18 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1885. 



There are varieties that cannot be gathered early enough or 

 eaten soon enough, or too summarily discarded. At how many 

 Exhibitions — in those queer old collections of everything that 

 could be raked and scraped together ; — worthless agglomerations 

 happily banished from these Halls ! have you beheld that which 

 was seemingly fair and sound, upon introduction, turn into a 

 mass of decay and rot before night ! 



" The morn beheld their proud array ; 

 But, when the sun set, where were they ?" 



Fruit should be exhibited when it has attained maturity. Its 

 ripening is an entirely different matter. Its quality, of course, 

 can only be tested after it has become ripe ; and for that purpose 

 a committee that merits the name should reserve a sample. 



Moreover, gentlemen who are disposed to be hypercritical 

 should be consistent, and let their practice and precepts conform. 

 If they object to a display of the Asso?nption, because the 

 specimens are not mellow to the touch ! assuredly it does not 

 become them, but two weeks later, to accept the lowest prizes 

 for Anjou and Winter Nelis ! Tho season around Boston must 

 have been at least sub-tropical, which could force those varieties 

 into eating condition by the 15th of September. We do not 

 wish to see them upon our tables until the very last of October. 

 And even then we rejoice that they will not be fit to eat for 

 weeks, if only they can be gathered of full size and complete 

 symmetry. 



Curiously enough, the judgment of your Secretary has been 

 confirmed by The Gardener's Chronicle (Eng.) which, through 

 its Boston correspondence, under date of August 29, records 

 that " on the fruit table were some fine specimens of the new 

 Assomption Pear." 



The Twentietli (20th) Session of the American Pomological 

 Society was held in the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan, during 

 the early days of September. Credentials were issued to Yice- 

 President, Henry L. Parker who, at much personal inconve- 

 nience, consented to represent you. It is greatly to be regretted 

 that more of our Members could not accompany him. A 



