STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 131 



From Anna I went to Villa Ridge. This place has been especially 

 favored in having good crops of everything, with the exception of 

 strawberries. Peaches were not winter-killed at all, but nearly all of 

 the earlier yellow varieties were caught by a late frost while in blos- 

 som; the C[uality of the crop was excellent, with a correspondingly 

 handsome balance in favor of the growers. Apples did well, all the 

 early varieties, and especially Red June, which sold at from four to 

 five dollars per barrel, brought good prices. Strawberries here, as 

 elsewhere, very poor. Grapes have had a most favorable season. In 

 the experimental vineyards of Geo. W. Endicott and E. J. Ayers, 

 where something over an hundred varieties are grown, none rotted. 

 Mr. Endicott has fruited the Empire State, and thinks well of it; 

 Perkins is a good wine grape; it rots very little, and has the addi- 

 tional quality of making a good wine. His favorite peaches are 

 Thurber, Silver Medal, Mountain Rose, Ede, and a new yellow- 

 fleshed one, called Elberta; it comes from Georgia, is as large as E. 

 Crawford, very high-colored, and ripens just before Old Mixon. Of 

 plums, he thinks the Golden Beauty will be valuable to plant among 

 peaches, to catch curculios from; it is very hardy, and sure to bear; 

 counted as many as twenty-six crescent marks of the curculio, but 

 found no worm; Spaulding is of as good quality as Green Gage; 

 curculios do not damage it; Botan is an early bearer, as large as an 

 Amsden peach, and of good quality; Robison is a good bearer; 

 Mariana has a poor color, but does not sprout; he thinks it will 

 make a good stock to graft onto. All the varieties of seedling ap- 

 ples exhibited by Mr. W. R. Grain for the past two years, at our 

 meeting, have borne good crops; their names and descriptions can 

 be found on page 65, Vol. 19, Reports of this Society. These apples 

 deserve to be more widely planted, as they are well worthy of trial. 

 Mr. E. J. Ayers considers the Cottage a very valuable market grape; 

 it has an extra good leaf, a tough skin, and is a good shipper; does 

 not rot; ripens about a week before Concord; he is much pleased 

 with Moore's Early, since he has grown it in vineyard. Strawberry 

 growers here are getting tired of planting the Crescent, and are go- 

 ing back to the Downing, as it has proved the more profitable of the 

 two. 



The fruit show at the September meeting of the Grange was 

 exceptionally fine, both as to variety and quality, for a selection 

 taken to the State Fair, at Olney, took the first premium for the best 

 display by a Society. 



REPORT ON STOXE FRUITS. 



BY D. B. WIEE, LACOlSr. 



We of the northern part of the state have but one fruit of the 

 almond family left — the native plums. All others belonging to 

 that family have failed. 



