16 PENN. HORTICULTURAL SOCICTY. 
included which, for years, have been discarded as 
worthless for amateur or market purposes. Persons 
not familiar with the different varieties, seeing these 
on the show-table, are quite as likely to purchase 
them, as they are those which have been fully tested 
and found worthy of cultivation. Why this practice 
of putting poor kinds on the table is permitted to go 
on, year after year, I cannot tell, although every one 
conversant with fruit will admit it is wrong, and 
calculated to lead the public astray in making se- 
lections. For some years the Pennsylvania Horti- 
cultural Society has followed a far better system, in 
the manner of awarding its premiums. <Atitsregular 
exhibitions, premiums are offered for single plates of 
approved kinds, instead of foolishly throwing away 
money, and misleading the public, by offering sums 
for collections. By this simple method, practical 
growers are brought into fair competition with other 
growers, and he who is in search of information, can 
get at facts valuable to him as a beginner. I am 
glad that many other societies are adopting this plan, 
and ere long, it is to be hoped, the system will be- 
come general. 
