26 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



maining portions of the natural year are, for the object here intended, sup- 

 posed to belong to that which is to succeed it. 



From this statement it would seem, that while the weather was in no wise 

 particularly favorable, neither was it so unpropitious as to lead, with cultiva- 

 tors of fruit, to anticipations of unfavorable results with respect to a crop; 

 and any deficiency, that was subsequently ascertained, may be reasonably im- 

 puted to a natural and healthy reaction from the previous abundance, rather 

 than to the inclemencies of the season. 



Such deficiencies as existed in the fruit crop of 1863 were partial, and not 

 universal, confined mainly to the later and more valuable fruits, and did not 

 apply to the early and smaller kinds. The crop of currants was abundant, as 

 were also those of the strawberry, and other berries. For, although the dry 

 weather, extending from the middle of May up to and through the first week 

 of July, was injurious to the strawberry, affecting unfavorably the quantity of 

 the crop and quality of the berries, yet still the market was abundantly sup- 

 plied at reasonable prices. The crop of cherries was good, better than for 

 some years; this fruit is however subject to so many casualties, the trees 

 also seeming to have become diseased, that its crop, whether scanty or abun- 

 dant, is comparatively of little consequence. There was, as might be ex- 

 pected, no peaches ; the bearing trees were so generally injured or destroyed, 

 in the severe winter of 1861 and 1862, that sufficient time had not elapsed to 

 recover from the effects of that catastrophe. Plums may be said to have 

 passed from cultivation. Of pears, the crop was below an average, equalling 

 probably not more than the third or half of a full crop of an average fruit- 

 ful year ; the quality of the fruit was, taking it in the aggregate, rather in- 

 ferior, lacking in size and flavor, more disposed, too, to crack and blight than 

 usual, and the trees in many cases shed their leaves prematurely, all probably 

 the consequefices of too much rain, and the unseasonable cooling of the 

 ground thereby. The crop of apples must be deemed an entire failure, the 

 deficiency that would in any event have occurred, being probably aggravated 

 by the fact that the present is not the bearing year of kinds most generally 

 cultivated in this vicinity. In many places in this vicinity the apple trees 

 have suffered severely from the canker worms, whose depredations operate 

 not only as a present mischief, but a future and perhaps lasting injury. 

 When numerous they entirely destroy the foliage of the trees, and the effort 

 then made to clothe themselves with new leaves tends to produce in them 

 a general weakness and debility, especially when this is continued from year 

 to year, manifesting itself in the death of the younger shoots and extremities 

 of the branches. 



The ravages of these pests have hitherto been confined within somewhat 

 narrow limits, but the area thereof appears to be constantly and gradually 

 extending, and if not checked or destroyed, as they have heretofore somo- 

 times been, threatens to become universal. When they become so very 

 numerous, as it is said they do, that the foliage of the trees is wholly con- 



