REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON" FROTS. 203 



difficult to keep them in a limited space and owing to their tall, 

 stiff, thorny canes it is not an easy or agreeable pastime to gire 

 them the needed winter protection. 



The show of Plums has been less t h an for several years. 

 Some half dozen exhibitors who. a few years since, set oat 

 collections of plam trees, including the most desirable varieties, 

 made interesting and attractive exhibits of the fmits for three or 

 four years, bat most of the trees have fallen victims of that fatal 

 disease, the black knot. There are hopeful indications that a 

 remedy may soon be found for this disease, and if the efforts now- 

 being made prove successful, the plum will soon be found in 

 every garden and will become a profitable orchard fruit. 



The Peach buds were not as badly killed the past winter as in 

 several recent years, bat the wet weather was unfavorable, and 

 an unusually large proportion of the fruit rotted before maturing. 

 It requires more patient perseverance to grow a crop of peaches 

 than any other of our tree fruits. It has been remarked by an 

 experienced grower and most careful observer, that he has never 

 seen a tree affected with the yellows, that had a sound trunk, the 

 inference being, that the disease follows an injury, either by 

 accident or borers, to the body of the tree. 



It has been an exceptionally unfavorable season for the Grape. 

 This fruit seldom suffers from drought : it requires a dry, warm 

 soil and bright sun to secure its highest quality. In view of 

 the fact that the grape is often injured, and not unfrequentiy 

 destroyed, by early frosts, the practice of girdling the vines is 

 every year receiving more attention from those interested in 

 growing this fruit, as by this process the crop can be secured in 

 suitable condition for market at least two weeks earlier than if 

 allowed to ripen in the natural way. The fruit from girdled vines 

 is larger and more attractive in appearance. But it has been the 

 genei-al belief that girdling the branch affected the quality of 

 the fruit unfavorably, though there has been a difference of 

 opinion on this poiut. In this connection some recent analyses, 

 made at the Experiment Station at Amherst, are especially 

 interesting. Arrangements were made with Dr. Fisher, of Fitch- 

 burg, to furnish fruit gathered at different times, from both 

 girdled vines and those not girdled, and Professor Goessmann 

 made the following report : 



