1878.] REPORT OP THE SECRETARY. 51 



There are usually one or two nights of sharp frosts to warn us that the 

 summer is at an end. Thereafter, were sli^^ht precautions taken, gar- 

 den and grounds might be gay with the unimpaired radiance of Aster, 

 Geranium and Salvia. And the fall of the leaf is sufficiently depress- 

 ing, to demand for its counteraction every influence of nature or art 

 that may cheer and enliven. The protection or shelter required has on- 

 ly to be timely ; it need be but slight. The warmth of a fir-tree often 

 matures the clusters upon a vine, which would have perished half-grown 

 or unripe, upon the bleaker support of a trellis. 



The terrific Frost, SO" Fahrenheit, of A. D. 1860-61, that preceded 

 the War — fit usher of that and similar calamities — froze the very life 

 out of Quince. Cherry and Peach trees. Their subsequent existence 

 was rather a struggle for resurrection than recovery. Some were de- 

 stroyed outright. Of others, the vitality was so far impaired that they 

 had not sufficient stamina to rally, and therefore yielded readily to the 

 first attacks of disease. Latterly the faith of persistent cultivators has 

 been rewarded. The Cooledge, Old Mixon and Crawford appeared at 

 the New England Fair, as for some years past upon our own tables, 

 without taint of the Yellows. In too many specimens, however, that 

 insidious disease betrayed unmistakable marks of its lurking corrup- 

 tion. But all experience goes to show that when sound, healthy trees 

 are planted, there need be little fear of adverse climatic influences. 

 Only once in a generation, possibly not so often, do the princes of the 

 powers of the air combine to wage exterminating war upon Pomona. 



The terms of eulogy were exhausted by reporters for the newspaper 

 press, in their descriptipns of the quality and profusion of the Peaches 

 at the late New England Fair Yet there were but forty-four (44)plates 

 in all; and among them, a :«ingle variety — the Crawford — was largely 

 predominant. But twenty-two (22) years previous, one hundred and 

 thirteen plates^ of Peaches had bteen shown at a single, local Exhibition 

 of the Worcester County Horticultural Society. And at 

 that Exhibition two contributors displayed eleven (11) distinct varie- 

 ties, while one exulted in the remarkable number of thirty (30). Truly 

 our progress, since A. D. 1856, has not been in the line of either fecun- 

 dity or novelty. 



Apprehensions of a short crop of Pears were early expressed and 

 have been, in great measure, justified. Of some varieties, it is true, 

 there was a profusion, notably that half-appreciated kind, the Louise 

 Bonne de Jersey. Your Secretary is generally accredited with the 



