2 Retrospective View of the 



flowers. Centrally located as the city of Cincinnati is, we 

 look forward to great results from the establishment of this 

 association. 



To offer much that is entirely new is not to be expected ; 

 our object is to present in a condensed form, some of the 

 principal subjects which have occupied the attention of 

 amateur and practical cultivators, and to refer generally to 

 articles which have from time to time appeared, during the 

 year, for particular information. Increased attention has 

 been devoted to fruits, especially pears, and we have been 

 enabled to -procure drawings and descriptions of a great 

 number of the newest and choicest sorts, which we shall 

 give our readers in this and succeeding volumes. 



The season of 1843 has not been a very favorable one, 

 though perhaps not so variable as that of 1842. The spring 

 was cold and backward, and but little planting was done 

 until late in April : succeeding this period, however, the 

 weather was very good until about the middle of June, 

 when a drought commenced, which, in the vicinity of Bos- 

 ton, lasted till August. Crops sutiered severely. Straw- 

 berries, which were nearly at the height of bearing, just 

 after it commenced, were cut short at once, and not half a 

 crop gathered; the vines in some situations almost dried up. 

 The raspberry vines also suffered severely. In August, 

 several refreshing showers gave a new and fresh start to 

 vegetation. September was, however, a cool and rather 

 unpleasant month, accompanied with considerable rain, 

 which kept back vegetation as well as the ripening of crops, 

 October followed unusually cool, though not with any severe 

 frost, sufficient to kill dahlias, except in very low situations, 

 imtil the 30th of the month. On the 4th or 5th of Novem- 

 ber, however, the ground froze, and there was a constant 

 succession of cold, frost, and snow through the month. 

 December, up to this date (15th) has been cool, with several 

 storms of snow. At Albany, N. Y., and the western part 

 of Massachusetts, snow fell in October, and from that time, 

 there has been a continued course of winter weather. 



Potatoes suffered greatly throughout New England by the 

 drought. Vines of all kinds were far better than the year 

 previous ; the warm weather of May brought them on ra- 

 pidly, and had September been a dryer month the crop would 

 have ripened well. In fruit there was a failure of the 

 peach crop in Massachusetts, but a great produce in New 



