REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FRUITS 

 FOR THE YEAR 1918. 



By Edwakd B. Wilder, Chairman. 



Your committee is obliged to report a very disappointing year's 

 work. The displays of fruit have been meager, owing largely to 

 the almost complete elimination of mone}' prizes from the Schedule. 

 The growers of fruit faced a hard year under war conditions, 

 shortage of labor, and poor transportation, and needed an added 

 encouragement and inspiration to help them to grow and exhibit 

 the best fruit possible. 



With the Food Administration urging the use of more fruit 

 this Societ}' should have been the pioneer in launching out into 

 new fields of endeavor and reaching forth to the future. The 

 number of prizes awarded this year amount to 52, nine of which 

 are money prizes as compared with 294 money prizes awarded 

 for fruit in 1917. 



At the Rose, Peony, and Strawberry Exhibition, June 15-16, a 

 Silver Medal was awarded Louis Graton of Whitman for the best 

 new strawberry of merit not yet introduced. He has named this 

 berry "Louella" and speaks of it as follows: 



"The Louella has now fruited three consecutive seasons. It was 

 found in a row of Brandywines, so I am sure of one of its parents. 

 It begins fruiting two or three days later than the Brand^^ne, 

 holds its size throughout the season, and also has its hull bright 

 and green to the last picking. It is a little darker than its parent 

 and is a rich red clear through. The blossoms are perfect and the 

 berry is regular in form, very uniform in size, and excellent in 

 flavor." 



Great credit is due Hillcrest Farm, Weston, Miss Marian R. 

 Case, proprietor, for her many exhibits of fruit during the year. 



At the Sweet Pea Exhibition, July 6-7, she took six First Prizes 

 and one Second Prize, five of these being for raspberries, the largest 



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