1882.1 TRANSACTIONS. 23 



as they can be got ready and the weather is cool enough. When the 

 English people know its worth it will be in great demand.* 



If they could grow this apple in Maine, in as good perfection as we 

 do, it would be a valuable shipping apple to them, because they could 

 ship them a month or so later than you could. 



If you have the following varieties, I will be much obliged if you 

 will send me three or four cuttings of each, by mail, viz : — Sterling ; 

 Sutton Beauty ; Leicester Sweet ; Worcester Spy ; and Earle's Berga- 



raot Pear. 



***♦»*** 



Very Respectfully, 



Charles Downing." 



I know that you will accept my assurance that the request for 

 scions of some of our highly valued local fruits met with a 

 faithful response. They are now sure to be closely watched and 

 subjected to an assiduous scrutiny and test which will go far to 

 determine their general merits. 



A radical change was initiated, during the past Horticultural 

 Year, by a re-construction of your Committees of Award. " In 

 the multitude of councillors will be found safety ! " is the mono- 

 tone of the parrots who put their mouths in the dust, as they fall 

 down in Tremont street and adore ! an im.ago^ — " whose feet are 

 of miry clay." " Ex uno disce omnesP'' exhorts your Secretary, 

 recalling the prophets of all time and beholding the disciples, as 

 they "consider the lilies of the field" at the bidding of their 

 Solitary Teacher. 



A single expert was designated in each division, whether of 

 Floriculture or Pomology ; whose decisions must, necessarily, be 

 unanimous, and were designed to be final. If exception has been 

 taken to their judgment, in any case, it can only be explained by 

 the incompetency of the judges ; or because competitors, in their 

 first disappointment, took an appeal to themselves from the 

 authorized decision. This Society has exhausted every known 

 and approved method of apportioning rewards of merit, saving 

 only the cold and bloodless test by a scale of points. It has 

 never yet tried the experiment of allowing each contributor to 

 appraise the comparative rank of his own articles. So long as 



*Thls emphatic commendation of ttie Hubbardston Nonesuch was doubtless 

 inspired by the suggestion of that Apple in the Report of the Secretary for A. D. 

 1881, as one that would seem most suitable and desirable for export. 



' K. W. L. 



