330 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



particular fruit, but commenced with the strawberries, 

 and closed only with the apples and pears, the two 

 latter never having been larger, fairer, or better. The 

 peach and cherry trees indeed had been so far either 

 entirely killed or severely injured, that a large crop 

 could not reasonably be expected ; yet, wherever a tree 

 survived, it produced most bountifully. The crop of 

 currants was remarkable, and can never have been sur- 

 passed, the failure of the previous year having been 

 more than compensated by the abundance of this, as if 

 literally two crops had been produced in one. In many 

 instances the crop would not pay for gathering, and in 

 some places could not even be given away. Indeed, the 

 wonderful plenty caused dull sales and low prices for 

 all kinds of fruit, a state of things which the Society 

 had been laboring for years to bring about, that the 

 poor, as well as the rich, might enjoy an abundance of 

 the luxuries of the orchard and garden. A farmer who 

 brought into Boston a quantity of Bartlett pears, and 

 was unable to sell them, except at very low prices, took 

 his load into State Street, and invited the newsboys to 

 help themselves, doubtless feeling abundantly rewarded 

 by the happiness he dispensed. 



The year was also remarkably prolific in floral treas- 

 ures. So favorably were the supplies of sun and shade, 

 of rain and heat, meted out, that in every locality the 

 gardens prospered, and every class of plants flourished. 

 In such a year it might have been expected that the 

 exhibitions of the Society would have surpassed all 

 earlier ones ; and though such an advance may not have 

 been witnessed, owing to the civil war which continued 

 to absorb all minds, the number of exhibiters of fruit, 

 and the quality of the specimens shown, proved a 



