On Improvement in Horticulture. 427 



I present upon your table, for examination, gentlemen, more 

 than one hundred named varieties of the apple and pear, collect- 

 ed from my grounds, which twenty years ago were a barren waste; 

 and I might have added many others of doubtful or inferior char- 

 acter. I'hose presented have all heen recommended as superior 

 fruits, at the season of maturity, either for the dessert, the kitch- 

 en, for preserves, or for cider. They are the natural products of 

 the northern and middle states, of Canada — and of Russia, Ger- 

 many, France, the Netherlands, and Great Britain. They include, 

 of course, only lateautunm and winter varieties. Yet these fruits 

 form but a small portion of tlie kinds which are to be found in our 

 valley — much less in our country. Though we have a great many 

 good kinds, there must be but comparative few that can be de- 

 nominated excellent, or best. The only way to determine which 

 are the best, is to bring the different varieties together, and to 

 judge of them comparatively, at the season of their maturity. 

 How desirable it is, that when starting in our pomological career — 

 when selecting the fruits that are to administer to our enjoyment 

 and our profit, through life, we be able to select the best kinds! 

 But wlio is now a competent judge in these matters? What in- 

 dividual knows the comparative merits of half, or a quarter, of 

 the fruits which abound in our land.'' Not one among us, I ven- 

 ture to say. How shall we then acquire the requisite knowledge.^ 

 We have at present no competent guide to dii'ect us in the selec- 

 tion. Individual effort is incompetent to the labor of classifying 

 and describing all our best fruits. It can only be effected here, 

 as it has been in England, by the joint efforts of an association — 

 by bringing together the various kinds, testing their qualities, and 

 establishing a standard of their relative merit, for the various uses 

 for which they are adapted. This subject is so deeply connect- 

 ed with the conifrrt of all classes of our citizens — of the buyer 

 as well as the cultivator of fruit — that I venture to recommend 

 it to the early attention of the association. 



The introduction of new and valuable varieties of fruits, seeds 

 and ornamental plants, from different sections of our own country, 

 as well as from the old world, should also engage our early atten- 

 tion. Many facilities present for effecting this. First, by a cor- 

 respondence, and interchange of plants, seeds and fruits, with 

 horticultural associations at home and abroad. Secondly, through 

 the depot established at Washington, under the direction of an 

 enthusiastic friend of rural improvement, H. L. Ellsworth, Esq., 

 the commissioner of the Patent Office. Thirdly, through our na- 

 val, commercial and travelling citizens. Our corresponding sec- 

 retary, who has tendered his resignation in consequence of being 

 about to take up his residence for some years in France, has kind- 

 ly tendered his services 'n this behalf — and his services there, in 

 forwarding the objects of the association, may be rendered exien- 



