82 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



some varieties, j-et a considerable and, under the circumstances, a most 

 encouraging crop was gathered even in New England, a single excep- 

 tional Isabella vine yielding over 1000 pounds, under the very shadow of 

 the White Mountains. Enterprising cultivators in New England were 

 never more hopeful for the Grape than now. If we go back from the 

 Atlantic Coast, where the season has been, in marked contrast, exces- 

 sively dry, we shall find the Grape crop has fully equalled that of the 

 most famous wine growing districts in the world, with the possible ex- 

 ception of our own Pacific Coast. An eminent and reliable writer who 

 has had the best facilities for procuring statistics, has yet so greatly ex- 

 ceeded previous estimates that we must doubt the accuracy of his data. 

 He gives the number of acres of Grapes in bearing. East of the Eocky 

 Mountain range in 1867, as 1,500,000. The yield is over two tons per 

 acre. Three million tons of Grapes at 10 cents per pound, makes the 

 round value of §600,000,000, (Six hundred million dollars). He also 

 estinuites the land planted in vineyard, not yet in bearing, at 1,000,000 

 acres. Granting this to be an over-estimate, yet it indicates a rapid 

 stride, and a success in grape-culture which is without a parallel, if we 

 except our own Golden State, where single vineyardists have a million 

 vines in bearing. In the foregoing list or in fruits of equal value can 

 any country show a brighter prospect? Grant that the Peach and the 

 Plum tail in many localities and that the Cherry is less certain tlian for- 

 merly, yet even these are by no means abandoned fruits, and throughout 

 wide regions tliey are abundantly i^roliflc. This is our bright side of the 

 picture, and while we freely admit that far more care and toil are re- 

 quired than when the soil was new, yet we must be encouraged by the 

 fact that ours is not an exceptional case. Such a list of fruits of such 

 intrinsic value cannot be produced in any temperate clime, the world 

 over, without the price of eternal vigilance. It is our duty to note the 

 influence of the varying seasons, and other operating causes in order that 

 we may, as far as is possible, eliminate every element of failure. 



The past season has been remarkable chiefly for the amount of rainfall 

 during the growing months. From R. T. Paine, Esq., who has kept a 

 careful record, at Boston, for the past forty years, we have ol)tained the 

 following data: 



The whole amount of rain for the year, was 49.84 inches, being an ex- 

 cess of 4.5 inches over the average for forty years past. The amount 

 for July was 5.68 inches, which is an excess over the monthly a-s erage of 

 1.54 inches. In August the amount is much greater, reaching the large 

 quantity of 9.96 inches, which is 5.54 inches above the average. Large 

 as this is, the quantity increases as we go South, on the Atlantic Coast, 

 until it reaches the unprecedented amount of 17 inches, at Philadelphia, 

 during the single month of August. The nearest approach to this was 

 in July, 1863, when the monthly fall was 12.5 inches, and 5.64 inches in 



