FRUIT committee's REPORT. 27 



suggest any cause, would probably differ, while an acknowledgment of ignor- 

 ance in regard to it would perhaps be the wisest and safest course. 



For the great and unusual development, as respects size, to which some speci- 

 mens on a tree sometimes attain, while the rest of the crop on ihe same tree 

 are no ways remarkable in this particular, or for the great size of the fruit of 

 some one variety, or of all the varieties grown in some particular situation, it 

 might not always be easy to give a reason in which all would coincide, or to 

 assign a cause that would always be followed by like results. This excess in 

 size beyond what is usual, may perhaps be the result of some special mode of 

 cultivation, of the application in a greater or less degree of some particular 

 fertilizing agent to the soil, to the presence of some particular mineral or 

 chemical ingredient therein, to thinning the fruit or other causes, yet it some- 

 times occurs when no particular pains have been taken, and fails to take place 

 whatever efforts have been made to produce it. When it takes place, it is 

 probably because something has occurred, either of a temporary or more per- 

 manent character, to stiuiulate absorption by the fruit, and what that is, is not 

 always to be ascertained. The moistening of tlie green fruit, by some chemi- 

 cal solution calculated to effect this purpose, has been suggested to bring 

 about this result. As to what is the cause of the high color that sometimes 

 occurs in fruit,, though it contributes to its beauty, is not perhaps a matter of 

 6o much consequence, and if it could be ascertained would very likely be 

 found to be beyond control ; and even to know from what this unusual, some- 

 times enormous development in size results, may not be considered of jrreat 

 importance; yet there are effects, some of an injurious character often noticed, 

 of which it is higiily desirable to ascertain with certainty the cause, and so 

 haply obtain a remedy therefor. 



Cultivators of fruit in this part of the United States are subject to incon- 

 veniences and difficulties, from Avhich growers in Europe seem in a great 

 measure exempt; pears being there more uniformly smooth and fair, and not 

 liable to crack and blight as some varieties are apt to do in this country. 

 The climate of Europe being more equal in temperature, and more uniform in 

 respect to moisture than our own — for though subject to sudden alternations 

 of temperature yet there the range of the mercury is much less than here — 

 and although the ruin fall of Europe is much less than in this vicinity, yet the 

 fall of rain being more equally distributed there is an exemption alike from 

 the severe droughts and rains of almost tropical violence, to which all parts of 

 the United States are more or less subject; to this greater uniformity of tem- 

 perature and moisture, the freedom from cracking and blight of pears and their 

 greater smoothness and fairness have been attributed, especially as the same 

 results seem to follow like causes in our own country. Take the past season 

 as an instance, when the summer was if not cool yet free from any excessive 

 heat of long continuance, and marked by copious rains, much more uniformly 

 temperate and moist than usual, and fruit was much more smooth and fair than 

 common, and pears very generally exempt from blight or cracking. If the 



