Annual Meeting — Report of Secretary. 105 



all sowed before the first week in April. The month of x\pril was 

 very favorable, and the prospect for an abundant crop of fruit was 

 very flattering, but the month of May was cloudy and cold and 

 quite wet; June was much the same. All kinds of fruit trees were 

 entirely covered with blossoms. Then cloudy weather set in, accom- 

 panied with cold east and southeast winds and cold rains; and the 

 petals fairly rotted on the young sets before they were ripe enough 

 to drop off. This generated a mildew, or fungus growth, which 

 seriously affected the young fruit, and also the foliage of the trees. 

 The leaves began to shrivel up, the trees stopped growing, and of 

 coarse most of the fruit dropped off. What did not drop was 

 attacked with a fungus, or scabby growth, covering both fruit, 

 leaves and young wood with black spots. The effect of this fun- 

 goid growth was clearly seen with a magnifying glass, breaking 

 down the inner tissues or lining of the leaf and fruit, and appro- 

 priating for its own development the pulp and sap designed for the 

 leaf. This growth cannot do much damage to fruit trees except in 

 very wet seasons; it is, however, seen very often on grape vines and 

 gooseberries in dryer seasons. Some varieties were affected much 

 less than others, and retained a portion of their fruit, while a few, 

 located on high grounds, were not affected at all; also trees escaped 

 injury that were situated near swiftly running streams. Quite a 

 number of instances of this kind were seen within a few miles of us. 



The varieties least affected with me, by this fungoid growth, are 

 as follows, and in the order mentioned: 



Duchess of Oldenburg, Wealthy, Golden Russet, Red Astrachan, 

 Clark's Orange, Peffer's Winter, Pewaukee, No. 20, or Felix, Allen 

 Russet, and Alexander. 



Those most affected were Walbridge, Fameuse, Haas, Utters, 

 Ben Davis, Fall Orange, Seek-No-Further, Talman Sweet, Northern 

 Spy, St. Lawrence, Peffer's Golden, and Jonathan. 



On the third of July we had the last rain for the summer. The 

 soil was then so wet that it was impossible to work it, and the 

 drought set in and continued so long, the ground became baked 

 so hard that ordinary tools would make no impression on it. The 

 drought continued almost three months, until the 28th of Septem- 

 ber. Some of the trees that had not dropped their fruit and whose 

 foliage were not affected by fungi, matured their fruit, but made no 

 wood growth; others more affected shed their leaves. Some of my 



