6 WOKCE8TER COUNTY HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. [1882. 



maintain heart, with the wind blowing a gale and the mercury 

 indicating 19° below zero. All through the Perfidious Isle, — an 

 exception in six or eight years, — the temperature was that of an 

 unbroken spring ; the face of Nature was wreathed in continual 

 smiles ; and vegetation, like fruition, progressed without percepti- 

 ble check. Yet British orchards have failed to yield of their 

 increase ; and Autumnal Fruits are an utter disappointment. 



Here, — the cold was so intense that the trunks of cherry-trees 

 were riven apart, as in the historical winter of A. D. 1860-61 ; 

 and the tough canes of the Grape, when not split open, were 

 killed even with the ground. Not a Peach was placed upon our 

 tables, A. D. 1882, originated or grown in Worcester County. 

 Still the fatality was by no means so complete, or irremediable 

 throughout this city and county, as it was twelve years ago. The 

 crop of Pears has been fair, at least, since the setting in of Fall 

 rains : and Apples, such as they may prove, are likely to be in 

 supply sufficient to satiate tlie foreign market, and destroy tlie 

 good name of American Fruit ; justly estimating tlie abuses to 

 which that name will be made subservient. 



Under such directly opposite conditions, wherein man has been 

 powerless for direction or control, what becomes of the theories 

 tnat were, lieretofore, adequate to account, indiscriminately, for 

 dearth or plenty ! In England, — a dream of Arcadia, with 

 scarcely an apple for the Nymphs and Satyrs ! In Massachu- 

 setts, — blizzards from the North Pole, following closely upon a 

 frost of such severity, and therefore so premature, as to challenge 

 the oldest memory ; and thereafter an intense and protracted 

 drought. Yet all crowned by an Orchard Harvest, if not so 

 excessive as usual, in the even year ; at worst, large enough ; and 

 which it would be better for both orchard and owner were it 

 smaller still. 



Hopes have been cherished, that tlie demand upon the trees 

 would be so much reduced as to re-inforce them in their effort to 

 bear, in 1883. Instances are frequent, in which some special 

 cause has prevented, or blighted, fecundity in the even year; 

 to be succeeded during the next and odd twelvemonth, by a 

 profusion of bloom and fruit. That we are therefrom authorized 

 to deduce a rule, is not so clear ; although the hopes, above 



