berries. The drawbacks are, in a season as'wet as tlie past, a loss 

 of from 20 per cent, to 40 per cent, of the berries by cracking open, 

 and the production of berries too soft to bear carriage. Both of 

 these drawbacks would be lessened in a drier seasoii, though not 

 overcome in my experience, and there would be a decided diminu- 

 tion in quality for connoisseurs. Add to this, the harm which may 

 come to the vine from the operation repeated year after year, but 

 which is not yet settled. 



I propose to repeat the experiment upon the same vines another 

 season. Yours truly, 



Jabez Fisher. 



conclusion . 

 It will be seen by this report, as in our previous reports, that there 

 is a decided gain in the time of ripening of the fruit which will ena- 

 ble us to grow many late varieties not possil)le without it ; that a 

 gain of ten d:iys would make a great difference in the price of the 

 fruit; that there is no loss of sugar, and the increased size of the 

 fruit would make it very attractive and more than make up for the 

 softness of the berry. This latter condition can be of little ol)jec- 

 tiou, as most of the grapes grown in New England are sold in local 

 markets. 



REPORT UPON VEGETABLES. 



TOMATOES. 



In preparing for this ex[)eriment, no special effort was made to 

 obtain every variety in the trade catalogues, but more especially, 

 those of some value to the grower. 



They were planted on soil in every way as nearly alike as possible, 

 four perfect plants beinu set in each plot and with several varieties 

 duplicate plots were set out. 



The fruit was gathered each week as soon as fully ripe, and a 

 careful examination made of the various qualities, a summary of 

 which is given in the columns of the following table : 



