16 PENN. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



included which, for years, have been discarded as 

 worthless for amateur or market purposes. Persons 

 not familiar with the different varieties, seeing these 

 on the show-table, are quite as likely to purchase 

 them, as they are those which have been fully tested 

 and found worthy of cultivation. "Why this practice 

 of putting poor kinds on the table is permitted to go 

 on, year after year, I cannot tell, although every one 

 conversant with fruit will admit it is wrong, and 

 calculated to lead the public astray in making se- 

 lections. For some years the Pennsylvania Horti- 

 cultural Society has followed a far better system, in 

 the manner of awarding its premiums. At its regular 

 exhibitions, premiums are offered for single plates of 

 approved kinds, instead of foolishly throwing away 

 money, and misleading the public, by offering sums 

 for collections. By this simple method, practical 

 growers are brought into fair competition with other 

 growers, and he who is in search of information, can 

 get at facts valuable to him as a beginner. I am 

 glad that many other societies are adopting this plan, 

 and ere long, it is .to be hoped, the system will be- 

 come general. 



