94 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



cannot tell how it was, but I know that many trees lost their 

 leaves before August. The Flemish Beauty was good for noth- 

 ing with me this year, and I fed them to the pigs ; and I think 

 they were foolish pigs to eat them, they were so poor. 

 Although my land is rather dry soil, and sufficiently drained, 

 as I think, yet these were the effects that I observed. Even the 

 Bartlett cracked — a variety that I never saw crack before. I 

 cannot account for it in any other way except from the extreme 

 wetness of the season. Tiie season has been one of the most 

 remarkable, take it all together, that I ever remember. It has 

 been cold and wet, and very unfavorable for the full develop- 

 ment of fruits. There have been but few varieties that have 

 retained their flavor. There is one variety that I remember 

 particularly, and take pleasure in mentioning, because it is one 

 of the best varieties on the list. The Seckel, the best pear in 

 flavor, cracked, but Dana's Hovey did not crack, and retained 

 its flavor. That is a remarkably fine pear. 



Mr. Brown. I want to make one remark. I will not discuss 

 the matter at all. The gentleman who has just taken his seat 

 says that the season has been a peculiar one. I think we have 

 all experienced that, and are satisfied of the fact. But what is 

 the peculiarity of the season ? Who knows anything about it ? 

 We expect a dry, hot summer in order to get a good crop of 

 Indian corn ; but we had, the past summer, one of the best 

 crops of Indian corn, through this region, that we have had for 

 many years. This year our fruit has been exceedingly poor. I 

 have not eaten half a dozen pears of really good flavor ; they 

 have been insipid, and some of them almost tasteless. The 

 remarks that the gentleman has made with regard to the worth- 

 lessness of fruit this year are entirely correct, and I think they 

 are applicable to fruit in all this region. Now, in what does 

 this peculiarity of the season consist ? I wish some of the wise 

 ones would tell us that, so that we may know how to shape our 

 course another summer, when the season is the same. We have 

 got the corn in perfection, and yet we have not got the fruit. 



A Member. I would inquire if the tendency to crack in 

 pears has been increasing during the dry seasons ? 



Mr. Hyde. There are certain varieties that always crack 

 more or less ; but this year has damaged some theories that 

 have been entertained by fruit-growers. The Beurre Diel, one 



