8 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



can compare the object before them not only with all of its own 

 kind but also with all other kinds. The specialist might, and 

 probably sometimes would, recommend something from his own 

 limited point of view, which the larger committee, from a wider 

 survey, would wisely reject. 



It is also desirable that some arrangement should be made so 

 that persons having new or interesting plants, flowers, or fruits 

 might be enabled to place them on exhibition in this building at 

 any time — without reference to our regular shows — if it prove 

 more convenient. A provision should be made for the proper 

 care of the specimens and an official recognition of their merits. 

 The establishment of informal exhibitions of this kind would bring 

 our members more frequently to these halls, and indirectly 

 promote that better personal acquaintance which would benefit us 

 all. 



Some expressions of opinions have been heard here and else- 

 where, during the past year, upon the supposed undue prominence 

 given to fruits and vegetables in the prize schedules of the 

 Society. If it is only intended by this criticism to suggest that 

 some one fruit or vegetable receives a disproportionate share of 

 the awards there is not much to be said in reply. 



It is probably as true of our schedule, as it is of the national 

 tariff, and we may anticipate a satisfactory agreement upon the 

 relative claims of the various articles upon our prize lists as soon 

 as, — may I express the hope, a little earlier than, — our national 

 legislators have brought their own labors in this field to a happy 

 conclusion. 



But if it is meant that fruits and vegetables should as a class 

 receive proportionately less of the Society's attention and rewards 

 than plants and flowers receive, then it does seem to me that the 

 purposes of the founders and promoters of the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Societ}' have been lost from sight. It is beyond 

 question true that they regarded the cultivation of fruits as the 

 most important object of interest to the young Societ}', and the 

 intelligent public shared this belief. It may almost be said that 

 one fruit, the pear, was for years the principal object of interest. 

 Fortunately, as j'ears went by, their horizon was extended and 

 the whole field of horticulture was open to them. But it is nearly 

 as important now as it was sixty years ago to encourage the 

 production of new varieties of cultivated fruits and vegetables. 



