1879] REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 23 



their own against all comers. Moreover, — as regards Currants 

 in general, — did any one ever find himself overstocked with 

 them ; so that his children would not pick them from the 

 bushes, or the hucksters take them off their hands .-• 



There was a woful falling-off in the display of Raspberries 

 during the Summer just passed. That there were any, is 

 almost wholly due to the enterprise of a single cultivator, who 

 has found that other things may be grown in the Tatnuck 

 region, equally suited with the Jucunda to " put money in the 

 purse." Not a specimen of Brinckle's Orange was placed upon 

 our tables. Had your Secretary finally relinquished its culture, 

 after his many eulogies of its fecundity and unapproachable 

 excellence, he would merit your indignant censure. But it is a 

 severe tax upon any piece of ground to be required to bear 

 Raspberries for eighteen successive years, and a new planta- 

 tion demands time to become productive. The Northumberland 

 Fillbasket well upheld the reputation that it has earned for 

 itself, in Worcester ; and which but few pomologists elsewhere 

 seem disposed to accord. In fact, that variety can be but little 

 known, if your Secretary may judge from his correspondence 

 with nurserymen and from their published catalogues. An 

 ignorance of a variety — perhaps unequalled — that is abso- 

 lutely discreditable to gentlemen who would prepare a complete 

 Catalogue of the Fruits of America. 



Your Secretary will confess himself somewhat puzzled. Are 

 experts actually ignorant .'' or do not varieties exist whereof 

 they confess that they know nothing } Years since, in response 

 to an appeal from California for information, he learned what 

 follows : — 



"KNOX FRUIT FARM AND NURSERIES. 



" Pittsburg, Pa., August 3, 1875, 

 "To Edw. W. Lincoln, Esq., 



'''■Dear Sir: 



********* 



"We have never grown the Northumberland Fillbasket, and know very 

 "little about it. 



