334 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The year 1863 brought a season, which, though not 

 so inauspicious as that of 1861, was unproductive in 

 comparison with the propitious one of 1862. The 

 weather at the commencement of the season was very 

 dry, so that the annuals and bedding plants, especially 

 verbenas and fuchsias, suffered materially, and there was 

 not so great a profusion of flowers at the weekly shows 

 as in previous years. The dry weather was also in- 

 jurious to the strawberry, affecting unfavorably both 

 the quantity of the crop and the quality of the berries. 

 Of pears there was probably not more than a third or 

 a half the crop of an average fruitful year ; and the 

 quality was, on the whole, rather inferior both as to 

 size and flavor, and the fruit was also more disposed 

 to blight and crack than usual. The crop of apples was 

 an entire failure ; the deficiency that would in any 

 event have occurred being, probably, increased by the 

 fact that this was not the bearing year of the kinds 

 most generally cultivated in Massachusetts, and in 

 many places the trees had also suffered severely for 

 some years from the canker worm. The crop of native 

 grapes was good, and the quality above the average. 

 The scarcity of labor, so many persons being directly 

 or indirectly engaged in the defence of the country, 

 probably exercised an unfavorable influence on the 

 exhibitions, cultivators having less time to devote to 

 them than they would otherwise have been glad to give. 

 The vegetable department suffered more from this cause 

 than the others. 



Some changes were made in the schedule this year, 

 prizes being for the first time offered for specified varie- 

 ties of strawberries, grapes, and pears, and for collec- 

 tions and single specimens of variegated leaved plants. 



