AUGUST. 385 



kinds of the very largest size at present known, is greatly productive, and 

 the berries carrying out well their size from the finest and largest berry on 

 each truss; that the flavor is rich and most agreeable; that it can be car- 

 ried with care ordinary distances ; that it is very hardy and sufficiently vig- 

 orous in growth ; that the color is rich if not brilliant ; and that, although 

 its shape is irregular, its bulging and swelling form conveys the idea of 

 luscious richness." 



This quotation of the majority is a picture drawn from the vivid imagina- 

 tions of these gentlemen, or else describes the berry in question as wit- 

 nessed by them on some other occasion than the one from which they were 

 expected to make their Report. And I will here take occasion to inquire 

 of these gentlemen that, if it were possible to reverse the evidence presented 

 to their consideration, and Hovey's Seedling, instead of the immense crop 

 of mammoth and well-developed fruit which greeted their eyes in the broad 

 fields of our Kentucky friends, and the enormous dishes of the luscious ber- 

 ries which were found upon the tables of their hospitable ladies, and with 

 such delight and apparent gratification transferred to the stomachs of the 

 " Investigating Committee," had been such ill-formed, imperfectly-devel- 

 oped, half-grown and miserable looking creatures that the Superieur pre- 

 sented to our eyes at every place seen, without one single exception, and 

 the Superieur had been all that we found the Hovey to be, what would; 

 have been the character of the report ? I leave, sir, the answer for such as- 

 choose to make it. 



Finally, when we recollect that Hovey's Seedling secured the first pre- 

 miums at the two spring exhibitions of 1855, and at the spring exhibition of 

 1856 carried off the grand sweepstake of $10 offered by the Society for the 

 best four quarts of any variety, and decided, too, by this same Committ«e, 

 to be of larger average size, more handsome, uniform berry, and of better 

 FLAVOR, than the Superior placed in competition with it, we cannot but 

 congratulate the Society upon the advanced ground they have taken, and 

 flatter ourself that the experience of one or two more years in Strawberry 

 cultivation will bring the Society, and especially the " majority," up to the 

 opinions entertained and fully expressed in the " minority" Report of the 

 Fruit Committee presented to this Society on the 22d March last. I would 

 commend to your careful reading once a quarter at least of that Minority 

 Report. Lest I become tedious, I will pass over other items in the Report 

 of the majority that I designed to notice. 



Very respectfully, W. E. Mears. 



Ulnssiicjjusetts portitiiltural Bmi^ 



Saturday, June 21 . — Exhibited. Fruits : From Geo. Leland, Jenny Lind 

 strawberries. From J. R. Simonds, Hovey's Seedling. From Jos. Break 



VOL. XXI. NO. VIII. 49 



