EEPOETS. 



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EPORT OF THE LoMMITTEE ON -pRUITS, 



FOR TUB YEAR 1670. 



BY W. C. STRONG, CHAIRMAN. 



In connection with the review of the fruit crop for the year, it is 

 well to note the peculiarities of the season, in order rightly to estimate 

 the conrlitions to success for each variety. For though it is most 

 encouraging to find that our best cultivators become, to a good degree, 

 independent of favoring seasons, yet it is by a careful observance of 

 the influences of temperature and moisture and the various climatic 

 changes that we are enabled to meet emergencies and defy adverse 

 elements. Nature is our great teacher, and it is by patient and careful 

 observation that we become wise in horticulture. 



The winter of 1869-70 was remarkable for uniform mildness, the 

 thermometer indicating zero but once in the vicinity of Boston, and this 

 early in December. Consequently the fruit buds were uninjured by 

 frost and were in a state of forwardness. The season was at least a 

 week earlier than an average, in May, this month being warm, with an 

 excess of rain, for the five months up to May 30th, of 5.04 inches. By 

 the kindness of Mr. E. T. Paine, one of our members and a former 

 secretary, we are enabled to make a comparison of the past 46 years, 

 which will be interesting and instructive. 



In June the temperature was 3^° above the average, only four Junes 

 being warmer in 46 years. The amount of rain was 7 1-6 inches, which 

 is 4.01 inches in excess of the average. Adding this to the excess 

 ending May, and we find an excess of rain, June 30th, of 9.06 inches. 

 . Over four inches fell on the 20th of June in some localities, this being 

 the day of the remarkable hail storm, when stones were found of the 

 size of a pullet's egg, and the ground was white with stones varying 

 from the size of a nutmeg to a walnut. Of course an immense amount 

 of injury was done to our fruit crops and glass houses wherever tha 

 hail extended, but it was extremely fortunate that during the remarkable 

 activity of the electric element and the impinging of counter currents 

 from every point of the compass, the wind at no time was more than 



