REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON FRUITS. 2o 



how nicely adjusted are the laws of nature to human wants, and how 

 slight disturbance of these laws Avould reduce our fair land to perpetual 

 desolation. Let us recognize a wise and beneficent Creator, who has 

 not only set the stars in their fixed courses, but also has adjusted the 

 fickle forces of nature with such even poise that instead of desolation 

 "the little hills rejoice on every side, the pastures are clothed with 

 flocks, the valleys also are covered over with corn, they shout for joy, 

 they also sing." 



Extraordinary as the season has been, both in heat and drj-ncss, we 

 may say that in general it has been productive. Strawberries wintered 

 safely, and the successive rains of May and June, the prime essential for 

 this fruit, carried the crop to complete maturity, giving the largest size 

 but not the highest flavor. In localities where the hail storm was 

 heaviest a total loss was the result. To some extent Easpberries, 

 Currants and Blackberries felt the dry weather of August, but even 

 they were so well advanced before the severity of the drought came on 

 that the quantity and quality of these fruits was quite up to average 

 years. Up to August 1st the conditions for the Apple Avere most 

 favorable. In most localities the cankerworm was either greatly 

 reduced in numbers, or had totally disappeared. Successive rains 

 had given vigor to the trees, and at this time the fruit was unusually 

 promising. But as week after week of the exceeding drought came on, 

 and with it no relief from the burning heat, we might naturally have 

 expected that the fruit would have perished. So it did in some 

 localities, and to some extent. If the heat and drought had come in 

 the season of the small fruits it would have been utter ruin to them, 

 dependent as they are upon surfiice roots. In the rapid season of 

 growth it would have been ruin even to the Apple and the Pear. But it 

 would seem by the results of this season that for the single process of 

 maturing the fruit, with the reserve supply of vital force in the tree, and 

 with the aid of the deep running roots, the process could go on upon an 

 astonishingly small amount of moisture. Who could have anticipated 

 the extent and the excellence of our Apple and our Pear crop in spite of 

 the unexampled burning drought. The explanation is that the severity 

 of the drought came after growth of wood was completed, and the 

 elaboration of the sap and the maturity of the fruit was the only process 

 left to be done. For this maturing process a large amount of rain is 

 rather undesirable. The case of one of your Committee, and of one of 

 our most successful cultivators, Mr. Hervey Davis, is instructive upon 

 this point. Having spared no effort to give size to his pears, and having 

 obtained such marked results by the last of August that your Chairman 

 remarked that it would be almost safe to print the prize cards for him, 

 Mr. Davis thought to make assurance doubly sure by watering his trees 

 from his unlimited supply. It can hardly be doubted that the fruit 



