370 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



As the society progressed in interest from year to year, and new members 

 were added to our ranks, a good deal of emulation occurred among us, and 

 each one tried to excel the other in the laudable effort to raise the earliest, 

 the largest, and if possible the best of its kind, and many made specialties of 

 some fruit or vegetable, to see to what perfection of sizo or earliness it could 

 be made to attain with extra care, nursing and fertilization. 



About 1853, or may be the year before, the Victoria pieplant was introduced 

 here, largest of the rhubarb family then grown. As it was found to respond 

 quickly to high culture and nursing, many members took the craze, and pie- 

 plant was raised in large quantities and of mammoth size. In the summer of 

 1855 stalks were on exhibition by D. K. Underwood weighing two pounds 

 and 12 ounces; and the same by B. F. Strang, and several others, about the 

 same weight. But Judge Barber took the pie on July 20, with a stalk weighing 

 three pounds and thirteen ounces. Then the rest of us dropped out. While 

 I am on specialties I must tell a little note of the well-remembered and valued 

 friend of this society, Samuel Lothrop. Mr. Lothrop always had a nice gar- 

 den. It was the pride of his heart, and it always did him good to be a little 

 ahead of others with his fruits and vegetables, and he usually got about the 

 first on the exhibition tables. One spring about this time, the 15th of March, 

 Mr. Lothrop decided in his own mind that he must have the first green peas 

 this year if care and nursing would do it. He dug shallow trenches, fertilized 

 high,and planted his peas with great care. He then procured strips of '-factory" 

 cloth to cover over them cold days and nights, and took special care of them 

 during the entire spring. His German neighbor, the other side of the fence, 

 who was a good gardener, watched the trench digging with some interest; 

 and, being puzzled to know the meaning of it, called out one morning over 

 the fence, "01 Mister Lothrop, what for you doing mit dem ditches?" Mr. 

 Lothrop explained to his neighbor his intentions. The German shook his 

 head and said, "We don't grow peas till May, Mister Lothrop;" and, as Mr. 

 Lothrop told us afterward, his German neighbor planted on the 2d day of 

 May and had green peas within two days as soon as he did, and he wanted us 

 to answer the question, did it pay? We thought the experiment answered the 

 question. 



For several years during the fifties this society was noted for placing on 

 her exhibition tables the best collection of cherries of any place in the state; 

 but the trees proved too tender, as a rule, and soon succumbed to severe win- 

 ters or other climatic influences, and are, with many other good things, out- 

 side of profitable culture in this latitude. Among the varieties then grown 

 here, which gave us much satisfaction, were Black Tartarian, Black Eagle, 

 Black Heart, Elton, Sparhawk's Honey, May Duke, Napotian, Bigarroux, 

 Gov. Wood, Ohio Beauty, and many other choice varieties could be men- 

 tioned, which found a place during their season upon the tables. 



Peaches were at the lime very plentiful and were considered a valuable crop 

 at a dollar per bushel. The failure to have an annual crop was the exception, 

 not the rule as now, and there were some fine specimens exhibited from time 

 to time. I will mention a few to show what was grown here then. Luther 

 Bradish presented a Crawford's Early, weight 11 ounces, measuring 10| 

 inches; James A. Johnson, a seedling, weight 11^ ounces; A. M. Baker, 

 Crawford's Late, 11 ounces, and Israel Perrmgton of Macon, with a basket 

 of such beauties that we wished we lived in the corner of his orchard, or held 

 our meetings there. 



