INTEODUOTOET l^OTE. 



In presenting to the members and correspondents of the Maine 

 State Pomological Society the third annual report of its Transac- 

 tions, I with sincere pleasure congratulate them on the continued 

 prosperity and increasing usefulness of the Society, as shown by 

 the character, variety and scope of the matter therein contained, 

 all of which has been presented in the regular course of the pro- 

 ceedings instead of being solicited for the purpose of filling up the 

 volume. In order to bring the work as nearly as possible within 

 the limits prescribed by the Society's means, I have condensed it 

 into the smallest possible compass, omitting manj' details of the 

 routine transactions and everything which seemed not to be of 

 general interest ; also omitting the Act of Incorporation and By- 

 Laws, which have heretofore been printed in the Appendix to each 

 volume. For the same reason the Corresponding Secretary, Dr. 

 Weston, kindly consented to strike out considerable portions of 

 his report, giving to those portions which remained a somewhat 

 disproportionate weight. 



For other and quite unavoidable reasons the " descriptive list 

 of apples," w-hich was commenced in the preceding volume and 

 intended to be completed in this, is omitted. 



The discussions at the Winter Meeting were fully and faithfully 

 reported by Mr. L. F. Starrett, an accomplished stenographer and 

 a member of the Society ; and have only been so far revised as, in 

 my judgment, to divest them of the irrelevant and redundant matter 

 which always finds its way into an extemporaneous discussion. 



I wish here to express to the members of the Society as well as 

 to the various other persons with whom I have corresponded or 

 been associated in the preparation of this volume, my high appre- 

 ciation of their uniform courtesy and kind consideration. 



GEO. B. SAWYER. 

 WiscASSET, March, 1876. 



