Wa MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FRUITS, 



For the Year 1858. 

 BT HOW". J. S. CABOT, CHAIRMAN. 



The Standing Committee on Fruits submit to the Society the following 

 as their Report for the year 1858 : — 



The characteristic features of the commencement and earlier part of the 

 year that is now closing were such as to induce the hope and expectation 

 of a favorable season for the fruit culturist. A winter of unusual mildness 

 had been followed by a spring, that, for its two first months, was of an 

 equally favorable character — both free from those violent storms and great 

 alternations from moderate or warm weather to extreme cold, that so often 

 occur at this season. This continuance of propitious weather gave rise to 

 an opinion, not unreasonable, that trees and plants had passed through thia 

 season of trial uninjured, and hence arose the apparently well-grounded 

 expectation of a year favorable to the growers of fruit — an expectation not 

 destined to a subsequent full realization. 



With the last month of spring commenced an inclement period, that was 

 prolonged, almost without intermission, far into the succeeding — an almost 

 constant succession of rain storms, and cold, dull weather, with frosts of 

 almost killing severity on the 29th and 30th of May. So introduced, the 

 summer that followed was of a similar character : its prevailing features 

 were much dull, cool weather, with a frequent occurrence of rains of almost 

 tropical violence, and the absence of scarcely any hot days. Some of these 

 causes — storms and late frosts, a great quantity of rain, and the absence of 

 heat — or all combined, has exercised a prej udicial influence upon some species 

 of fruits; and the results of this the third year in succession of extreme wet, 

 contrasted with those of the three years of severe drought that immediately 

 preceded, seems to justify the opinion, that, while an excess of either ia 

 undesirable, a very dry season is, in this climate, less injurious to most 

 crops than one of excessive rain. 



As a compensation for an unpropitious summer, the autumn of the present 

 year has been serene, warm, and fine, far beyond what is usual, with one 

 exception — on the 16th of September — without any severe gales, and with- 

 out a killing frost until November 11th, so that dahlias and other late 

 flowers were blooming in the gardens down to that period, still fresh and 

 uninjured. Although too late to have much influence upon the later fruits, 

 the eifects of the fine weather of the autumn upon other crops has been 

 highly favorable, bringing to maturity and ripening for the harvest some 

 that at one period seemed almost beyond a reasonable hope. As a proof 

 of the peculiar mildness of the fall, it may be mentioned that some plants 

 of the Jenny Lind strawberry were in full bloom on the 7th of November, 

 an event not often noticed. 



The last annual exhibition was held in the Hall of the Society. It was 



