12 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Apple without a namfi; name preferred, if consistent, Whiting's Sport. 

 History as follows : — ]N'athaniel Whiting, originally from Dedliam, 

 Mass., then residing on his farm in Amherst, N. H., planted apple seeds 

 about the year 1820, and within three or four years afterwards procured 

 scions from Dedham with which he engrafted the seedlings; one scion 

 grew and bore the regular Baldwin Apple, becoming a large tree of 12- 

 14 inches diameter of trunk in 1854; at which time a small branch, 

 which had started from a limb at a point about twenty feet' from the 

 ground, was observed to bear fruit dilTering from the rest of the tree, 

 and was, in appearance, between a Baldwin and Roxbury Russet; this 

 branch has continued to enlarge and bear these peculiar Apples; and 

 grafts from it have been inserted in other trees where they grow difler- 

 ently from the Baldwin or Eusset tree, and are of upright rapid growth ; 

 in fruitfulness about the same as the Baldwin. The fruit jiresented was 

 borne in 1868, by grafts of this peculiar branch inserted in other trees, 

 five years from cleft grafting, on the same homestead. The keeping 

 quality is evident from the specimens herewith, April 3d, 1809, which 

 were taken from a barrel packed the middle of October, in which no 

 decayed ones were found when opened, the 16th of March. 



Grapes. — The forced fruit of M. H. Simpson, June 5th, was fine and 

 was worthy of the prize. Afterwards, in July and August, Messrs. 

 Holbrook and Turner received prizes. But we have too few comi)elitors 

 for these prizes. Latterly, our Native Grapes have been so abundant 

 and excellent in the market, and have been sold at such low rates, that 

 the products of cold houses have been neglected and have been unpro- 

 fitable, being dull of sale at thirty-five cents per pound, at wholesale. 

 As the fruit is so perfectly at home in the forcing house, and is such a 

 beautiful as well as remunerative crop, when brought in quite early in 

 the season, we do not hesitate to recommend its extended cultivation. 

 With the great increase in wealth and population, we doubt if we have 

 as many Forced Grapes in our market as we had twenty years since. 

 The collections of Exotic Grapes exhibited in September were large and 

 fine. It is not amiss, however, to intimate to cultivators that your com- 

 mittee will regard color and healthy maturity as more important than 

 rank size. The first appearance of Native Grapes was August 28th, 

 B. B. Davis exhibiting Jenning\s Seedling, a tough, foxy, black variety, 

 which is still found to be profitable on account of its earliness. Dr. 

 Waters of Newton exhibited a black Grape of the Burgundy class, 

 small, sprightly and good, which he says has almost uniformly ripened 

 in Maine, and now, in Newton, produces regular crops, with little lia- 

 bility to mildew. The same day, James Comley exhibited a fine looking 

 black Grape, not quite ripe but promising. Upon subsequent days it 

 bore a very close resemblance to the Hartford. Mr. Comley thinks it is 

 difierent and earlier. 



