44 Massachusetts Horticultwal Society. 



been much fewer than usual, both in the number of specimens, as well as of 

 varieties, yet it is satisfactory to your committee that they are able, with 

 safety, to assert that some of the specimens offered for competition were of 

 superior excellence ; equalling, if not surpassing, in size and beauty, any 

 ever before placed upon the tables of tlie Society. An assignment of a 

 cause for this superiority is forbidden by an ignorance of facts applicable 

 thereto ; but it is, at least, hoped that it is wholly or in part attributable to 

 improved modes of cultivation. It would be an agreeable duty to enumerate 

 all the instances of this superiority referred to. To attempt its performance 

 might, however, be an invidious task ; yet, as a proof that the obstacles aris- 

 ing, not only from an unfavorable season, but those created by a usually 

 supposed most uncongenial climate and situation, as well as an unfavorable 

 soil, may be successfully surmounted, it may not be improper to state, in 

 this connection, that the Louise Bonne d'Avranche pears, and some others, 

 exhibited by F. Tudor, Esq., raised on his grounds at Nahant, were very su- 

 perior in size and beauty ; their excellence in the former respect arising, in 

 the opinion of that gentleman, from the stimulating effects of rain water 

 repeatedly applied to the trees. 



The reverse of what has been said with respect to the excellence of some 

 of the pears exhibited, is applicable to apples generally, which, the past 

 year, have been not only few in number, but generally of inferior quality. 

 For want of any, in their opinion, worthy of a premium, the committee have 

 refrained from awarding the second prize for autumn apples ; the same want 

 having also compelled the adoption of the same course with respect to sum- 

 mer pears. 



Witli these preliminary remarks, the committee now announce the follow- 

 ing Award of Prizes, as made by them for the past year, viz : — 



PRIZES AND GRATUITIES DURING THE SEASON. 



For the best and most interesting exhibition of Fruit during the sea- 

 son, the Lowell Plate, to John F. Allen, . . . #20 00 



For the second best, to Otis Johnson, 



For the third best, to Messrs. Hovey & Co., 

 Apples. — For the best summer apples, to John Hovey, 

 Harvest, 



For tlie second best, to Otis Johnson, for Early Bough, 



For the best autumn apples, to J. Lovett, 2d, for Drap d'Or, 



For the second best, no award made. 



For the best 12 winter apples, to J. A. Kenrick, for Cogswell, . 



For the second best, to O. Johnson, for Baldwin, 

 Blackberries. — For the best specimens, to G. Merriam, 



For the second best, to O. C. Grant, 



Cherries. — For the best specimens, to G. Walsh, for his seedling, . 



For the second best, to O. Johnson, for Black Tartarean, . 

 Currants. — For the best specimens, to Hovey & Co., for May's 

 Victoria, .....••••• 



For the second best, to G. Wilson, for White Dutch, 



for Early 



