78 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



FRUIT-CULTURE. 



ESSEX. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



It was almost impossible that full justice to all should be 

 done, with five hundred and fifty-eight plates of apples of 

 such good quality and of so many different varieties, scat- 

 tered, as they were, among pears and other fruits, over six 

 long tables, without regard to kinds. Is it not too much to 

 expect, and too much to impose upon this or any commit- 

 tee, in the limited time assigned them? We at least think 

 so, and as Chairman of this Committee, this year's experience, 

 added to the experience of last year as chairman of com- 

 mittee on grapes, peaches and assorted fruits, causes me 

 here and now to protest against the manner of arranging and 

 displaying the fruit upon the tables of the Society, causing 

 such laborious and unsatisfactory work for your committees, 

 who believe it a necessity that a radical reform should be 

 made in this direction, if it expects faithful service from its 

 committees, and justice dealt out to its exhibitors. 



We therefore would recommend, what hns already been 

 adopted in some societies, the plan of having stands set upon 

 the tables, labelled with the variety or kind of fruit there 

 exhibited, with rods to lay across the table to separate each 

 variety. By having all of each variety by themselves so 

 labelled, the kind of fruit and variety can be easily found, 

 and when found the best can be easily selected, as all the 

 plates of that variety are together for comparison ; while, as 

 the tables are now arranged, it is simply impossible for any 

 committee on fruits to perform their duty in the time 

 allotted for it, and do justice to all the exhibitors ; the labor 

 being so tiresome and tedious that it is a wonder that men 

 are found interested enough to undertake it. We consider 

 that an exhibitor obliged to exhibit fruit in a round dish, or 



