24 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FRUITS, 



For the Year 1863. 

 BY J. S. CABOT, CHAIRMAN". 



The Standing Committee on Fruits of the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society present to its Members the following as a Report of their doings for 

 the year now closing. When making their report the last year, the Com- 

 mittee felt that they could congratulate the Society upon the results of a 

 season the most propitious and most productive for cultivators of Fruit, that 

 had probably ever occurred since the formation of the Society. The present 

 is offered under circumstances differing somewhat in character, when the 

 closing season, if it has not been wholly unpropitious, has been certainly in 

 no ways particularly favorable, and when instead of great abundance only a 

 scanty crop has been its results. This state of things was not unexpected ; 

 in the vegetable, as in the animal world, reaction follows action, and a period 

 of great effort calls for rest and a cessation therefrom to prevent too great 

 a drain upon the powers. Neither is this season for repose to be wholly re- 

 gretted, for if a violent effort is repeated without sufficient opportunity for 

 recovery from its effects, it tends to produce such a state of exhaustion and 

 lassitude as to cause, if not fatal consequences, at least very serious ill ef- 

 fects, demanding a long time for recovery therefrom. In this view the 

 present comparative deficiency is no cause for regret. That which would be 

 the most desirable state of things for Fruit Growers, would be regularly con- 

 stant yearly crops of moderate abundance, as being at the same time most 

 conducive to the health and prolonged vigor of their trees and most remunera- 

 tive in results. This, however, is not to be expected, and consequences re- 

 sulting from the mutabilities and inclemencies of climate, or other causes 

 beyond control, should be patiently and contentedly borne by cultivators, and 

 alternations from abundance to comparative dearth be expected as the con- 

 dition of their pursuit. It may be that a severe thinning out of the Fruit, 

 in years when the crop was very abundant, would tend to produce that 

 regularity that is felt to be desirable, but this can be only done effectually 

 under certain circumstances, where trees are small or limited in number ; 

 •where trees are large and orchards extensive, the labor and expense in- 

 cident to the process puts it practically out of the question. 



The prominent features of the past season, meaning that portion of the year 

 usually devoted to out of doors horticultural processes, were, its somewhat 

 more than average amount of heat, and its greatly above an average quantity 

 of rain. It is true that there were not many days of great heat, but a long 

 continuance of warm, frequently cloudy and damp days, with no or much less 

 than usual cold weather, made the average warmth of the summer greater 



