fRUIT committee's REPORT. 81 



tain their standing with cultivators. As an evidence of what can be 

 effected by skill and management, specimens of each of these were exhib- 

 ited the past year, almost rivalling, in size and beauty, the La Caucase, the 

 Versaillaise, and other new sorts. 



GOOSEBERRIES. 



The exhibition of gooseberries was better the past year than for several 

 years before, and both specimens and varieties were more numerous. The 

 show of this fruit on July 23d and 30th, was highly creditable, alike to the 

 exhibitors and the Society. The gooseberry is not a favorite fruit with 

 American cultivators, and does no*^, perhaps, receive as much attention as it 

 deserves, 



BLACKBERRIES. 



The blackberries exhibited consisted almost exclusively of the Dorches- 

 ter ; and this variety seems to monopolize the attention of growers in this 

 vicinity. The specimens this year have been very large and exceedingly 

 fine, — 25 berries, on one occasion, weighing 6 J ounces ; and the exhibition, 

 as made on August 13th, was pronounced by all who witnessed it, superior 

 to any other of this fruit ever made in the Society's Hall. 



PLUMS 

 Have been exhibited this year in much greater quantity, and of much 

 better quality than has been the case before for several years ; indeed, the 

 exhibition of this fruit, as made this year, would bear a not unfavorable 

 comparison with those made many years since, before the trees became as 

 diseased as they now are. Accounts from various parts of the country all 

 concur in representing the crop of plums as abundant, and of fine quality. 

 The specimens shown have generally been of well-known varieties, and no 

 remarks concerning them seem now called for; unless it be to state that 

 those of the Jefferson, MacLaughlin, Sharp's Emperor, Diamond, Columbia, 

 and Duane's Purple, were very remarkable for size and beauty. It is, how- 

 ever, to be feared that this revival is but temporary, and that the trees are 

 not recovering, though it may be that they are. 



PEACHES 

 Unfortunately afford no opportunity for remark. The crop may be saiJ 

 to be a total failure, hardly a blossom, even, was seen, — the result, djubt- 

 less, of injury from the winter. 



GRAPES, 



As has already been said, suffered severely from the Avinter, the fruit and 

 leaf-buds being killed ; and although some of the hardy varieties — as the 

 Concord and Hartford Prolific — suffered less, and that some fine grapes of 

 other varieties have been exhibited, yet the crop generally must be deemed 

 to h:\ve failed. Although it is common to hear varieties spoken of as hardy, 

 yet it is doubtful whether there is any kind of the cultivated sorts sufficiently 

 6 



