324 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



son. The timo was, and is not yet so far left boliind as to be out 

 of the renienibrance of many of us, when it would have been dif- 

 ficult to find the tomato on sale in half a dozen markets in the 

 whole country. At the present day, however, it is grown almost 

 everywhere, and there are hundreds of acres devoted to its culture 

 for the supply of Boston market alone. 



In other useful branches of gardening, the last few j'ears 

 have also been years of progress. The cultivation of all the fine 

 culinary vegetables has largely increased, and our markets are 

 now almost everywhere abundantly supplied with them. The Egg 

 Plant, Salsify, Okra, Mushroom, and 'J'omato, from being rarities, 

 have now become almost universally cultivated. 



Potatoes. — At the Annual Exhibition there were quite a large 

 numlier of new varieties offered in competition for the Society's 

 prizes, some of which as far as their outward appearance was con- 

 cerned were certainly all that could be desired ; but in regard to 

 their quality^ and the rank in which the}" should stand in this re- 

 port, when compared with well known and standard sorts, your 

 Committee were, on a first inspection, entirely' in the dark. 

 Under the usual system of judging on what one sees, the most 

 important characteristic of a potato, quality, is wholly ignored. 

 B}' this method, a committee can only certif}- by their awards 

 as to what to them looks good, while it should be and is the aim 

 of the Society to encourage the cultivation and growth of that 

 only which actually is good. Your Committee were convinced 

 that if they were able to report on the real quality of the 

 different varieties placed before them for examination, the value 

 of their report would be greatly enhanced, and therefore, at the 

 Annual Exhibition this year, in order to make their awards fairly 

 and understaudingly, they adopted the quality test. Specimens of 

 all varieties competing for premiums were cooked for trial, and 

 the awards were made on this basis. 



The new seedling potato from Albert Bresee which was favor- 

 ably noticed in our last report (and which he has since named 

 Leader) was again shown by him at the Annual Exhibition ; and 

 it fully sustained the favorable opinion formed of it by the Com- 

 mittee last year. It was exhibited for the first time at the 

 Annual Exhibition in 1885 ; and was then entered by the orig- 

 inator for the i'rospective Prize. Mr. Bresee presented speci- 

 mens for trial, which were carefully tested by the Committee in 



