94 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



could gather fruit fresh for use. One member of your Commit- 

 tee, and perhaps others, can speak from experience. The 

 strawberry none will forget. Of shrub fruit, none can be more 

 easily cultivated, and none more fully repays the labor 

 bestowed, than the currant. The shrub can be grown in any 

 amount from cutlings, and once fairly started, a little pruning 

 and light dressing annually will insure an abundant yield. Of 

 plums, there are some delicious species, but the trees are not so 

 easily brought to maturity as some others, and when mature 

 their years for bearing are apt to be but few. Still, every 

 considerable, fruit-grower does well to have a few good varieties, 

 such as the Italian Damask and the Green Gage. 



Children all love to sing " Cherries are ripe," and usually 

 children of a larger growth are not backward about picking 

 them. If you can keep the robins away till you get your 

 share, a nice Tartarian, or even a ripe Red, will not burn the 

 tongue of the eater if it do not quite melt upon it. The cherry 

 is the fruit of the prune or plum kind, the original stock of 

 which is the wild cherry. One author says, " The best kinds 

 are the May-Duke, White-heart, Black Tartarian, Honey-heart, 

 and Black-heart cherries." The cherry was first brought from 

 the southern shore of Turkey in Asia, about two thousand 

 years ago. The tree needs but the well adapted soil and a little 

 care to insure success. 



From these hasty glances, your Committee pass to the pleas- 

 ant task more especially assigned to them. They have however 

 felt, that, to be true to their trust, they should seek to be useful. 

 They were not satisfied simply to assign premiums and gratu- 

 ities to the producers of the specimens which load your tables ; 

 they wished to ascertain and tell something about the growing 

 of these fine samples. And then, as, owing to the lateness of 

 the season when our fair is held, many of the choice varieties of 

 some kinds of fruit, if not of all, cannot be preserved for exhi- 

 bition, it follows that a much greater number of varieties share 

 the attention of our people than perhaps any of us have sup- 

 posed. Then, again, it is of interest to all who would raise 

 fruit to know what are regarded by the larger growers, who 

 have made it somewhat of a business, as the varieties best 

 adapted to our soil and climate. In order to gain and shed 

 some light upon these topics, pains have been taken within the 



