11 



REPORT OF THE SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE. 



The Supervisory Committee for the Norfolk Agricultural Soci- 

 ety, submit the following report : — 



The Committee deem it proper to notice some of the occur- 

 rences of the year 18G1 which aifectecl, more or less, the interest 

 of agriculture. The first was the unusual scarcity of fruit, and 

 the injury which some species of fruit trees sustained. At the 

 season when leaves are usually put forth, people were struck with 

 the deficiency of these organs on peach and cherry trees. On 

 examination it was found that a large portion of the peach trees 

 which had reached a bearing state, were killed, and that cherry trees 

 were severely injured. It may be said that not a blossom was 

 seen on either of these trees within fifty miles of Boston, except 

 in a few cases of special protection. Of course, without blossoms 

 there was no fruit. 



But as the season advanced it was found that many of the 

 cherry trees were either dead, or so much injured that their fruit- 

 fulness was ended. The short stems, which produce the blossoms, 

 were generally killed, and it was several weeks later than usual 

 when the trees began to put forth leaves, which, when they did 

 appear, were curled and imperfect. In short, it was seen that a 

 large portion of the better varieties of cherry trees had been fa- 

 tally injured. Attention was, of course, turned to the causes of 

 this disaster. It was easy to fix on three several changes in the 

 atmosphere Avhich would obviously be likely to inflict more or less 

 damage on some kinds of vegetation. The first was the remark- 

 ably cold of the night of the oOth of September and the morning 

 of the first of October, 1860. At sunrise on that morning, the 

 thermometer indicated twelve to fourteen degress of frost, and 

 even more, in some localities in this County, Trees were in full 

 foliage, and most autumn fruits were ungathered. Apples, as 

 they hung on the trees, were frozen completely through. It is 

 hardly probable that so great a degree of cold, unprepared as the 

 trees were, could fail to do more or less injury. 



But the trees were destined to pass through more severe ordeals. 

 On the 7th of February, 1861, the thermometer at 2 o'clock in 

 the afternoon stood at 46 in the shade ; at sunrise on the 8th it 

 ranged, according to localities, from 20 to 30 degrees below zero — 

 making a change of temperature of G6 to 76 degrees in eighteen 

 hours, during most of which time a northwest wind of great vio- 

 lence prevailed. But still another trying change occurred. On 



