57 



Dover, Nov. 11, 1859. 



REPORT ON FRUIT. 



The life of a Horticulturist is a constant warfare. Let not any 

 one delude himself with the belief that it is only necessary to buy 

 a few cheap trees, plant them carelessly, and after a few years of 

 neglect, gather bountiful crops of luscious fruit. Nature is an in- 

 flexible paymaster. For httle labor she will give but little return ; 

 for faithful and devoted attention, controlled by prudence and a 

 sagacious observance of her laws and conditions, she yields a cor- 

 responding and rich reward. A single season may be unpropi- 

 tious like the last, but the skilful and careful cultivator, even then, 

 receives a compensation in the enhanced value of his productions, 

 and looks patiently to the future, remembering that his labor is 

 not for a single year, but for a hfetime, and so waits his sure 

 reward. 



The show of Fruit at our late exhibition was deficient in quan- 

 tity, but superior in quality. Never has a finer display of Apples 

 been seen upon our tables than was contributed by Thaddeus 

 Clapp of Dorchester. Among them Avere two superb dishes of 

 Gravensteins, which have rarely been equalled in any locality, and 

 the Committee take this occasion to recommend this fine fruit for 

 cultivation, as being, perhaps, the best Fall Apple. Fine contri- 

 butions were also made by A. W. Shumway of Dover, Miss M. A. 

 Carlton of Dorchester, John W. Shumway of Dover, R. Richard- 

 son of Medway, Lucas Pond of Wrentham, S. W. Richardson of 

 Franklin, E. W. Mackintosh of Needham, and others. 



Of Pears the President of the Society exhibited fifty varieties, 

 but declined to compete for the premiums. We have understood 

 that a " killing frost " at the time of the blossoming, destroyed a 

 large })roportion of his expected crop. J. IL Chadwiek of Rox- 

 bury contributed a su])erior collection of fourteen varieties, and 

 displays were made by Alfred Clapp of Dorchester, C. A. Ilewins 



