526 THE GARDENER. [Nov. 



AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT WILDER. — IMPORTANCE OF A NATIONAL SOCIETY. 



Most happy am I to meet on this occasion so many who have come up to co- 

 operate with us in our eflforts for improvement. Especially would I congratulate 

 you on the reunion with our Southern brethren, whose absence, from whatever 

 cause, we have greatly deplored. Again their voices respond to our call, again 

 their hearts beat in unison with ours, and again their presence cheers and en- 

 courages us in our noble work. And here let me express the desire that our 

 brother pomologists throughout the length and breadth of the South will give us 

 the results of their experience ; and let me repeat the hope expressed in my last 

 address, that at no distant day our meeting may be held in the South, amidst the 

 peculiar fruits of that region, so favoured in soil and climate. 



How salutary the influence of such associations ! who that has witnessed the 

 operations of this society can for a moment doubt the usefulness and importance 

 of these national gatherings ? The great practical truth of the present generation, 

 said Daniel Webster, is, that public improvements are brought about by voluntary 

 combinations and associations. "The principle of association," said he, "the 

 practice of bringing together men bent on the same general subject, uniting their 

 physical and intellectual efforts to that purpose, is a great improvement in our 

 age." So say we. If there were not an Apple, or Pear, or Grape on exhibition, 

 the stimulation of thought produced by the contact of mind with mind, and the 

 information acquired by the free interchange of experience, is far more valuable 

 than the same amount of knowledge derived from books. It is this centralisation 

 of action which has produced the wonderful progress of our age ; but in a national 

 society, which embraces the whole country for its domain, we have the additional 

 motive of patriotism to bring us to our biennial meetings, where, by the exchange 

 of cordial greetings and the influence of co-operative exertions, the representatives 

 from the distant parts of our widely-extended country become kindly affiliated, 

 and where, on the broad platform of common philanthropy, free from sectional 

 prejudices and party animosities, we become, indirectly but not the less 

 effectually, united in the bonds of friendship and reciprocal regard ; and where, 

 from the loving cause in which we are engaged, we have learned to love each 

 other. 



The importance and usefulness of a National Pomological Society is never ques- 

 tioned by those who from the beginning have laboured with us in the acquisition 

 of valuable information. If there be any who doubt, we commend to such the 

 brief summary of its work for the last nineteen years, given in my last biennial 

 address. When we consider what has been accomplished, who can set bounds to 

 the progress which may be attained during the remainder of this century ? An 

 entire revolution in the cultivation of fruits has taken place since the establish- 

 ment of our society. Where trees and Vines were then purchased by the dozen 

 or hundred, they are now sold by the thousand. Where the stock of nurserymen 

 could be summed in thousands, it is now enumerated by millions of trees and 

 Vines. Where the Grape was scarcely grown a few years since, now thousands 

 of hill-sides, from the base to the summit, are clad with the verdure of the Vine, 

 and the vintage of the golden western slope promises ere long to rival in value the 

 riches of its mines. Where fruits were considered as only a luxury for the opu- 

 lent, they have now become not only a sanitary condiment, but a daily necessity 

 of the meal. The object of this society is to encourage the culture of fine fruits, 

 so that they may be placed within the reach of all classes, freely and abundantly, 

 the poor as well as the rich. The work is indeed of great magnitude. With a 



