23 



doubt, especially in gardens and in the suburbs of large 

 towns and cities. And as to its adaptation to the or- 

 chard, I see no reason why it should not succeed well, if 

 the soil, selection and cultivation be appropriate. A 

 gentleman in the eastern part of Massachusetts planted, 

 in the years 1848 and '49, as many dwarf pear trees as 

 he could set on an acre of land at the distance of eight 

 by twelve feet, and between these rows he planted quince 

 bushes. In the fifth year from planting he gathered one 

 hundred and twenty bushels of pears and sixty bushels 

 of quinces. Of the former he sold seventy bushels at 

 five to six dollars per bushel, and he now informs me that 

 he has lost only three per cent, of the original trees, and 

 that the remainder are in healthful condition. 



Gentlemen of the Society: — 



These suggestions relative to the progress of po- 

 mology, and the means of its additional advancement, 

 together with the motives to future improvement, present 

 a cheering prospect to American fruit-growers. Won- 

 ders have been achieved by private enterprise ; but still 

 greater wonders are to be realized from associated effort. 

 How great the advantages which have resulted to our 

 country from the action of pomological societies, espe- 

 cially from their lists of fruits ! Look, for example, to 

 that prepared by this society. Who can estimate the 

 amount of labor and treasure already saved to nursery- 

 men and fruit-growers by its list of rejected varieties, by 

 preventing the purchase and cultivation of worthless 

 sorts ! Its other lists are equally useful. It should there- 

 fore be one great object of these biennial meetings, to 

 revise and perfect the Society's Catalogue of Fruits, and 

 to render it as reliable as possible, that it may embody 

 and transmit to posterity the ripest experience of the 



