34 Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



To J. C. Pratt, for the same, , . . . . . #3 00 



To Miss Sargent, for the same, . . . . . 1 00 



To Miss Kenrick, for the same, . . . . . 1 00 



To Mrs. G. W. Allen, for the same, . . . . . 1 00 



To Mrs. Daggett, for the same, . . . . . 1 00 



To J. Frothingham, for the same, . . . . . 2 00 



To B. Harrington, for the same, . . . . . 3 00 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FRUITS, 



AWARDING PREMIUMS FOR 1851. 



The Committee on Fruits now submit herewith their award of prizes for 

 the year 1851. 



Before announcing their awards, your Committee cannot refrain from 

 congratulating the Society that, from the attendance of the public, the num- 

 ber of exhibitors, and the quality of specimens placed upon its tables, it is 

 evident that there is no diminution of intereat, either in the exhibitions of 

 the Society, so far as this department is concerned, or in the objects for 

 which the Society was instituted. Indeed, your Committee are of opinion 

 that instead of diminishing, the interest taken in horticultural pursuits is 

 constantly increasing, and that while its processes have become subjects 

 for scientific investigation in order to ascertain the best mode of conducting 

 them, the principles indicated by such investigations are constantly being 

 submitted to the test of experiment by the best and most judicious cultiva- 

 tors. That the reducing of the principles established by science to prac- 

 tice, is having a beneficial effect upon the products of the horticultural 

 art, is in a measure established, by the fact of specimens of these products, 

 from year to year, of a superior quality to any preceding exhibition of the 

 same product. When, for instance, fruit of the same species and even of the 

 same variety, is placed upon your tables superior in size, beauty and quality, 

 to any specimens of the same species or variety before exhibited, and this 

 happening not once only, but constantly year after year, — the last always 

 excelling its predecessors, — it is to be presumed that this continued in- 

 crease in excellence is rather to be imputed to a constantly improving mode 

 of cultivation, than to the accidental circumstance of a peculiarly favorable 

 season, soil or position. 



This is not the pepper occasion, neither is it the design of your Commit- 

 tee, to enter upon the discussion of the subject of " specific or special ma- 

 nures," but it is a fact that can hardly be disputed that some particular mode 

 of cultivation, the application of some particular agent of fertility, either in 

 respect of kind, composition or quality, — a soil consisting of some particular 

 component parts must be best adapted to the different species if not varie- 

 ties of fruits, — exercising a beneficial influence under some circumstances 

 upon the growth and vigor of the tree or plant, and under others exercising 

 an influence upon the fruit, and the continually improving quality of the 

 difterent species of fruits induces a hope that experiments are m progress 

 that will lead to a solution of these and other interesting problems. In this 

 connection, the expression of a wish that the mode of cultivation, manures 



