1875.] REPORT ON APPLES. 27 



REPORTS 



REPORT ON APPLES. 



Committee. — Wm. T. Harlow, Chairman ; James F. Alien, O. B. Had- 

 wen. Samuel H. Colton, Stephen S. Foster, Samuel A. Knox, ,T. K. L. 

 Pickford. Sylvanus Sears, of Worcester ; Cyrus White, Henry Marble, of 

 Millbury ; Lewis A. Maynard, of Shrewsbury ; and Isaac B. Hartwell, of 

 Oxford. 



Rarely has there been a shorter or poorer crop of apples than the pres- 

 ent year, and never was there greater contrast between the crops of two 

 successive years than between those of 1874 and 187.5. That the abund- 

 ance of last year would be followed by scarcity this, was to have been 

 expected. To Herbert Spencer's illustrations of Rhythm as a prime law 

 of the universe, may be added the a]iple crop of New England. Not 

 more certainly doth day follow night — ebb-tide follow flood — perihelion 

 follow aphelion, and kosmos follow chaos, than a short crop of apples fol- 

 lows an abundant one. 



That the Baldwin bears abundantly only in the even year (A. D.) has 

 been extensively remarked and is beyond dispute. But the fact of more 

 abundant crops alternating with less abundant, though unknown and un- 

 remarked in the case of other varieties than the Baldwin by the average 

 apple-grower is just as true of Roxbury Russetts, Hubbardston None- 

 suches, Gravensteins. Porters, Northern Spies, Holden PijDpins, Maidens 

 Blushes, and every ether variety, as it is of Baldwins, and is only one 

 instance of an all-pervading law. The noticeable thing about it is that 

 the bearing year for all varieties is the same — not that there are not ex- 

 ceptional trees of all varieties that produce larger crops in the odd than 

 in the even years. This is true of the Baldwin a^* well as the others — 

 but una hirimdo, &c. Exceptions do not disprove the rule. It is substan- 

 tially true that the even years are the years of plenty as regards apples of 

 all varieties. 



