1894.] TRANSACTIONS. 31 



it suft'ered to bear an exhaustive crop, or was excessive fecundity 

 checked, or reduced ? These are all considerations to be weighed 

 carefully. Still, that they may be so weighed, they must first 

 be precisely knovi'n. And how little time do any of us have, in 

 the hurry and rush of that final Autumnal Exhibition, to put 

 questions, or to ponder the value of answers ! Yet would not 

 all who possess trees of that variety prefer to grow pears like 

 those of Mr. Wyman ! All this possible inquiry, all this posi- 

 tive dearth of exact intelligence, oppresses the mind of your 

 Secretary s as he reflects upon the responsibility that rests upon 

 this Society by the simple fact of the relation it has voluntarily 

 assumed. Shall we advance the Science, and encourage and im- 

 prove the Practice of Horticulture ; or shall we continue stolidly 

 in a customary rut, content to pocket premiums and alert to 

 grumble at the judges who determine their award ! 



The profuse award of gratuities, in the Floral Department more 

 particularly, would seem to challenge your attention and invite 

 your interposition of a check. It is eminently proper to recog- 

 nize special displays of surpassing excellence, from places so 

 far distant as Whitins or Indian Orchard, illustrating as they 

 do the progress of discovery and the benefit of practical instruc- 

 tion by object teaching. Yet they are alike inappropriate and 

 a waste of resources that should be administered frugally, 

 when they are applied as soothing syrup for defeated competi- 

 tors, or rubbed in for balm in the case of some who are being 

 taught to regard Horticultural Exhibitions as a source of material 

 gain. This, at least, must be conceded, that when the award 

 of gratuities amounts to $137.00 in a department favored with 

 an appropriation of $700.00, besides the special assignment of 

 $200.00 for Chrysanthemum, there is imperative need to call a 

 halt ! Vegetables, in their manifold forms of utility, and as 

 long ago as the first Eoman Secession Menenius Agrippa 

 demonstrated the absolute necessity of provision for the belly, 

 get but $300.00 from our treasury. In no other department of 

 our work is there such decided evidence of advance in the 

 practical application of Horticultural Science. In none do our 

 appropriations show less evidence of actual appreciation. Even 



