PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS, 1850. 289 



October 13, Frederic Tudor exhibited ten Louise 

 Bonne of Jersey pears, weighing seven pounds, four 

 and three-quarters ounces, the largest weighing a frac- 

 tion less than thirteen and three-quarters ounces, and 

 measuring nearly ten and a half inches. The size 

 of these pears in a dry summer was attributed to their 

 having been stimulated with rain water. A week later, 

 several persons exhibited White Doyenne pears, some 

 of which were " as perfect as could be produced." 



We find this year, for the first time, the list of awards 

 by the Fruit Committee accompanied by some remarks 

 from the pen of Joseph S. Cabot, chairman, on the 

 character and results of the season, such as, in later 

 years, and in a much expanded form, have given great 

 interest to the reports of this and other committees, and, 

 as records of progress in the various departments, 

 have added permanent value to the Transactions of the 

 Society. 



The first meeting of the Society in 1850 was marked 

 by the commencement of a custom which has since 

 seldom been departed from. This was the delivery 

 by the president of an address containing suggestions 

 for promoting the interests of the Society and the 

 improvement of horticulture. The most important was 

 the recommendation that 



"Premiums should be offered, and gratuities be given, by the 

 Society, under the direction of a committee appointed for that 

 purpose, whose duty it should be to .visit and examine such places 

 as the proprietors should invite them so to do, at such times and 

 as often as the}^ might deem proper, without any previous notice 

 having been given to the gardener, superintendent, or other person 

 having charge of the same, that the committee might be able to 

 form a correct judgment as to the general management and state 

 of cultivation on the premises ; and to report to the Society the 



