1883.] REPORT ON POMOLOGY. 309 



REPORT OF P. M. AUGUR, POMOLOGIST OF THE 

 CONNECTICUT BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



FRUIT CROP OF 1882. 



The yield of our apple orchards for the year was on the whole 

 light; in m^ny towns in the State the supply was insufBcient for 

 home consumption, and the fruit produced of inferior quality, 

 and yet, in some towns, orchards bore abundantly and the crop 

 found a quick market at remunerative prices. 

 ' The crop of pears, we think, was universally light. 



Of peaches almost none at all; the month of December, 1881, 

 was exceptionally warm, so that the ground remained open and 

 free from frost until nearly the last of the month; the early part 

 of January, 1882, followed with the cold intense, and probably on 

 the night of January 24th, when the thermometer showed 14° 

 below zero, the destruction of the fruit buds took place. So that 

 except a very few rare cases we had no peaches of our own grow- 

 ing, while in 1881 those who had bearing orchards had fruit in 

 abundance. The exceptional cases of peach bearing in 1882 seem 

 to be these; in the vicinity of New Haven here and there a few 

 peaches were grown, and in some other instances, where certain 

 mitigating influences tempered the atmosphere a little, peaches 

 were produced in small quantities. Again in the severe frost of 

 October, 1881, the peach suffered much damage, more especially 

 in valleys, so much so that hundreds of young trees were killed 

 outright, while those on hills escaped that frost, but the fruit buds 

 were killed January 7th, following. To-day, January 1, 1883, 

 orchards on high elevations, like our own, are safe and full of 

 promise, while in low, sunny exposures some trees have lost 

 seventy-five per cent, of their blossom buds already, but unless 

 unusually severe cold should occur, we expect a peach crop, at 

 least in many parts of our State. 



PLUMS. 



This fruit, though only raised in a small way, yielded tolerably 

 well, though in some localities suffering like the peach, and it is 

 fair to presume that orchards of this fruit enclosed in poultry 

 yards, or where special means are used to destroy the curculio, 

 may reasonably be expected to bear fruit, annually, especially such 



