56 PEARS AND GRAPES. 



the cultivator and drive him from the pursuit, it is the failure arising 

 from wasted time and money spent over a large number of varieties. 

 As a matter of personal satisfaction it may answer, but the public can 

 never be supplied with fruit in this way, and it requires a vast amount 

 of enthusiasm to follow it up for a very great length of time. 



It is highly desirable that competitors should take a little more pains 

 in arranging their fruits for premium. The rules are plain, simple, and 

 easily understood, but for some reason, little or no attention is paid to 

 them by many exhibitors, and then complaint is made that the Com- 

 mittees are incompetent, unfair, and partial in making up their awards. 

 If a rule requires twelve specimens to compete for a particular premium, 

 plates will be found with from eleven to half a bushel, the competitor 

 seeming to think that half a bushel is certainly twelve, and that the 

 Committee can discard the surplus, which they have no right to do. 

 Mr. Heath's Delaware Grapes, for instance, were very fine, and had he 

 arranged his best six clusters as the rule specified, he would, without 

 doubt, have taken the first premium ; and so in a number of other cases. 



Premiums ought to be offered for specific things, because they are de- 

 sirable and worthy of encouragement. If a premium is not offered for 

 any particular display, the inference should be, unless it is something 

 new, that the Society do not care to encourage it. The mere piling up 

 of bushels of fruit does not make an instructive or even interesting ex- 

 hibition. The Society might, perhaps, extend its offers so as to cover 

 more ground, and then allow but a very small amount for gratuities. 



The Committee labored under considerable embarrassment, from the 

 fact that of the three members serving, two were, in several instances, 

 competitors, each against the other, and were obliged to retire. The 

 third member, however, did his duty valiantly, and to the satisfaction 

 of both the others, although in one or two eases he was obliged to call 

 for outside assistance to decide a delicate shade of difference. 



We have awarded premiums as follows : 



GRAPES. 



Best display Foreign Gra^pes : 



2d premium to Joseph Waterhouse, WestmiuBter, $2 00 



Best display Native Grapes : 



Isi premium to George Jewett, Fitchburg, Harris on Insects. 

 2d " E. T. Miles, " 2 00 



