STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 105 



" Pears. — We can ijive but little information ; our trees are yet younj;;. We find, 

 in different parts of our county, standard pear trees, thirty or forty years old, that seem to 

 l)ear annual crops of rather inferior fruit. They are in most instances seedlings, and are 

 free from blii^ht. 



" Plums. — The Wild Goose is the best. Curculio nearly stripped it last season. 

 The crop of native plums in the woods was abundant, however. 



" Cherry. — Richmond leads with good crops. English Morello fair, and some of 

 the Dukes. W^e are reminded of a tree (May Duke) growing near Pana, which is 

 eighteen inches in diameter and some twenty-five or thirty feet high, growing almost 

 against the smoke-house. Its owner informs me that at times several bushels of fruit 

 have been taken from the tree. We believe that the shade the building affords the body 

 of the tree in winter is the cause of its vigor and long life, as that class of trees do not 

 generally succeed well here. 



" Peaches. — The crop was light. Hales, Tillotson, York and Rosamond were the 

 varieties that bore. 



" S»iaii Fruits gennxaWy good. For trees in nursery, the past season has been one 

 of unusual growth. 



" Vox Evergreens generally, the season was too wet. Many small transplants died 

 fnini the effects of too much water. The heat of the sun and water 'scalded' them. 

 Scotch Pine, for wind-break purposes, is first-rate here ; it succee<ls well in our soil, and 

 grows rapidly. White and Red Austrian, Dwarf Mountain, succeed well ; Corsican.Ponde- 

 rosa, Contorta, and some others, not sufficiently tested, but have succeeded fairly ; Nor- 

 way Spruce truly excelsior; American Spruce slower grower, but great beauty. Of firs, 

 the Balsam, Euphrates, Silver and Frazer's all do well. Irish, Swede and Pyramidal 

 Juniper grow \\ell. Hemlock does fairly — much better when well established and kept 

 mulched. Retinisporas, several varieties ; they are tender. American, Siberian, Globe 

 and Hovey's Golden Arbor VitKS apjiear to be well adapted to our soil, and are per- 

 fectly hardy. Chinese and the old Golden Arbor Vit;i; are hardy in well sheltered loca- 

 tions, somewhat shaded. 



"American Holly. — This beautiful shrub we are now testing. It stood last win- 

 ter well in a shaded location, protected from the wind. 



" Mahoma Aquafolia. — Our experience with this fine evergreen shrub is, that it is 

 adapted to our soil, proves hardy in a location well sheltered from the winter sun and 

 wind, and in well-drained and moist soil. . Dwarf and Tree Box have proved hardy in 

 a shaded location on the north side of a fence, where not exposed to sudden changes of 

 temperature. 



" Scotch Broom and Scotch Furze are barely hardy, even in well-sheltered loca- 

 tions; have not fully tested them ; will keep in cold rooms in-doors. 



" Golden and Silver-striped Japan Enonymus will prove hardy here, we suppose, 

 with slight protection ; now testing. This is a very beautiful, glossy-leafed evergreen 

 shrub. Yucca P"ilamentoza and Flaccida are perfectly hardy, and grow luxuriantly. 

 Y. Altefolia, hardy if kept in pots in-doors during severe weather; will not stand more 

 than thirty degrees of frost, if the roots are encased in frozen earth. 



" With this we conclude our report for this year." 



RANDOLPH COUNTY. 



Hon. John E. Detrich, writes as follows : 



" Last winter was rather mild, but Randolph county was in the latitude where it 

 seemed inclined to linger too long ' in the lap of spring,' and encroach upon that season 

 to dispense the usual amount of cold. Late spring frosts destroyed the Peach crop in 

 this county. The prospect for a very full crop of that excellent fruit was good until 

 about the middle of March. Severe frosts after that time killed nearly all the buds, 

 except on some hardy seedling trees, on which just about enough fruit matured in a few 

 localities to keep up the remembrance of how peaches taste, that fruit being a failure in 

 this county for the last two seasons. 



