190 ANNUAL REPORT 



MORNING SESSION. 



Third Day, Thursday, ^an. 19, 1888. 



The meeting was called to order at 9 o'clock by President Elliot. 

 Mr. Cleveland was given an opportunity to address the Society at 



this time and came forward and said : 



« 

 THE AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Mr Cleveland. Mr. President, I was asked by your Secretary last 

 evening if I was connected by the Pomological Congress, and I made 

 reply that I took an active part in the convention when that con- 

 gress was formed, and I was asked to give to-day some reminiscences 

 of it. 



I am sorry to say that while I had in my posession all the reports and 

 published accounts of the convention at which that congress was first 

 orgauized, they were all destroyed in the Chicago fire, when my office 

 was burned and everything in it. So that all that lean tell you of it is 

 from my own memory. I was at that time corresponding secretary of 

 the New Jersey Horticultural Society, and was taking a very active 

 part in horticultural matters, and I was sent as a delegate from New 

 Jersey to New York, to meet delegates from the Massachusetts, the 

 Pennsylvania and other horticultural societies, with a view to the or- 

 ganization of a national pomological congress. We had a very inter- 

 esting session in New York. I think that was in 1848. 



I remember there were a great many of the leading pomologists of 

 the country present at that time We elected Marshall P. Wilder presi- 

 dent, and he continued the president of the congress till his death, 

 only a year or two ago; he was re-elected time after time 



Mr. Sam Walker, who was afterwards president of the Massachu- 

 setts Horticultural Society, took a very active part in the proceed- 

 ings; also Caleb Cook and A. J. Downing, Mr. Ernst, of Cincinnati, and 

 Mr. Patrick Barry, of New York. Mr. Barry was the secretary, and 

 the Pomological Congress was then organized, and held several subse- 

 sequent meetings at Philadelphia and elsewhere. I attended regularly 

 and with a great deal of interest, and always considered their work 

 Yery valuable. 



Mr. Wilder was the best manager of a public meeting that I have 

 ever known, perfectly firm, frank and straightforward, in all respects, 

 securing the respect and good will of all who listened to him; a man 



