332 The American Poniological Society. 



THE AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The recent meeting of this society at Richmond, Va., was most grati- 

 fying in every point, and especially so as realizing the hopes which have 

 long been entertained of meeting in the Southern States of the Union, 

 and doing for the pomology of that part of our country what has so 

 successfully been done in those states where the society had previously 

 held its meetings. It is true that the work done at this meeting does 

 but lay the foundation for thorough knowledge of fruit culture in the 

 southern states, and yet much as has been accomplished, even where the 

 most attention has been given to the subject, we, or those who come 

 after us, will, in future years, regai'd our highest present advances as 

 but the foundation for the pomology of that time. 



The question was often asked during this meeting, What would have 

 been the feelings of those who met twenty-three years ago in conven- 

 tion, in a half-experimental way, and began the work of systematizing 

 our national pomology, if they could have foreseen the magnificent re- 

 sults which would flow from their meeting? It is difficult now for us to 

 realize that we were present at that meeting, so long ago ; and however 

 it may be with others, we must confess that we had no prophetic view 

 of the vast work which has already been accomplished, and we believe 

 we may say of all who engaged in that meeting that they " builded bet- 

 ter than they knew." 



At the time when the first combined efforts were made for the pro- 

 motion of American pomology, the varieties of good fruit known were 

 exceedingly few, and the knowledge of even these was confined to a 

 limited number of cultivators. The White Doyenne, Brown Beurre, 

 and Saint Germain pears, prized by a former generation as the finest of 

 their fruits, had, in the sea-coast region, so far degenerated as to show 

 the necessity of somehow finding substitutes for them if we would not 

 be deprived of the choicest of our fruits ; and to this end diligent and 

 enthusiastic cultivators were engaged in gathering all the attainable 

 varieties, not only of pears, but of other fruits, and we cannot better 

 indicate the difference between the pomology of that day and this, than 

 by the simple statement that that was the era of collections^ this of 

 selections. 



We would not claim as the work of this society all the progress that 

 has been made in the cultivation of fruit since its establishment, for 



