212 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



our fruit growers are alive to the needs of better orcharding and 

 they will in the end grow fruit which will be second to none in 

 the country. 



Most of the planting in the tree fruits at present is of the apple, 

 while very little attention is paid to pears. Peaches in some 

 sections are being planted quite extensively, but as yet very few 

 varieties can be depended upon to bear regularly. Among the 

 varieties which seem to be more hardy are Carman, Champion, and 

 Greensboro. Plums are not planted a great deal for commercial 

 p»r}30ses, but the Japanese group is very popular for garden varie- 

 ties and many of them are planted for this purpose. Grapes, too, 

 are still planted only as garden fruit, there being very few com- 

 mercial vineyards in the state. In the smaller fruits the strawberry 

 leads in the number of acres planted and in the value of the crop. 

 There are still great possibilities for this crop in local markets, 

 where it is often impossible to get fruit grown in the locality. Cur- 

 rants, gooseberries, blackberries, and raspberries are being planted 

 largely as fillers in orchards, but none of these figure prominently 

 in the market, and, indeed, few gardens contain them. 



The exliibitions of the past year have been on the whole very 

 satisfactory. Competition has been very close in most cases thus 

 showing that higher standards in fruit culture are demanded. 



At the Strawberry Exhibition the quality and appearance of the 

 fruit were very good, and while there were not as many new seedlings 

 exhibited as usual the standard varieties were a great deal above 

 the average in size, color, and quality. Barrymore, Golden Gate, 

 and Marshall were exceptionally good and it is interesting to note 

 that the Marshall, so long unbeaten by any other strawberry, has in 

 the past two seasons been superseded by newer varieties. There 

 is certainly a broad field open for the hybridization of the strawberry 

 as most of the varieties that we now have are chance seedlings. 



At the July Exhibition there was exhibited by Mr. Peter Anderson 

 of Woburn a seedling gooseberry, the result of his own hybridiza- 

 tion, using Industry and the Danish variety Icicle. This fruit is 

 now in its fifth year and has not mildewed in our climate. The 

 berry is very large, dark green when ripe, and rather long; the 

 quality is excellent and the skin very thin. Mr. Anderson sent 

 some bushes of this gooseberry to his brother in Denmark three 



