POMOLOGICAL CONGRESS. 



THE NEXT POMOLOGICAL CONGRESS. 



Dk. Brinckle of Philadelphia, the President of the American Pomological Congress, has 

 given public notice that the next meeting of this body, will be held in Philadelphia on the 

 thirteenth day of September next. (See circular, among Society notices for this month.) 



This will be the third session of the Congress of Fruit Growers — the first having been 

 held at New-York, and the second at Cincinnati; and there are several reasons whj' we 

 are led to believe that it will be the largest and most interesting meeting of the kind yet 

 assembled. In the first place, Philadelphia, being in the heart of the middle states, is more 

 centrally situated than any other place that could be selected. In point of climate and 

 variety of horticultural nroducts, that city stands midway between the north and the 

 south, between New-England and the valley of the Mississippi. She stands in the very 

 centre of the gr cut peach district, and we notice with pleasure, that the time of meeting 

 has been fixed earlier than usual, partl}^ no doubt, with a view to a more extended exhi- 

 bition of this most delicious of all fruits. Perhaps it is still rather late, but we hope by 

 the aid of ice houses and fruit preservers, it will not be found materially so. Baltimore 

 and "Washington can, as we know from the evidences of our own senses, show specimens 

 of this noble fruit that will make northern pomologists feel a sinking of the heart, and the 

 ea.ctern shores of Marjdand — from all that we learn, can produce samples of pears that 

 will awaken the competition of the well tried pomologists of Massachusetts. 



As Philadelphia is pre-eminently the focus of beautiful plants, and as the Congress will 

 meet in the Chinese Museuin building, which is the flimiliar exhibition ground of the Penn- 

 sylvania Horticultural Society, we may expect to have the cornucopia of Pomona grace- 

 fully festooned by the loveliest garlands of Flora. There can be no doubt that, altogether, 

 the meeting will be one of no ordinary attraction to all the devotees of Horticulture. 



And having said this for the merely superficial interest of the meeting, let us glance at 

 the deeper meaning, and more intrinsic value of this biennial gathering of the fruit grow- 

 ers of the whole Union. 



Any body may learn horticulture on his own account, without going to school, or tak- 

 ing lessons from masters. Most persons, in fact do so — practicing in their own gardens, 

 in the traditional waj- handed down from father to son — from one generation to the suc- 

 ceeding one. The}' may even, b}' the aid of books and practice together, acquire a very 

 high degree of knowledge in the matter. This is being sdf-tnaght in the art; and with 

 man)' pleasures, there are, of course, many drawbacks and errors in this mode of acquir- 

 ing information. 



Horticultural societies, and journals of horticulture, may be considered the common- 

 schools of the art — where, by the help of practice at home, prizes and competition in j)ub- 

 lic, and stated rehearsals of all the best talent exercised on the soil, the competitors are 

 stimulated to new exertion, and the taste of the local neighborliood is carried forward and 

 raised to a higher level. 



A national congress of cultivatois, like this Pomological Congress, takes a still higher 

 ground, and may fairly be considered as the University of horticulturists for tl^ coantry 

 at large. It is, in the first place, composed mostly of picked men, sent as delegates b)' all 

 the horticultural and agricultural societies over the whole country. They are men of the 

 widest and most thorough experience in the respective districts to which they belong 

 bring with them the ripest knowledge, gathered in the field, orchards, and gardens, 

 r respective states. The}' exhibit specimens of the products of our widely divcrsi- 



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