No. 216.] 63 



MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES. 



Thomas Bridgeman, W. S. Carpenter and Peter B. Mead, Judges. 



E. H. Benschoten & Co., 252 Front street, for fourteen glass jars 

 and bottles of pickle: and preserves. A diploma 



Daniel Powers, Hudson, N. Y., for one glass jar of plums, in va- 

 rieties, carefully preserved. Bridgeman's Fruit Cultivator's Manual. 



Francis Alden, Boston, Mass., for one bladder of imitation English 

 lard, and a bottle of lard oil. A diploma. 



I cannot close this rc'port without briefly alluding to the vast im- 

 provement recently effected in Horticulture. Within the memory of 

 the " oldest inhabitant," the varieties of flowers, fruits and vegeta- 

 bles were few in number, and much inferior in quality to what they 

 are at the present time. These improvements have been the result 

 of a deep study of the vegetable economy, combined with great pa- 

 tience and industry in conducting experiments, by some of the most 

 distinguished Horticulturists of modern times; and the number of va- 

 rieties has now become so extended, that it is really a matter of se- 

 rious consideration whether some check should not be given to that 

 zealous spirit which would perpetuate new ones, ad infinitum, with- 

 out regard to intrinsic properties. Owing to the facility with which 

 seedling plants can be raised, and the paternal fondness with which 

 people regard their own offspring, new varieties are frequently of- 

 fered for propagation before their characters have become developed, 

 and instances have been known where this has been done with much 

 parade in respect of fruit which has worse than no character at all. 



"When the varieties of flowers, fruits and vegetables, were few in 

 number and of inferior quality, it was comparatively an easy matter 

 to produce improved varieties; but even then, the chances of pro- 

 ducing new kinds of superior excellence were very small; for improve- 

 ments of this nature must be the work of time, one variety being a 

 little better than the last, and so on in succession, until a state of 

 great perfection is attained, when the probability of producing a 

 new variety of great intrinsic excellence, and which shall be con- 

 sidered worthy of superceding the finer kinds already known, becomes 

 very small indeed 



