10 TRANSACTIONS, &r. 



Report of the Committek on Apples. 



Committee. — George Jaques, of Worcester, Chairman ; Ansel 

 Lakin. David S. Messinger, and J. F. Allen, of Worcester, and Lew- 

 is S, Taft, of Uxbridge, vice Thomas Bond, of North Brookfield, 

 {absent.) 



The Exhibition — in the department of Apples — was exceedingly 

 rich and beautiful. The Committee, indeed, are of the unanimous 

 opinion, that, not only in the number of varieties of established rep- 

 utation, but in the size and beauty of the specimens, the display of 

 this great staple fruit was superior to any thing of the kind ever 

 before witnessed in this city. Gentlemen from different parts of the 

 country, whose opinions are entitled to much consideration, and others 

 who have attended some of the most successful Horticultural Fairs 

 in Eurnpe, were also equally unanimous in conceding, thai, except 

 perhaps in the quantity of fruit alone, this department of our Ex- 

 hibition had not been surpassed within the range of their experience. 

 When w^e learn, farther, that not a solitary resident outside of this 

 county was represented among the contributors, we may w^ell con- 

 gratulate the members of the Association on the progress, which at 

 least one branch of fruit-culture has made, among us, during the last 

 ten or fifteen years. And, although it is quite probable, that, in one 

 or two of the collections, there may have been a very few apples not 

 grown within the above-mentioned limits, yet the number of these 

 was so utterly insignificant, that the Committee may rightfully claim 

 the entire exhibition of Apples as thi product of Worcester County ! 



Such seemingly boastful language is not employed by the Commit- 

 tee, in compliance with that bad custom, which over-praises Avhatever 

 has been successful, but as a simple unexaggerated statement of what 

 they believe to be true. 



To a fruit-culturist from any foreign country, the exhibition would 

 have appeared still more wonderful, had he been told — what is true — 

 that almost all these apples were the result of a comparatively neg- 

 lected cultivation ; that they were gathered from trees enjoying no- 

 thing of the advantages of a trenched soil, enriched by specific ma- 



