1868.] president's address. 7 



The amount of the premiums has beeu largely increased the present year, 

 and I recommend that a further increase be made, as from our increased rentals 

 it can be, and still a considerable payment upon the principal of our debt be 

 made each year. 



The attention of the Society, as well as of fruit growers generally, should be 

 directed to improving the quality of our fruits, and not to increasing the num- 

 ber of varieties. 



I strongly recommend the cultivation only of fruits of established character, 

 and believe that if such only were planted, and if the time and money devoted 

 to filling the garden with new varieties were expended in proper preparation of 

 the soil, and in pruning the trees and thinning of the fruit, the result would be 

 more satisfactory. 



If, as is the fact, a list of fifteen or twenty varieties of pears will afford a 

 successive supply from summer to the next spring, of all the best pears, it is 

 certainly foolish to increase the number by adding thirty or forty varieties of 

 inferior fruit, 



I do not wish to be understood as entirely discouraging the experimentincr 

 for new varieties of valuable fruits, but this may safely be left to nurserymen 

 and amateurs on a large scale ; and after one, out of fifty new varieties per- 

 haps, has been found worthy of cultivation, we should add that one to our own 

 list. The recommendation that I have made is but a repetition of that of all 

 cultivators of large experience. 



After a somewhat extended observation of the fruits of other countries, I 

 am happy to say that I have not seen any country in which the cultivation of so 

 large a variety of valuable fruit has been so successful as in our own State. 

 Each country has, of course, its own peculiar fruits, varying with its soil and 

 climate, but the enjoyment, if not the cultivation of the choicest fruits, is 

 abroad confined to the wealthy ; and no where is really valuable fruit so readily 

 and cheaply to be obtained by the whole community as in our own country. 



While so great an advance has been made in the culture of fruit, the ladies 

 are to be congratulated that in what is more peculiarly their department, that 

 of flowers, the improvement has been no less striking. The common single 

 flowers have given place to the many colored double Asters, Balsams, Zinnias, 

 Carnations, &c. The old plain Phloxes have given place to the more delicate 

 ones with numerous variegated colors. The smallest garden charms us with its 

 Salvias, Gladiolus, Verbenas, Pansies and Picotees. 



The cultivation in large quantities of the more valuable and attractive flow- 

 ers is recommended in preference to an occupation of the same ground by 

 many inferior sorts. The cultivation in masses, of flowers of the same kind, 

 will be found to be far more beautiful in its effect than the scattering of single 

 plants through the flower bed. 



A great drawback to the profit of the garden, and the pleasure of the Horti- 

 culturist, is the constant depredations of the insects of various kinds. To 

 ascertain the best remedies for these evils is one of the duties of our Society. 



