PRESIDENT strong's ADDRESS. 131 



one years since it was felt that there was great need of an agency by 

 which the long list of superior foreign kinds should be intro;luced and 

 distributed in this country. To some extent this had been done, through 

 private enterprise and liberality; the Hon. John Lowell, as an example, 

 receiving from Mr. Knight, of the London Horticultural Society, in the 

 year 1823, ten varieties of Pears, twenty of Apples, two of Plums, and 

 four of Cherries, which he distributed among persons interested in horti- 

 culture. And we are not left to suppose there was an}' poverty in varieties 

 even in those days, for it is on record that at the first anni\'ersary, Sep- 

 tember 19, 1829, the tables were loaded with Orange Trees in fruit and 

 flower, a large variety of Mexican Georginas, (Dahlias), a splendid col- 

 lection of Roses, Grapes in varieties, single bunches of which weighed 

 three pounds; ISTectarines, and fine baskets of Peaches, several baskets 

 of Melons, several baskets of the new Fulton Pear, a basket of the new 

 Gushing Pear, deservedly pronounced a delicious fruit; Bartlctt Pears, 

 with Peaches and Nectarines, from Enoch Bartlett of Roxbury; one 

 hundred varieties of ornamental plants from one contributor, and it is 

 naively added in closing the long specification, that the show of fruits and 

 flowers was probably never surpassed in New England. As the aixi- 

 riginees are not supposed to have been formidable rivals in the culture 

 of fruits, and as the early settlers had neither time nor taste for display, 

 we may conclude that this was a true assertion. At the second exhibi- 

 tion were found, among the strictly native varieties, such present standards 

 as the Baldwin Apple, the Seckel, the Gushing, Fulton, Andrews, Lewis, 

 Gore's Heathcote, Dix, from Madame Dix of Boston, and the American- 

 ized Bartlett Pear, with the Boston Nectarine and Downer's Late Gherry, 

 together with scores of native Peaches and Plums, which alone would 

 make no meagre show. Indeed, we may conclude that the excellence 

 of the varieties then cultivated amply compensated for the lack in num- 

 bers. Still it was recognized as an important work to introduce new 

 varieties. There can be no doubt that this result has largely followed 

 the public displays, and the distribution of many thousands of dollars 

 of prize money during the past forty-one years. And it is equally clear 

 that this has resulted in vast benefit to the public, although we may ad- 

 mit that it is not an unmixed good. At the present time, however, it 

 must be admitted that we are rather burdened with novelties, and that 

 -our future work must be more especially directed to the separation of 

 the most desirable kinds from the rapidly accumulating mass, which 

 rises only to the level of common i^lace mediocrity. In the future dis- 

 tribution of prize money it is desirabje, in my judgment, to make the 

 quality for general cultivation a point of paramount importance. And 

 it will be well to make this point as distinct as is possible, in our sched- 

 ule of prizes and in our reports, until the public shall come to recognize 

 the Society as the tribunal before which all novelties must pass; and all 



