1872.] RRPORT OP APPLES. 31 



might have been an advantage to this Society in holding its annual exhi- 

 bition at the same time with that. That society annually offers and 

 awards premiums for fruits and vegetables, and extensively advertises 

 them by posting them up, printed on large handbills, in the post offices 

 and other conspicuous places in the country towns throughout the county. 

 Now the i)eople of the county outside of this cit}^ know very little of 

 this Society, and many conceive it to be identical with the Agricultural 

 Society — a misconception that gathers strength from the two societies 

 holding exhibitions on the same days. To correct this misconception 

 should not this Society hold its annual exhibition at a different time, and 

 to meet the competition of that society should not this Society advertise 

 its premiums in the same manner which that society does V 



And there is another reason for selecting a different time for holding 

 our annual exhibition. The more valuable portion of the Apple crop 

 of Worcester County, the winter and late fall fruit, ought not to be and 

 will not be harvested, no matter what premiums are offered or how well 

 known they are, till at least two or three weeks later than the Annual 

 Exhibition was held this year. And there are not three weeks of the 

 whole season, of more importance to the growth and perfection of the 

 fruit than the last three. The chairman of your Committee attending 

 a town fair in one of the adjoining towns — where, by the way, he saw 

 an exhibition of apples not much, if any, inferior in substantial qualities 

 to ours — asked several farmers whom he met there and knew to be large 

 growers of apples for the market, why they did not enter their fruits at 

 our exhibition. One replied that he belonged to our Society and that one 

 year it gave him a premium on his apples. Further inquiry revealed the 

 fact that he meant the Worcester County Agricultural Society. This man 

 is a good farmer, skilled in apple culture, and to use his own language has 

 " slathers of apples this year." Others made replies that showed a like 

 misconception. Others who knew of our exhibition and ( f our separate 

 existence, knew nothing of our premiums, and all with one accord said 

 that our exhibition was too early for them. It was impracticable to go 

 over large orchards hunting best specimens. Such could only be selected 

 at the harvest of the whole, and they would not for any premiums or 

 exhibition harvest winter apples in the middle of September. 



Without further discussing these questions here let us add that if they 

 shall be thought worthy of further consideration, they ought always to 

 be viewed in the light of the facts that Worcester Count}- is the proper 

 territorial jurisdiction of this Society and that winter apples are the most 

 valuable horticultural product of the county. 



Repeated failure of the Apple crop for some years past has been the 

 subject of much speculation and the favorite theory of Mr. Andrew 



