22 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



could look back half a century ; his father was not a farmer, but 

 when the son was eleven years old the father retired from business to 

 a farm. The speaker's first recollections of fruit were of the Sapson, 

 Rhode Island Greening, Peck's Pleasant, and Tift Sweeting apples ; 

 the Alpine and Early Virginia strawberries ; one or two raspberries 

 called " English" ; and the St. Michael and Pound pears, the 

 former most delicious and the latter cooked as a vegetable. The 

 Isabella and Catawba were the only native grapes. Thej' had 

 peas, beans, melons, sweet corn, and potatoes. All whose recol- 

 lection goes back as far as his own can note the progress in 

 horticulture which has been made. Fortj' years ago, there were 

 vast collections of apples and pears, and their increase was stim- 

 ulated by the horticultural journals of the time. Since then, 

 these great numbers have diminished, for the only object in making 

 such collections — the selection of the best — has been attained, and 

 now cultivation is confined to the most desirable varieties. The 

 members of the Society have brought out many new varieties of 

 flowers and fruits and vegetables and have cultivated them wisely 

 and well. The speaker first attended the exhibitions of the 

 Societ}' in 1843, when the Hall was at what is now No. 25 

 Tremont Street. The collections of fruit from Robert Manning's 

 Pomological Garden were always named with great care and were 

 very instructive. The speaker always found it pleasant to look 

 back to those early days. 



Edmund Hersey said that at his age one is full of recollec- 

 tions of horticulture. In regard to this Society he could go back 

 only a few years, but when a boy he heard of it and felt an inter- 

 est in it. His early life was spent in growing nursery trees. 

 Since then we have made great progress in horticulture. In some 

 respects, perhaps, the trees were better then, but in regard to 

 varieties we have made a great advance. In the nursery he 

 meant to have a suflScient number of varieties to satisf}- every- 

 body, but when he set his orchard he took a different view. There 

 are many very, good varieties which are not superior, and he 

 sought to confine himself to the latter. This Society has done a 

 great work ; and, as one result of it, we shall not see orchards cut 

 off and grafted and regrafted as we once did. 



M. B. Faxon said that, as one of the younger members of the 

 Society, he was much interested in Mr. Muzzey's paper. The 

 essayist had spoken of hollyhocks and other flowers, and the 



