FRUIT committee's REPORT. 67 



PEACHES. 



The supply of peaches the past year has been more abundant than usual, 

 and the quality good. The display at some of the Exhibitions of the Society 

 was highly creditable to the contributors. The only new varieties, brought 

 to the notice of the Committee, were two seedlings, one from Mr. Richards 

 of Dedham, shown for the first time, and the other from Mr. Dana of Rox- 

 bury ; both were late peaches of the yellow fleshed sorts, juicy, sweet, and 

 well flavored. They both seemed to be valuable, not only for their quality, 

 but for being late, after others had generally gone, and therefore worthy of 

 propagation, and of being disseminated. 



PLUMS. 



Of plums there is little to be said. Indeed, the cultivation of this fruit is 

 now much neglected, and bids fair to be abandoned, unless a remedy shall be 

 found for the disease, the black wart, to which it is so subject; for where it 

 has not been given up, in most instances the trees are so infested with it 

 that they have become unsightly and useless cumberers of the ground. 

 The cause of this excrescence is not fully understood, and, until it is, no 

 remedy can be expected. It is not new, having prevailed, occasionally, at 

 least, and with a greater or less degree of virulence, for half a century or 

 more. For the last few years its ravages have been peculiarly violent. 

 Perhaps, like some diseases that afflict the human frame, its virulence may 

 hereafter abate. 



GRAPES. 



During the last few years no fruit, unless it be the pear, has excited so 

 much interest as the grape ; and confident expectation has been indulged 

 that from seedlings, now being extensively raised, some new varieties would 

 be produced, that, free from the defects of the native grape, should be of 

 fine quality, hardy, and sufficiently early to attain maturity under ordinary 

 circumstances in the open air in Massachusetts. Although this expecta- 

 tion has not as yet been fully realized, still, this is no cause for discourage- 

 ment, especially in view of what has already been obtained in the Diana 

 and Delaware, both *ai near approach to the requirements of cultivators. 

 The great desideratum seems to be a grape of good size, suited to the des- 

 sert, that shall perfectly ripen its fruit during our short summer, that which 

 some varieties of those not yet fully tested may prove to be. There are 

 already good grapes, if they could be produced perfectly ripe, as the Isa- 

 bella, Catawba, &c. Indeed both these sorts, when thoroughly ripened^ 

 leave, so far as quality is concerned, but little more to be desired ; but it is 

 to be questioned, whether even the first, certainly not the last, ever, unless 

 under the most exceptional circumstances, thoroughly ripens its fruit in the 

 open air in New England. Should this opinion seem rash or ill-founded, 

 let but a comparison be made between these varieties, when grown at the 

 South, or here in a grape-house, perfectly ripe, and the ripest and best 

 specimens that can be obtained grown in the open air, and the inferiority of 

 the latter will be at once manifest. And this same remark, it is believed, is 



