FOURTEEXTH ANNUAL MEETING. 3 



aiul may not for another year. This injury was not to 

 peach trees alone. Many apple trees, which looked healthy 

 early in the season, showed lack of vigor before the fruit 

 ripened, and were not able to carry it to perfection of size 

 and quality. The same thing was noticed in all the other 

 fruits. Evidently the trees, while not visibly injured, were 

 so weakened that when the additional tax of ripening a crop 

 was added they could not meet it. The apple crop had some 

 troubles peculiarly its own. It was very unevenly distributed 

 over the state, and was not a large one, yet at selling time 

 there seemed to be a very light demand. The impression 

 prevailed that other sections had a large crop, and the price 

 would be low. Added to this, the losses experienced the two 

 previous seasons, while those who bought for cold storage 

 seemed to put that class almost wdiolly out of the market. So 

 many growers found it difficult to dispose of even a small 

 crop. The scarcity and high price of barrels was another 

 source of trouble, which resulted in much fruit going to 

 waste. That is a difficulty that we ought to be able to over- 

 come. It ought not to be possible for good marketable fruit 

 to go to w^aste in Connecticut for the lack of barrels or pack- 

 ages in which to send to market. However, these difficulties 

 combined caused many orchards to produce but light income, 

 but those who secured their crop in good shape, and still hold 

 it, have promise of their reward from growing demand and 

 advance in price. 



It is true that the export trade has taken only about half 

 of last year's supply, but the western demand has used much 

 more. Stored stocks proved to be lighter than estimated, 

 and those still existing are rapidly decreasing. We do not 

 think there can be much risk in holding apples if one dollar 

 and a half per barrel can not be obtained when harvesting 

 the crop. 



In one direction the horticulturist has had cause to be 

 thankful. That is in the remarkable freedom which has 

 existed from the common insects and diseases during the past 

 season. None of the usual pests were as numerous as we 

 had reason to expect, and in some cases familiar diseases were 

 conspicuous by their absence. Perhaps this benefit should 



