382 Horticultural Society Proceedings. [August, 



This langunge, it will be recollected, was used by the " majority," 

 before the majority of the Strawberry crop of the present summer. In 

 their subsequent report the same gentlemen use the following lan- 

 guage : 



" With regard to Hovey's Seedling, your committee, until other 

 hcrries have been jyvo'perly and completely tesited^ in the same soils, and 

 under the same circumstances, or under those circumstances at least 

 best suited to their particular requirements, can not but arrive at the 

 conclusion that, under all the aspects in which they have been able to 

 examine it, it is at this time one of the very best fruit of the kind for 

 general, or at any rate, market cultivation ) for its large size and uniform 

 shape, its very good and sweet flavor when fully matured, its fair yield 

 of large berries even after the largest one of the bunch, its brilliant 

 color when nearly ripe, and its rich deeper shade when fully ripe ; its 

 firmness for carriage and maintainment of firm texture and fine appear- 

 ance for many hours after being gathered ; its hardiness and vigor, its 

 general adaptation to nearly all soils, and its easy impregnation, com- 

 bine to render it, in your committee's estimation, one of the most pro- 

 minent, valuable, and reliable berries in the country, in general culti- 

 vation, with which we are acquainted." 



Now, sir, I claim this sentiment is a great leap from the '' tame " 

 expression of the majority in their first report, and would have received 

 my unqualified assent if it was not smothered with a manifest determi- 

 nation upon the part of the majority to impress the public mind with 

 the idea that the circumstances surrounding the cultivation of Hovey's 

 Seedling were in an extraordinary degree favorable, and the meed of 

 praise was only awarded until other varieties could be "properly tested," 

 at least under these circumstancss best suited to their particidar require- 

 ments," 



Astonishing ! Our eyes were almost picked out for intimating in the 

 minority report thus : "If our subsequent experience and more familiar 

 acquaintance with McAvoy's Superior, under a variety of circumstances 

 and in different localities have convinced us that the committee was 

 premature in making the award (of $100) to it as a berry superior in 

 all respects to Hovey's Seedling, we can be under no obligations to 

 sustain that decision," etc. And now, after another year's experience 

 with the great "Superior," the mnjority (one-half of whom are known 

 to be uncompromisingly in favor of the Superior,) are constrained to 

 place Hovey's Seedling at the head of the list of Strawberries, for uni- 

 versal cultivation. It is true they intermingle a few "ifs" and "ands," 

 as they pass along, I presume, for the same reason that the sailor in a 



