FRUIT committee's REPORT. 31 



opinion what varieties are best for general cultivation, a regard for truth would 

 oblige the naming, as has heretofore been done, of those established favorites 

 Hovey's Seedling, Jenny Lind, and the Boston and Brighton Pine. 



Tlie crop of currants was n)ost remarkable, and can never have been sur- 

 passed, the failure of the past year having been more than compensated by 

 the abundance of the present, »s if literally two crops had been produced in 

 one. Tiiere are now many different named varieties of this fru't, but in many 

 of these but little difference can be detected, for the currant does not seem to 

 sport much in its seedlings. Of the different varieties no observations are 

 now felt to be necessary, for most of them have already been spoken of in 

 preceding reports, and nothing is possessed to add thereto. 



Upon the exhibitions of the other smaller fruits, raspberries, blackberries, 

 &c., no special comments are necessary ; the displays have been as abundant 

 in quantity and as satisfactory in quality as usual. Of the Lawton Blackberry, 

 some specimens exhibited by Mr. S. S. Lynde, of South Maiden, were of 

 enormous size, probably the largest specimens of this fruit ever seen in the 

 hall. 



On the 2.'Jd of August, Mr. James A. Stetson exhibited a dish of apricots, 

 the first time for a long period th.it any specimens of this fruit have been ex- 

 hibited ; it seems to have nearly gone out of cultivation. The display of plums, 

 the past season, was much more satisfactory than usual; they were shown by 

 several exhibitors in considerable variety, instead of, as for the l^t few years, 

 to a very limited extent by one or two exhibitors only. This improvement is 

 probably the result of tlie favorable circumstances of the past season, and does 

 not, it is feared, indicate any permanent revival of this truit, and of a check 

 to the ravages of the disease that has nearly driven it from our gardens. 



In no previous year, since the formation of the Society, has there been a 

 greater, if so great a crop of pears, as was produced the present. This abun- 

 dance was confined, as it sometimes is, to no class of varieties, and to no 

 particular situations or districts, but was universal wherever the pear tree is 

 cultivated, and those of every variety have been loaded to" breaking with 

 fruit. Pears, too, have been not only abundant, but of uncommon size and 

 beauty ; there has been little or no blight or cracking of the fruit, as is common 

 with the Flemish Beauty, Benrre Diel, and some other kinds, but they have 

 been almost universally smooth and f ir. In some of the earlier varieties, 

 those of the summer and early autumn, there seemed to be a deficiency of rich- 

 ness and flavor, but this defect, if it existed with them, did not appear to ex- 

 tend to those of a later season. There has been abundant displays of this 

 fruit through the season, by numerous exhibitors, of fine specimens in great 

 variety. There have been many now pears exhibited. Acquisitio'hs by impor- 

 tation fro n Europe are giving specimens of their fruits, and the results of ex- 

 periments by native cultivators to produce new varieties from seed are being 

 placed before the Society. Among those of foreign origin that have, as is 

 supposed, fruited for the first time in this vicinity the past year, may be named, 



