of the total number of entries, 31 were from Detroit, 146 from the West 

 Shore, and 112 from other points. Of the 40 first premiums awarded, 4 went 

 to Detroit, 21 to West Shore, 7 to Kalamazoo, and 8 elsewhere. Of individual 

 exhibitors, I will name only a few of the largest. Mr. E. J. Shirts of Shelby, 

 Oceana county; the Oceana and West Michigan Pomological Society, which 

 he represented, and Mr. C. A. Sessions, of the same county, were the princi- 

 pal exhibitors of plums, besides showing largely of pears. Together they 

 made 122 entries in these divisions, or more than a third of the whole number. 

 Of these 10 were duplicates and 25 were not put up owing to lack of space. 

 This left 91 competing entries on which they received 17 first, 14 second, and 

 2 third premiums, a total of 33 premiums out of 85 awarded. 



In pears, the chief exhibitor was Mr. Stearns, of the firm of L. G. Bragg 

 & Co., of Kalamazoo, who made 22 entries, and received on them 7 first and 

 8 second premiums. There w^as no third premium stuff in their display. Mr. 

 F. M. Benham, of Olivet, took the first premium for general collection of 

 pears, and Mr. H. B. Chapman, of Reading, for family collection. 



Mr. Philo Parsons, of Detroit, showed a number of fine plates of pears, 

 but it was reserved for Mr. H. C. Engle, of Detroit, to show a plate of Flem- 

 ish Beauty pears which, for perfect excellence in all respects, surpassed any- 

 thing else in the hall, or which I remember to have seen at any of our previous 

 exhibits. They were very large, but not monstrous, being exceeded in size by 

 several other plates shown. They were uniform in all points of color, size, 

 shape, etc. The shape was perfect, their stems were unbroken and they had 

 no worms or blemishes of any sort. They were plump, firm, bright. There 

 were just five of them — no excess, none lacking, and they were properly 

 named, entered, labeled and placed, and altogether it did your committee's 

 heart good to look at them. This plate was my ideal of what exhibition fruit 

 should be — something to stimulate ambition in other growers, and to advertise 

 our State by showing the pre-eminent excellence of its products. 



I wish to enter my strongest protest against the prevalent practice of exhib- 

 iting commonplace stuff at our fairs. Much of the fruit submitted to our 

 criticism was wholly unworthy of public display, and only served to cumber 

 the shelves and prevent the better fruit from being seen. Wormy, scabby, 

 stemless or undersized fruit ought to be excluded from our shelves even by 

 edict of the society, if not by the good sense of individual exhibitors. Is it 

 not possible that we indirectly invite such stuff by offering second, third, and 



