REPORT 



OF THE 



EFFORTS OF HORTICULTURE BY THE SOCIETY 



FOR 1837-8. 



The fast fading glories of vigorous vegetation, or the yet 

 lingering tokens of autumnal splendor, o'er forest and hill- 

 side, in the parterre and flower border, are reminding us of 

 a season of unusual character, as regards a tardy spring, an 

 almost tropical summer, and a mild, warm and bland autumn. 

 Scarcely had the last tones of a voice* eloquent on antiqua- 

 rian research, which recounted from the brief and scattered 

 notes of history, the successful efforts of horticultural skill 

 on an untamed soil, two hundred years ago, died in our ears, 

 than we were again reminded by the united offerings of 

 Flora and Pomona, of renewed efforts and acquired triumphs 

 in the field of our own industry. Meagre as may seem to 

 us the efl^ects of such enterprise, the vista opens to us 

 objects of interest as connected with the culture of the soil. 

 On the very sites where w^hilom grew the native and intro- 

 duced fruits of New England industry, are now gardens and 

 orchards, vineyards and green-houses, the ever-green glades 

 of rural enterprise or the renovated forests of arboricultural 

 skill. On a soil once enfeebled by negligent culture or from 

 a lack of knowledge of the laws of vegetation, in the 

 immediate vicinity of Plymouth Bay may be yearly seen in 

 the gardens of the amateur and florists the gorgeous pro- 

 ducts of other climes, or in its orchards the luscious high 

 top sweeting apple which, as has been suggested, perhaps 



* See Ninth Anniversary Address by William Lincoln, Esq 



