Vermont State Horticultubal Society. 71 



why this is so, and if we wanted to, we could not stop horticul- 

 tural progress ; we could not prevent this progress. We must 

 learn about it, and fall in with it, and keep up with the pro- 

 cession. 



We talk about Systematic Pomology, that which treats of 

 the different varieties of fruits, and their classifications ; pomol- 

 ogy which treats of the practice of fruit growing; commercial 

 pomology, which treats of the business of selling fruit. 



Our progress and our changes have been along those lines 

 very largely. There are some of you here who were acquainted 

 with Charles Downing and Marshall P. Wilder, the men who 

 started the great horticultural progress in this country. Many 

 of you have read the discussions of the American Pomological 

 Society of 50 or 60 years ago, and I am sure you were impressed 

 with this fact, that they talked almost entirely about varieties, 

 page after page, telling about this variety and that variety. 

 There was a certain reason for that. The country was new ; 

 new varieties were brought in ; local adaptations had to be studied 

 out. The whole force of the horticultural discussion was put 

 upon systematic propagation. 



Then came the era of practical pomology, of fruit growing. 

 That is within the memory of all of us. Then men studied 

 how to grow fruit ; they learned about spraying and other things ; 

 all calculated to grow better and more fruits, and all emphasis 

 was put upon that. 



And then in recent years the emphasis has passsed to com- 

 mercial pomology, to the sale of the fruit after it is grown. At 

 some of the meetings where I have been, the time was entirely 

 taken up with the discussion of selling fruit ; everybody knew 

 how to grow fruit ; the question was to get rid of it. 



Generally you will see that is the order ; first the fruit, (the 

 varieties) then how to grow them at a profit, and then how to 

 sell them. Of course a man must know all these things to suc- 

 ceed at the present time. We are expected to know all and i 

 suppose we do. 



Now let us look more particularly to the business of fruit 

 growing, and I will point out the particular changes that have 

 taken place. First there is the matter of varieties. Of course, 

 we don't grow the same varieties that we did 50 years ago ; or, at 

 any rate, we don't grow many of the varieties. There have been 

 a great many changes in the catalogues of recommended varie- 

 ties ; a great many varieties have been suppressed — done away 

 with. There are many varieties they used to cultivate in Ver- 

 mont, and which now you could not find in the State, not even 

 a specimen. Then there are some varieties which we called 

 commercial varieties when I came to Vermont, and which are 



