1865.] REPORT ON APPLES. 11 



ANNUAL EXHIBITION, 1865. 



REPORT ON APPLES. 



Stephen S. Foster, Chairman ; Samuel H. Coltox, J. Frank Allex, 

 Dr. Rufus Woodward, of Worcester ; Newell Wood, of Millbur}- ; and 

 S. A. Knox, of Grafton. 



The Committee to whom was assigned the duty of awarding your premiums 

 on Apples, have instructed me to submit tlie following report. 



The whole number of contributors to this important department of your 

 Annual Exhibition is twenty-three, — the number of their contributions, of all 

 sorts, sizes and descriptions, is 192, or less than one-fourth the number of sev- 

 eral preceding years. In quality, the contrast between the contributions of this 

 and preceding years, is scarcely less painful. Indeed, much of the fruit upon 

 your tables is no ornament to the Fair, and in ordinary seasons would be en- 

 tirely inadmissible. But the meagreness of these contributions must not be 

 construed into any want of interest among fruit-growers in the object and 

 efforts of the Society. On the contrary, it is evidently the result of another 

 failure of the apple crop throughout the entire county, — a failure which has no 

 parallel in the history of the past. Heretofore, in seasons unproductive of this 

 invaluable fruit, particular localities have been exempt from the general blight ; 

 but that this season furnishes no such exemptions is abundantly proved by the 

 general appearance of the market, as well as by the mournful aspect of this 

 exhibition. The insects which have hitherto been content to share with us this 

 indispensable product of .our toil, have at last taken the whole, and left us 

 nothing but the unsightly, sickening crumbs which fall from their dainty ta- 

 ble. We have conquered the rebellion, but we have in our midst a foe more 

 subtle than traitors, and more formidable than armies — a foe whose extirpation 

 as a public benefaction demands alike the skill of science and the energies of 

 labor. 



In making their award your Committee were greatly embarrassed by the fact 

 that very few of the contributors had complied with the conditions on which the 

 premiums were offered. Most of the collections were deficient in the number 

 of varieties necessary to entitle them to any of the higher premiums ; while 

 most of the varieties were wanting in the requisite number of specimens to en- 

 title them to the premiums for single varieties. Under these circumstances the 

 only course which seemed open to them, injustice to all parties, was to adhere 



