32 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1876. 



REPORTS. 



REPORT ON APPLES. 



Committee. — Wm. T. Harlow, Chairman ; James F. Allen, Rufus 

 Woodward, Samuel A. Knox, of Worcester ; and John L. Brown, of 

 Lunenhurg. 



Conspicuous among the abundant crops of the Centennial year is that 

 of Apples. In this County this year existed the material to have made 

 an Annual Exhibition at least the equal of that of any former year. And 

 as regards quality, probably the apples exhibited would have borne favor- 

 able comparison with any ever exhibited in Worcester or elsewhere. But 

 the number of exhibitors were few, and the quantity meagre indeed, con- 

 sidering the possibilities offered by the plenitude of the harvest. 



As the result of some reflection upon the neglect of apple growers of 

 the County to exhibit their fruit at the show of this Society, your Com- 

 mittee desire to take this opportunity to say that, in their judgment, 

 there is a deeper reason for such neglect than has been commonly sup- 

 posed. In view of the uncertainty of the apple crop, and the general low 

 price of apples, the New England grower thereof hath been for some 

 years last past rather dubiously turning over in his mind the question : 

 What doth it profit a man to grow apples ? No New England crop is 

 subject to such variations as that of apples — variation both of production 

 and of market. In odd years only a nominal crop is to be expected, and 

 to the rule that assigns an abundant yield to some years, there are such 

 exceptions as almost to discredit the rule. And when, after many years 

 of patient waiting (equal at least to a generation of men) for his orchard 



