2/8 The American Pomological Society. 



THE AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



No gathering of horticulturists in this country is looked forward to with 

 more interest than the biennial meeting of the American Pomological So- 

 ciety. And certainly the late meeting at Philadelphia was no exception to 

 the rule, that these gatherings have from the very commencement increased 

 in interest, and justify the eager anticipations entertained in regard to them. 

 The prosperity attained by this society now surpasses the most sanguine 

 hopes of its founders ; and it was most gratifying to find that no less than 

 sixteen of those who participated in the first meeting of the American 

 Congress of Fruit-Growers twenty-one years ago, including its first presi- 

 dent (who still continues to fill the chair), were at Philadelphia to celebrate 

 the arrival of the society at the age of manhood, and to rejoice in its pros- 

 perity. Instead of the twelve States represented twenty-one years ago, we 

 this year found more than two hundred delegates, representing thirty-four 

 associations from twenty-five States and Territories, some of which were 

 unknown even by name at the time of the first meeting ; and from one of 

 these came one of the finest displays of apples and pears in the whole 

 exhibition. We allude to the fruit from Kansas, unsurpassed for size, 

 beauty, and freedom from insects. A great variety of apples were also 

 shown from the young State of Iowa ; and the specimens of California 

 fruit presented by the president attracted much attention. 



The combined exhibition of fruit before the Pennsylvania Horticultural 

 Society and the Pomological Society undoubtedly constituted the largest 

 collection of fruits ever gathered together in this country ; and was well 

 characterized by President Wilder in his address as " a cornucopial dis- 

 play," numbering more than three thousand two hundred dishes. The 

 effect upon entering the spacious and magnificent hall, crowded with the 

 choicest fruits and flowers, was bewildering, and almost oppressive with 

 the thought of the impossibility of doing justice to such a vast collection 

 in the few days during which it could remain together. 



The finest pears were from Norfolk, Va., and Wilmington, Del. ; some of 

 the Duchesse d'Angoulemes from these places weighing twenty and twenty- 

 one ounces each, and giving a foretaste of what we naay expect when pear- 



