DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



485 



ness accomplished at this convention, our 

 pages have sometime ago placed an ac- 

 count of it before our readers. 



Its principal value to most of our read- 

 ers, however, lies in the comparative opi- 

 nions, which it contains, respecting the 

 value of different varieties of fruits culti- 

 vated in this country. As this convention 

 embraced the largest assemblage of the 

 best practical amateurs, pomologists, and 

 fruit-growers, ever assembled in the United 

 States ; and as the discussions on fruits oc- 

 cupied two days, a great deal of highly 

 valuable information was elicited. Every 

 person, therefore, who is engaged i^i the 

 culture of new or old varieties, will find 

 much to interest him in the report of these 

 discussions, relating, as it does, to the suc- 

 cess or failure, the merits or the faults of a 

 considerable part of the varieties now most 

 in repute in this country. 



Those who were not present at this con- 

 vention will find, even in the brief account 



given of these discussions, abundant proof 

 of the value of such meetings to the country 

 at large. 



The universal feeling at this convention, 

 however, was, that the good work was only 

 commenced last October. To achieve what 

 this convention proposes to do, requires not 

 only the ablest collective talent in the coun- 

 try, and time to perform the necessary labor, 

 but, more than all, a broad and suitable 

 foundation, upon which these labors shall 

 rest. The leading motive of action, there- 

 fore, at this convention, was to lay this 

 foundation, by a systematic and thorough 

 organization, and by the appointment of the 

 most able committees in almost every state 

 in the Union. Now that this has been 

 done, and the whole machinery of a really 

 national association is at work, we may 

 confidently hope for the most desirable re- 

 sults, at the next session, which it is within 

 the province or the ability of such a body to 

 accomplish. 



DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



POMOLOGICAL CONVENTIONS. A. J. Downillg, 



Esq., Editor Horticulturist — In the March num- 

 ber of the Horticulturist appears an editorial arti- 

 cle on the subject of " Pomological Conventions," 

 which, upon its face, is so manifestly unfair, in 

 regard to the acts of the New- York State Agri- 

 cultural Society, touching its proceedings con- 

 nected with the session of the " North American 

 Pomological Convention, in September last, at 

 Buffalo, that, reluctant as I am to appear in any 

 public matter where a controversy is involved, I 

 am induced to ask you, as a mere matter of jus- 

 tice, the insertion of this communication in the 

 Horticulturist. 



As the article to which I allude is recorded in 

 the columns of this periodical, it is unnecessary to 

 quote any portion of its language ; but as the en- 

 tire drift of it is an apparent reflection upon the 

 legitimacy of the Buffalo Pomological Convention, 

 you will permit me to give a brief chronicle of the 

 doings of the N. Y. State Ag. Society on the sub- 

 ject of fruits, for the past three years, that the 

 public may judge whether it has so far travelled 



out of its proper range of duty as you would pre- 

 mise. 



Tliat Society is an independent body, and, I 

 take it, has unlimited discretion as to the selec- 

 tion of what sub-divisions of agriculture it will 

 devote its attention. In view of the disorderly 

 condition of the fruit cultivation in this state, and 

 of inducing some reform into a system of intelli- 

 gent pro})agation of the best fruits among our rural 

 population, in January, 1846, at the annual meet- 

 ing of the Society in Albany, a Pomological Com- 

 mittee was appointed to report a select list of the 

 different fruits to recommend for cultivation, and 

 report thereon at the next annual meeting. This 

 is the first attempt made in any American society 

 within my knowledge, to introduce a reform into 

 the classitication of our domestic fruits, and to 

 select from tliem a circle of choice kinds for culti- 

 vation. At the next annual meeting of the So- 

 ciety in January, 1847, that duty was discharged 

 by the committee, in part, and the fruits recom- 

 mended approved by the Society, a list of which 

 will be found in its volume of Transactions for the 



