FRUIT committee's REPORT. 63 



depending somewhat on the condition of the tree, and tend to establish the fact 

 that to this, as a cause, the loss experienced may properly be attributed. This 

 being so, as the cold of February 8th was as intense as ever experienced, or 

 certainly for many years, it might well be expected to leave behind marks and 

 traces of its effects in the loss of fruit crops and injury of trees that has 

 occurred to cultivators the past season. And this is confirmed by the fact 

 that trees protected by some shelter, that grape vines laid down and covered, 

 and so guarded against the effects of the severity of the weather, escaped 

 uninjured and bore full crops, while those around them without such protec- 

 tion were seriously harmed. With some confidence, therefore, the severe cold 

 of February 8th may be given as the cause of the loss and damage expe- 

 rienced. 



If this conclusion is well founded, one of the lessons taught by the unfortu- 

 nate experience of the past year is plain and palpable ; it is, that, in a climate 

 such as ours, fruit trees and vines, occasionally at least, if not always, require 

 a certain amount of protection against its severity. This may be obtained by 

 selecting a sheltered site for the garden or orchard ; and where that cannot be 

 done, by the erection of a high close fence around it. If any question arises 

 as to the efficacy of this last method, it needs but a visit to the garden of Mf. 

 Tudor, at Nahant, to dispel the doubt, where, protected only by a high paling, 

 fruit trees of all varieties may be seen flourishing luxuriantly, while outside of 

 such enclosure the hardiest trees cannot resist the influence of the fierce 

 winds that blow over that peninsula. And there is no ostensible cause for the 

 exemption from injury of the trees of Mr. Bacon, of Roxbury, and Mr. Van- 

 dine, of Cambridge, and that these bore full crops of fine pears in a year so 

 unpropitious as the past, but the shelter they receive. It further inculcates 

 the importance, or the necessity, where profit is the object of culture, in a 

 choice of varieties, of selecting the most hardy, keeping in view the quality of 

 the fruit. There seems to be as much difference in the vigor and hardihood 

 of different varieties of trees of the same species, as in the different races of 

 animals of the same class ; and it is only upon the more vigorous and hardy 

 that a reliance should be placed. 



The Annual Exhibition was held in the Hall of the Society. Although the 

 number of exhibitors and of dishes of fruit was much less than on some pre- 

 vious occasions, yet was it, from the superior character of the specimens 

 shown, and the absence of those of inferior kinds and of ordinary appearance, 

 by no means one of the least attractive displays. The show of grapes was 

 thought to be one of the best, if not the best, ever made by the Society. And 

 there was no very noticeable deficiency, unless it was of apples. 



The exhibitions of forced fruits have not been equal the past season to 

 what they have been on some former years, unless it be of grapes, that have been 

 shown uninterruptedly through the season, frequently of very fine quality, and 

 among them some new varieties. The display of peaches was meagre. There 

 was about the usual show of strawberries, some as early as on March 23d. 



