FRUITS. 115 



FKUITS. 



ESSEX. 



From the Report of the Committee on Grapes. 



Looking back upou the record of our society, as published, 

 in the reports of committees on fruit, we find, year after year, 

 premiums and gratuities awarded for choice fruit that was a 

 gratification to those interested, and a pleasing sight to the 

 looker-on at the hall. But what lasting information to the 

 society was gained by it? None. If Mr. A. had better fruit 

 than Mr. B., and Mr. C. had unhealthy and unproductive 

 trees and vines, so that he could not exhibit at all, how was he 

 to get information to help him unless he visited or wrote to 

 Mr. A. to know how he did it, which he would not be likely to 

 get in as good a way as from the report of a committee who 

 pass judgment on the merits of the fruits exhibited, and who 

 are entitled by the rules of our society to receive such informa- 

 tion, and which, if not furnished, they should seek after for 

 their own information and the information of hundreds and 

 thousands who read the annual report of the society's doings, 

 many of whom are unable to attend the exhibition. 



Feeling such a lack of information on a subject which deeply 

 interests a great many, and finding myself, much to my sur- 

 prise, from my imperfect knowledge of the subject. Chairman 

 of this Committee, I felt that this year, at least, the Com- 

 mittee ought to take a new departure from the old rut, and 

 therefore, to do it, called upon the principal exhibitors to put 

 their shoulders to the wheels and help them out by answering 

 the following questions : How were your vines started, — by 

 single eye, cuttings or layers? How old are they? How 

 old were they when planted ? What was the soil ? How 

 enriched since planting, and when? What exposure have 



