TWENTY FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING. 233 



regarded distinctly according to the weight of each picking, we finally 

 computing the full weight of the product for the season; and in the same 

 manner the other dozen which were allowed to form matted rows. How 

 long it may be thought best to continue this process may be a matter of 

 doubt. It will require more than one season's trial, you will readily 

 understand, to secure a result that can be relied upon as an average for 

 the variety. Consequently it has been continued during several years, 

 until more recently the single year's crop has been harvested and then the 

 plat has been kept clear of weeds, and another year compared with a 

 similar plat planted a year later. In other words, a comparison between 

 a first year's plat and a year-old plat. 



This has been rendered diflicult, on account of a good many visitors, 

 and in addition to that the tramping of pickers, to keep the ground in 

 good condition, and this last year it was almost impossible to prevent the 

 ground becoming so packed that at the time the ripening was in progress 

 it was impossible to cultivate the soil without making it disagreeable; 

 and consequently, with the effect of the drouth and the heat at the same 

 time, the results have been very little modified from what they probably 

 would have been under more favorable circumstances. I think I will 

 hardly be going beyond the probabilities when I say that from one to 

 two thirds of the crop has been ruined by the drouth and the inability to 

 take proper care of it on account of the peculiarity of the season. 



That is practically the case with other small fruits as well as straw- 

 berries. We had, three years ago, a very wet spring in that locality, and 

 the ground on which the plants were growing had not been fully tile- 

 drained, and consequently some of the plants, then just coming into bear- 

 ing condition, were very seriously injured, and up to the present time the 

 plat of small fruits has been so uneven that it has been impossible to 

 make anything like fair estimates, either by weighing or otherwise esti- 

 mating the crop, such as we could rely upon as giving the real character 

 and capacity of the varieties as compared with each other. During the 

 last spring that plat was replaced, or rather a new plat made upon adja- 

 cent ground, and it is hoped to remove that difficulty after the coming 

 year. 



So much for small fruits. With the larger fruits there has been less 

 injury on account of drouth ; and in fact, with the constant cultivation we 

 have been able to keep up, keeping the soil constantly mellow, I can 

 hardly think that there has been any real loss in growth or productive- 

 ness on account of the drouth. In fact, during the past season, when the 

 drouth was more severe than ever before in my recollection, the growth 

 of the trees had been very satisfactory, and they have done well, espe- 

 cially the peaches, which produced a large crop. 



With the ripening of peaches, since many of them are entirely new, and 

 nowhere described, even in the catalogues, it has been the practice to 

 watch not only the blossoming, but also the ripening, and to make a com- 

 plete description of each variety as it matured. In doing so we have met 

 this diflBculty, which ought not to exist to anything the extent it does, 

 that, as the trees come into bearing, a large percentage, more than ten, 

 and I guess more than twenty, of fruit would be spurious — not the varie- 

 ties purchased or sent for trial; and inasmuch as most of these varieties 

 are without any kind of description, either in catalogues or books, it is 

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