FRUIT committee's REPORT. 75 



vanished, and the weather became cold, stormy, and inclement, and so con- 

 tinued up to the last month of that season — this, altiiough cold, had some 

 •warm, or rather hot days, causing vegetation to be exceedingly rapid, and 

 exercising an almost magical influence by clothing almost instantly, in the 

 space of a few hours, the apparently dead trees with foliage and blossoms. 

 This warmth was, however, succeeded by cold and frosts, so severe on the 

 morning of the 16th as to freeze the ground ; that, occurring during the 

 season of bloom, could not but have been of an injurious tendency to the 

 succeeding crop of fruit. 



The summer was cool with very few hot days, and, although on this ac- 

 count unusually pleasant and agreeable, had hardly the requisite amount of 

 heat for some of the products of the soil. Its first month was wet, but afler 

 that dry, with no rain, except that of occasional showers, from June 25th to 

 August 25th, when there was a copious rain. 



A very severe frost occurred on June 6th, that in many places did much 

 damage, killing tender vegetables and the foliage of trees ; and very slight 

 hoar frosts were reported as having been noticed in some places in each of 

 the two succeeding months. 



The first month of autumn, usually warm, seemed to correspond with the 

 previous summer, was cold and unpropitious for several mornings early in 

 the month, approximating to frost, and with the occurrence of one, on the 

 mornings of the loth and 16th, sufficient to injure or destroy tender vines, 

 an event of rare occurrence so early in the season. An exceedingly high 

 wind, on the 14th, blowing violently in squalls or gusts, was very destruc- 

 tive to the fruit, in many instances completely stripping the trees ; this was 

 followed, on the 17th, by a severe storm, with a high wind, that served to 

 still further aggravate the injury. Frosts in every month in the year — the 

 absence of hot days — together with the destruction to fruit, caused by high 

 winds, taken together, may Avell make the present to be considered as the 

 most unpropitious season to fruit growers that has occurred since the forma- 

 tion of the Society. 



Much damage was done by the winter ; in many cases it was disastrous. 

 Pear trees, especially young trees in nursery rows, were seriously injured. 

 The Bartlett seemed to have suffered more than any other variety. In some 

 cases, where trees were not permanently injured, many of the leaf-buds were 

 destroyed, causing the foliage in such cases, in the spring, to appear thin 

 and weak. Evergreen trees, particularly the Arbor Vitse, were much in- 

 jured. Grape vines were very sensibly affected, not so much in their wood 

 as in their buds — these seemed to be entirely killed — and they showed no 

 foliage until that produced by latent buds pushing late in the season ; this 

 was the case with all the hardy varieties noticed, except the Concord and 

 Hartford Prolific, that seemed to have escaped comparatively unharmed. 

 Strawberry beds, even of hardy varieties, upon level ground, were in many 

 cases completely destroyed ; and some border flowers, in places where they 

 had stood unharmed for a quarter of a century, were entirely killed. 



Perhaps no one cause can be assigned for this general and wide-spread 

 injury. In some cases it may be accounted for by the warmth of the fall 



