8 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICOTLTURAL SOCIETY. 



disease in its grosser forms — not in the vegetable kingdom 

 alone but in man as well. For instance, we have called a new 

 or foreign growth in the human body by some strange name that 

 generally has only denoted some peculiarity of form or color — the 

 name itself being as irrational as those of some of the Flemish 

 pears. In the same waj-, again, a certain diseased change 

 in the plum tree has been called a " black knot," and this was the 

 end of it. Whether an insect produced it or not was one of the 

 vexed questions, never answered to general satisfaction, because 

 we had not attained to the methods of exact investigation. We 

 do know now that organisms exist, powerful enough in their unhin- 

 dered reproduction to sweep away the human race even, and that 

 they exist in forms so minute that they can be discovered only by 

 the most powerful microscope. In this field, therefore, we are 

 beyond aid from the simple observations of the naked eye — we 

 must go to the laboratory of the scientific observer ; and I will sug- 

 gest, for your consideration, whether it will not be well to look 

 forward to the time when, with improved financial conditions, our 

 debt paid, we may do something to help on that scientific work for 

 which our wise fathers seem to have made some provision, in con- 

 stituting as permanent officers of the Society professors of Botany 

 and Entomology. 



It has been suggested, and the proposition seems to me wortliy 

 of favorable consideration, that we should gain something in our 

 larger exhibitions by securing, in addition to our standing commit- 

 tees for awarding prizes, the services of distinguished experts from 

 other sections of our country. These experts would, in the nature 

 of tilings, have standards somewhat ditferent from our own — 

 possibly bettor, perhaps not as good ; but would otler in any competi- 

 tion the guaranty of a disposition on our part to recognize a com- 

 petent expression of opinion wherever formed. Of course these 

 gentlemen would not be exhibitors, and while it would be a serious 

 loss to our shows if our own judges should be precluded from 

 exhibiting, it does not seem altogether reasonable that they should 

 be competitors, however stringent the rules may be which forbid 

 their taking any part in the determination of awards to the objects 

 exhibited by themselves. It seems to me worthy also of your 

 consideration, whether tlieir arduous services should not receive 

 some compensation in money. With the best constituted prize 

 committees — and the committees of this Society have never dis- 



