1896.] TRANSACTIONS. 15 



convulsion. And now once more the mercury fulls to minus 

 15°, and the keen, piercing winds of mid-winter check circula- 

 tion, threatening life to tlie very quick. Our Exhibitions do 

 not cease, because they are wisely held in such frequency as to 

 meet the maturity of fruits in due succession. So that it must 

 be a wholesale blight which shall preclude a display at least 

 tolerable. Yet although duly held, we cannot but notice, and 

 noticing deplore, the complete failure to respond to the invita- 

 tion in our schedules of those delicious fruits of Summer and 

 early Autumn, even if an ample Apple harvest in some measure 

 modifies our regret. 



One of our best Orchardists, who does not let his brain lie 

 fallow, and to whom the name of Artemas Ward appeals with a 

 local pride, if not humorous significance, as he cries to Horti- 

 culturists everywhere, — " Why are these things thus?" would 

 account for the falling a still-born creation or harvest, whichso- 

 ever you elect to term it, by a theory of positive exhaustion ! 

 He declares that the trees are worn out. That they have been 

 required to bear barrels rather than bushels, neither care nor 

 labor being expended to reduce tlie surplus ; nor pains taken 

 to see that Hen or Hog eliminate Insects from future calcula- 

 tion as they, — the scavengers of Pomology, — might so well and 

 effectually do if fairly encouraged. Just at the opening of this 

 September he is worried because the Gravenstein, — that noblest 

 of Autumnal Apples, — is rapidly dropping from the tree. And 

 therein is a problem not for him alone, but for all of us who, a 

 year ago, could find no apples worth a second thought obtaina- 

 ble for love or money ; but who have cherished fond anticipa- 

 tions of a bounteous harvest in this, the legitimate bearing year, 

 of ample barrels of fruit, copious casks of cider, honest vinegar 

 for our beans, and that value of a thousand Gileads, — the Yankee 

 Pie which responded to the exactions of Philosophy and satis- 

 fied Emerson in his more material yearnings. Indeed, and in 

 truth, is not the problem one worthy of solution, nay, demand- 

 ing it more than most that are a source of perplexity? But 

 does that theory of Exhaustion suffice? If so, the harvest 

 should decrease with each recurring year. Yet, A. D. 1896, 



