1865.] RErORT ON GRAPES, PEACHES, ETC. If) 



A word or two may be allowable, in this place, in regard to the progress of 

 grape-culture in this vicinity during the quarter of a century since the influence 

 of our Horticultural Society began to be' felt. Twenty-five years ago, the I.sa. 

 bella, the Blackstone, and the Fitchburg were sold as popular grapes from our 

 nurseries. Of these the former rarely, if ever, comes to perfection in our cold 

 climate ; and the other two, even when ripe, are not worth much. At the 

 present time, we have among others, at least one variety, ripening here in the 

 open air, which, for its pure, rich, sugary, vinous flavor, is hardly surpassed by 

 any grape,, native or foreign, known in the world. After the Delaioare i\iQ 

 Diana ranks next in quality ; and even the Concord and the Hartford are a 

 great way in advance of what were here considered good grapes, a quarter of a 

 century ago. Beside this, we are every year making progress. New varieties, 

 raised from the seed of excellent kinds, are continually coming into notice, 

 some of them — as the lona, Israella, Adirondac, &c., — seeming to be more 

 promising than any that we yet have, the Delaware always excepted. 



Thus, in a few years, we have advanced from unripe Isabellas and coarse fox 

 grapes to varieties of such excellence as to rival the choicest fruits of our cli- 

 mate ; ^nd we are still on the high road toward other improvements ; so that — 

 whether for wine or the dessert — the cultivation of hardy out-door grapes may 

 before long become an important branch of our Northern horticulture. 



Of Peaches, there were nine plates, all told. Not a solitary specimen of the 

 Plum was seen in the Hall, and the contributions of Quinces numbered but eleven 

 plates. That there exists in this vicinity, and elsewhere, a certain feeling of 

 discouragement in regard to the cultivation of these last named fruits, and of the 

 Cherry also, is no longer to be concealed. It is difficult, however, to find a sat- 

 isfactory cause for this prevalent despondency. Some accuse the soil; others, 

 the climate, talking learnedly of changes resulting from the cutting off of for- 

 ests, the drainage of swamps, the electrical influences of loug lines of railways 

 and telegraphs, the cooling of the earth's surface, &c., &c. But to all this it 

 may be replied that the peach, the plum and the cherry are still successfully 

 cultivated in portions of Europe where the more important of these influences 

 have been operating for many centuries longer than they have been in existence 

 here. In our older regions, of New England cultivation, it is true, insects have 

 increased; but that the most formidable ot these enemies of fine fruit can ulti- 

 mately triumph in any contest with the inventive genius of civilized man, is a 

 conclusion to which we ought to be very reluctant to submit. The intellectual 

 achievements of the nineteenth century would have passed, in darker ages of the 

 world for miracles, and the end is not yet. The wolf and the bear which were 

 the terror of our fathers, have receded before the mere physical power of civili- 

 zation, and are now to be seen only among the curiosities of a menagerie. The 

 curculio and the canker-worm, smitten by the potent wand of science, may, a 

 few years hence, disappear to an equal extent from among the pests of the 

 country. 



But the occasion precludes a further discussion of these topics, and whatever 

 encouraging arguments might be urged here to stimulate future experiments in 

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