FKUIT committee's REPORT. 29 



where, as they can be constructed cheaply, and require no fire heat, they may 

 perhaps be found remunerative, or at least not involving any very great expen- 

 diture of money, and where, too, in order to obtain fine fruit of any kind, some 

 artificial means must be resorted to, to overcome the inclemency of the climate 

 of most parts of the island ; but in this country, as they Avould require to be 

 more strongly built, and need a heating apparatus, they must be more costly, 

 and as in common seasons most of the finer fruits attain perfection without 

 any assistance, the necessity for them does not exist. Still, this is a very 

 interesting branch of culture; dwarf trees grown in pots or tubs, filled with 

 fine peaches, plums, pears, or other fruits, are beautiful objects, and to those 

 who do not mind a moderate outlay to gratify at least a very innocent 

 taste, is one that may be recommended, and it is, perhaps, the only mode of 

 culture by which peaches can be grown with any certainty of success. 

 Some fine specimens of this kind of cultivation were in the hall at the Annual 

 Exhibition of the Society. Although a heating apparatus has been applied to 

 those orchard-houses of which any accurate knowledge is possessed, yet per- 

 haps the necessity for it might be obviated by, in the winter, plunging the 

 pots containing the trees into litter, or some other covering, to protect them 

 from the severe frosts ; if this should be found effectual it would very much 

 diminish the cost of this mode of cultivation. 



The Annual Exhibition was this year held in the Music Hall, and was cer- 

 tainly creditable to the Society, and the tables were well filled with the differ- 

 ent kinds of fruit of superior quality. On a year so auspicious as the present, 

 great expectations had very naturally been formed with respect to this exhibi- 

 tion, and though it cannot be said that such were disappointed, yet it should 

 be, perhaps, that they were not fully realized ; the deficiency, if any existed, 

 was in this, that some kinds of fruit, more particularly apples and grapes, were 

 not exhibited in as great variety as was anticipated. Nearly all the specimens 

 exhibited were superior, there was none of an ordinary or inferior quality, as 

 used formerly to be the case, when the premiums offered were for the greatest 

 number of varieties, leading to a competition in presenting the greatest num- 

 ber of varieties as well as in those which were best grown. And here, per- 

 haps, it is proper to caution competitors for the premiums of the Society, 

 against deviating from the conditions specified in the printed schedule thereof, 

 and the necessity of strictly and literally adhering thereto, if such would 

 avoid a rejection of collections no matter how otherwise meritorious. The 

 varieties should be correctly named, each dish should contain the number of 

 specimens named in the schedule, no more and no less, and any deviation from 

 these or other established rules involves the performance of a disagreeable 

 but at the same time necessary duty, by the Committee — the rejection of such 

 collections. As on several occasions, during the past year, the performance of 

 this duty was imposed on the Committee, it is wished to bring the subject par- 

 ticularly to the notice of competitors. 



The Weekly Exhibitions, at the Rooms of the Society, have been continued 



