172 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Orawfords, which were sold for forty-three dollars ; there could 

 have been bought, at the same time, hundreds of bushels at 

 from twenty-five cents to one dollar per bushel. One small box, 

 of about one peck, not one peach of which measured less than 

 ten inches, was sold to John Hill for three dollars. 



I mention these facts simply to impress upon peach-growers 

 the importance of close thinning, and a proper selection of fruit. 

 A soil with a loamy substratum, seems best adapted to the tree. 

 The soil of New Jersey, where the peach flourished with but 

 little manure, so long and so well, is very nearly a clay loam, 

 and not, as is generally supposed, a sandy soil, with the excep- 

 tion of the coast and the extreme southern part. 



Particular care should be used in the selection of the fruit. 

 In the Boston market, yellow, high-colored varieties, are the 

 most salable. Now, farmers, wha are better judges, prefer 

 the white-fleshed varieties, which are decidedly better. No 

 Crawford ever equalled the delicate flavor of the Honest John. 

 For the market alone, the early Crawford can be strongly 

 recommended, for at least one-half the trees set, and filled up 

 with any well-known local varieties. The Fisk peach, originating 

 on the farm of Mr. Jonathan Fisk, of Waltham, is a very early 

 peach ; far surpassing, in beauty and excellence of flavor, any 

 early variety known in Eastern Massachusetts. In setting an 

 orchard, great care should be used in procuring sound trees, 

 free from the borer and the yellows. Strong, thrifty trees, have 

 been delivered in Boston, in years past, from New Jersey, at 

 six or seven cents each. They can be delivered at that price 

 now, with a small additional cost of extra transportation, from 

 States where trees are exempt from yellows — from part of 

 Delaware, Virginia and Western New York. 



Samuel H. Pierce, for the Committee. 



Grapes. — The committee on grapes have attended to the 

 duties assigned them, and the make following report: — 



The whole number of entries was forty-four, mostly of native 

 varieties. There were specimens of the Concord, Isabella, 

 Catawba, Hartford Prolific, Delaware, Early Amber, Diana, 

 Tokalon, Rebecca, Clinton, Muscadine, and various wildings. 

 Of the foreign varieties there were the Black Hamburg, 



