STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 355 



snow disappeared gradually without rain or the usual spring 

 freshets, and potatoes that were not dug: iii the fall survived the 

 winter unharmed. The destruction and injury to fruit trees was 

 considerable in many orchards, and more especially in valleys and 

 upon low lands in sheltered localities. In some instances the 

 hardiest varieties were injured as much as the more tender, and the 

 greatest fatality was to trees set the previous spring. I should esti- 

 mate the permanent damage to the trees about fifteen per cent, and 

 the killed outright about six percent. Upon elevated ridges the 

 injury was the least. 



There was a general blossoming of all of the orchards, and even 

 trees that soon after died outright, put out leaves and bloomed. 

 The bloom of apple trees generally was not as plentiful as the pre- 

 vious year, but enough for an average crop of fruit. Several frosts 

 occurred in May, and a severe one upon the morning of the 21st, 

 but a careful examination did not show the immediate damage to 

 be very great. The fruit set liberally and commenced enlarging, 

 but early in June many trees began to present a sickly appearance 

 and upon some varieties a large proportion of the fruit prematurely 

 dropped, and that which remained to ripen were generally inferior 

 to other years. The fruit was unusually exempt from the codling 

 worQi, but the injury by the apple curculio was greater than ever 

 before noticed, and by fall there was but a small percentage of 

 perfect apples left for the grower. I estimate that upon ray place 

 seventy-five per cent, of the Duchess and Willow Twig were punc- 

 tured, some of them so badly as to be hardly recognizable, and un- 

 less some means is found to head off the Little Turk, the growing of 

 the Duchess and Willow Twig will have to be abandoned. 'The 

 varieties that produced the most fruit were the Early Strawberry, 

 Oeneral Grant, Orange, Hyslop and Transcendent crabs, and the 

 Duchess Tetofski and Cooper apples. The Walbridge, St. Law- 

 rence, Talman Sweet, Fameuse and Plumb Cider fruited very heavy 

 the previous year, and we did not expect a large crop from them. 



Strawberries did not average more than two-thirds of a crop 

 upon the best beds, and some plantations were nearly a failure. 

 They wintered well, and promised for a time to be the heaviest crop 

 ever grown here. The earliest settings were blackened by the 

 frost of May 21st, An unusually heavy rainfall in June greatly 

 damaged the remainder. Gooseberries and currents were much 

 less than an average crop. Raspberries, the Doolittle were a little 

 more than a half crop; the Gregg about one-fourth; Turner, about 

 two-thirds. 



