116 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICI^LTUKAL SOCIETY. 



Association to a rank not inferior to any similar institution in this country, 

 and perhaps not to any in the world. 



These laudable efforts of foreign cuhivators inspired the zeal of their 

 correspondents on this side of the Atlantic, of John Lowell, Gen. Dear- 

 born, Timothy Bigelow, Samuel G. Perkins, Gov. Gore, Thos. H. Perkins, 

 Ebenezer Preble, Robert Manning, Zebedee Cook, Samuel Do\yner, and 

 many yet living to whom we are indebted, in a great measure, for many 

 useful experiments, publications, and results pertaining to the Horticulture 

 of New England. 



From these auspicious beginnings, the progress of this Society, and of the 

 art and science it seeks to promote, have been most encouraging. At its 

 first exhibition at the Old Exchange Coffee House, in Boston, in the year 

 1829, the great pomologist of America, Robert Manning, exhibited only 

 two baskets of peaches ; but previous to his death, he proved, under his 

 personal observation, more than eiglity varieties of American apples, and 

 sixty varieties of American pears ; and there are gentlemen now living, 

 who had then scarcely commenced their course, but who have exhibited 

 of the pear at one of its shows, three hundred and seventy varieties, and 

 whose collections have numbered more than eight hundred varieties of the 

 same fruit. The exhibitions of this Society have never been equalled in 

 this country, and will compare favorably with those of any other society in 

 Europe. As a verification of its wonderful progress, it may be stated that, 

 at an Annual Exhibition held twelve years since, in Faneuil Hall, the 

 >dishes of fiuit presented for exhibition, were estimated as follows :— 



Dishes Pears, 1,300, in 350 varieties. 

 •' Apples, 600, in 150 " 

 " Grapes, 125, in 40 " 



" Peaches, 50, in 25 " 

 " Plums, 25, in 12 " 



Making a total of 2,100 dishes of fruits in 577 varieties. 



'In grape culture, the advance is specially encouraging, and promises 

 remarkable results. At the time of the organization of the Society, the 

 only native grapes of note in cultivation were the Isabella and Catawba, 

 and these so rare as to be objects of curiosity. In the period of a single 

 generation they have become articles of such extensive commerce that our 

 market lias been supplied from September to January, with Catawba grapes 

 from the far West, in such profusion, and at remunerative prices, that a 

 single dealer in the market purchased, at once, for his own stall, two and a 

 half tcais :at one shilling per pound. So great is the interest already 

 awakened in grape culture, that new and improved varieties, adapted to 

 general cultivation or^to particular localities, are produced every year ; and 

 individual cultivators have in their collections hundreds and even thousands 

 of seedlings under trial, which have been obtained by hybridization and 

 mother arts, and from which will undoubtedly arise, and at no remote period, 

 varieties superior to those now in existence. Already we have orders for 



