FRUITS. 91 



beyond the Bartlett and Flemish Beauty, of what may be done 

 by any one who has a piece of ground sufficiently large to set a 

 few trees and enterprise to cultivate them. We hail with 

 pleasure the fact that a large number are planted annually, for, 

 notwithstanding the enthusiasm of some has been checked by 

 their failure to realize all they expected in the culture of this 

 noble fruit, it has proved, in many localities, a more constant 

 bearer than the apple. That it needs higher culture is the uni- 

 form testimony of those who have been most successful. It is 

 well known that Mr. Stetson always raises fine pears. His gar- 

 dener informed a member of the Committee that it is his cus- 

 tom to place a wheelbarrow load of well-rotted manure, which 

 has been used in the hot-bed in the spring, around each tree in 

 the fall. The following spring it is worked into the ground. 

 This generous treatment, continued from year to year, secures a 

 certain result. 



The Committee offer the following suggestions to those about 

 to plant gardens or orchards : — 



1. If your ground is not what it should be, make it so. Let 

 it be under-drained, naturally or artificially, deeply worked and 

 thoroughly manured. 



2. Plant no more trees than can receive the best attention, 

 and select such varieties as have secured a reputation m your 

 own vicinity^ reference being had to their bearing qualities as 

 well as general excellence ; for it is more enQouraging and 

 profitable to have an abundance of good fruit than little that is 

 best. Buy good trees, of a responsible person, and set them well. 



3. Prune annually, to give shape and strength to your trees, 

 and suffer them to bear no more fruit than they can sustain 

 without propping or help of any kind. 



Without the pure light and heat of the sun really good 

 grapes cannot be raised, and they have not ripened well the 

 present season. Even those grown under glass have failed to 

 come up to the usual standard of excellence. There was but 

 one collection entered — that which received the first premium. 

 In the small lots of others, the Black Hamburg and Barbarossa 

 were best developed. Of the natives, the Concord took the lead 

 in this respect. A lot exhibited by Ramsdell & Packard attracted 

 most attention. Seven bushels, as good as the sample, were 

 taken from eighty vines, three years old. B. W. Keith, who 



