68 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ADDRESS OF CHARLES M. HOVEY, Esq., 



PRESIDENT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



At the Annual Meeting, January 7, 1865. 



Gentlemen of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society: — 



Once more we have come together at the incoming of the new year, to 

 renew our fidelity to the cause of Horticultural Science, and give the assur- 

 ance of our deep interest in everything that concerns the present usefulness 

 and future prosperity of the Society. 



Notwithstanding a somewhat unfavorable season, dry aln.ost beyond recol- 

 lection, and the partial or almost entire failure of some kinds of fruit, the 

 Exhibitions of the Society have been well kept up, the interest in them una- 

 bated, and the specimens of fruits and flowers, as well as vegetables — all good 

 — have, in some instances, excelled those of former years. The apple crop, 

 as the Chairman of the Fruit Committee has informed you in his most excel- 

 lent report, read at the last meeting, M'as almost an entire failure in this part 

 of the country, and he indulged in some forebodings, that, owing to the many 

 enemies of tiiis valuable fruit, its culture was likely to diminish from the un- 

 certainty of the product. T trust and hope that his fears are unfounded, and 

 that we shall yet see large and thriving orchards taking the place of the worn 

 out and decrepid trees, which, it must be admitted, now disfigure the fair land- 

 scape in our own immediate neigiiborhood. 



Though I am no advocate of the theory of the wearing out of varieties, I 

 have no hesitation in saying that the trees themselves will eventually go to 

 decay ; and no orchardist, who has any knowledge of the subject, will fail to 

 take early measures to provide young and healthy plantations to supply the 

 place of old and enfeebled trees. Because they once flourished well, and 

 yielded profitable crops, it must not be supposed that the yield will be perpet- 

 ual. Yet this is the general expectation, and when, from a combination of 

 causes, such as neglect of cultivation — want of manure — ^judicious pruning — 

 cleanliness of the trees — insects, &.c,, — they fail to give the supply of earlier 

 days, orchards are pronounced valueless, and the loss of the crop laid to innu- 

 merable evils, wholly under the control of the cultivator. We shall regret to 

 see any less attention given to apple culture in any part of our State. 



The pear, fortunately, has proved a most valuable and reliable fruit, and few 

 ■who have attempted its culture have failed to reap a fair return. It is not 



