1894.] TRANSACtioisrs. 2t 



"advancing the Science and encouraging and improving the 

 Practice of Horticulture," is it not manifest that the path which 

 we blaze is likely to be the track of the aspiring novice, — the 

 preference that we indicate become the choice of all who seek 

 for a guide and find it in our acts and declarations ! Are they 

 likely to go astray ! Or will they strike out for themselves in 

 pursuit of newer Hesperides ; — in less perilous quest of more 

 modern apples. And therein is the basis for a contention that, 

 if you place implicit trust in your Judges, you might as well 

 confide to their decision the entire matter of pecuniary awards. 

 For their name is legion who believe that our present system is 

 defective in that its operation is largely contingent upon human 

 frailty. Is it the intention of the Society when it invites com- 

 petition, in a certain manner and under explicit conditions, to 

 bestow marked favor upon those who refrain deliberately from 

 open competition? Indeed, how can you expect honorable riv- 

 alry when malingering gets the same reward as faithful service ! 

 Were the judges authorized to confer substantial recognition for 

 meritorious exhibits, presented without being invited in your 

 Schedule, it is likely that as exact justice would be meted out 

 as now. Yet even Angels might well hesitate to act as umpires 

 in our earthly rivalry ; and, as we cannot command angelic 

 judgment there is slight hope for amendment in future. But 

 still is production of Baldwin or Bartlett to be forever classed 

 with Infant Industries, to be pampered and petted, for all time, 

 as throughout the Half-Century last past ! The Counlrij Gentle- 

 man recognizes the difficulty of finding varieties of fruit that will 

 suit every locality. It reproduces that old chestnut of about all 

 pomologists of note, since Marshall P. Wilder with his Vicar of 

 Winkfield, that he would plant 99 out of 100, of his especial pet, 

 rounding off the century with one more of the same, by attribut- 

 ino; it to a distino-uished orchardist of Western New York who 

 thus advised exclusive culture of the Baldwin Apple. Still, to 

 illustrate *'how much that variety has gone back," it cites the 

 opinion of a Canadian orchardist who stated, in a public address 

 before the Fruit-Growers of Ontario, that "the R. I. Greening: 

 was coming up to the Baldwin and would pass it." But the 



