10 
AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
Very interesting reports have come of the late Hybridization Conference 
in London, but it would seem that while admirable work has been done, it has 
been done mostly to produce beautiful things for the few, while our best 
work must be to produce useful and healthful food for the many. The work 
in Europe has been for the classes, the work for this Society is for all 
Americans. May it not be eminently proper that a practical Society like this 
should undertake the work of spreading such information that when fruits 
are grown, it shall not remain true that while the many are hungry, certain 
favored markets are flooded to repletion. The ultimate aim of American 
Pomology must be that wholesome fruits be brought within the reach of all 
American citizens, at such prices, that everyone willing to work may eat of 
them. The task of distribution should be so performed that fruit gluts and 
famines may be reduced to a minimum. 
No state organization can do this. If it is ever done, it must be done 
nationally. This maybe another dream, but if the dream can be made into a 
business reality, it will bring untold blessings into American homes. 
I should like to see a special committee appointed to report at our next meet- 
ing, whether, if in their judgment, any means may be adopted to assist fruit 
growers to accomplish this reform. 
In recommending new fruits, neither this Society nor any other can wholly 
guide the public taste. A brilliantly colored fruit may take the market while 
a more modest one of better quality brings only loss to the grower, and if 
Americans are to be fed with fruit, men must grow that which they can turn 
into money to pay for educating their families and for growing more fruit. 
If men will buy Ben Davis apples and pass by Grimes Golden, that is some- 
thing which pomologists cannot, at once, cure. 
It is said that the love of bright colors is a survival of savagery. That may 
be true, but if it was a surviving drop of the red blood of our savage ances- 
tors that carried our boys up San Juan Hill and made them eager in Manila 
Bay and off Santiago Harbor, may it be a long time before the drop of red 
blood in their livers is changed to milk. 
There is abundant work ready and waiting for the hands of this Society. 
It cannot all be done in one generation, but the womb of time is full of years 
and every year brings its opportunities. 
Men must fall out of the ranks. The last two years have taken some of 
our best. A Committee on Memorials will relate some of their good works 
and our volume will preserve the record. 
* The living must still hold to the paths leading upward and onward. 
(Applause.) 
On motion of Prof. Wm, B. Alwood, the President’s Address was referred 
to a committee of three with instructions to report at such time as they saw 
fit. 
The Chair appointed the following as the committee: Messrs. Wm. B. 
Alwood, Virginia ; Byron D. Halsted, New Jersey, and F. M. Hexamer, 
New York. 
