STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 151 



HOW THE STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OBSERVED 

 ARBOR DAY. 



In reply to a letter of inquiry addressed to Hon. Rufus Prince, 

 President of the Maine State Agricultural Society, we copy the fol- 

 lowing which shows a zeal worthy the imitation of others in Maine : 



South Turner, June 4, 1888. 

 Bro. Knowlton : Yours at hand. I have been intending to publish a 

 list of the donors of trees which we have set on the State Fair Park. My 

 call was quite liberally responded to. We have set one hundred forty-five 

 maple and elm trees in different places on the park, and I feel proud of 

 having inaugurated the move and believe it will result in making a great 

 addition to the beauty of the place. 



Very truly, 



RUFUS PRINCE. 



APPLES WITHOUT SUGAR. 



A family known to us, who at one time thought cooked apples 

 hardly eatable unless sweetened or spiced, or both, were persuaded 

 this winter to try them baked in the skins, and without introduction 

 of sugar or any other foreign element which makes the fruit chemi- 

 cally quite different from the perfect condition in which nature left 

 it. The consequence is, they have come to prefer the new way, and 

 proved that its nutrient and hygienic effects are much more marked 

 and satisfactor}'. Now we find a well-known English horticulturist 

 expressing himself at considerable length to the same purpose on 

 the leading page of ^'The London Garden:'' 



"The sugar we add to apples only robs them of their specific and 

 delicate aroma, reduces their quality, and renders them insipid and 

 commonplace. For example, cook a Beaufin or a French Crab in 

 sugar, and you have a pulpy mass, or pieces of colored matter that 

 may be apple, rhubarb or Swede turnip, as the eater may fancy. 

 But cook a Ribston, Blenheim, Cox's Orange, or Newton Pippin, or 

 even King of the Pippins or Cockle Pippin, and each will be found 

 not onl}' most agreeably sweet, but so specifically distinct as to form 

 a different dish. The finest apples for cooking are, without doubt, 

 the Ribston and the Newton Pippins at their best, and both are not 

 only greatly deteriorated, but half-spoilt in flavor by any additions 

 ot foreign sugar. I have long held the opinion that the best eating 



