20 Observations upon the Season of 1849. 



Maine. This variety was, it is presumed, the McLaughlin ; 

 bearing a strong resemblance to the Green Gage in appear- 

 ance, almost equalling that variety in excellence, and is one 

 that will probably prove the best seedling plum yet produced. 



While to most species of fruits the past season has been so 

 uncongenial, to grapes cultivated in the open air it has seemed 

 to be peculiarly propitious, — the different varieties of such 

 having attained an unusual degree of perfection. Even the 

 Black Hamburgh has in some instances ripened its fruit in the 

 open air. Sweetwaters have been free from mildew, and of 

 unusual excellence ; and those of native origin, as the Isa- 

 bella, have attained to perfect maturity with berries of a 

 large size, deep color, and fine flavor. The absence of rain 

 in June and July may account for this greater degree of per- 

 fection, and this exemption from blight or mildew to which 

 the grape is so subject. Whether any analogy really exists 

 between the mildew on grapes and the canker or blight on 

 the St. Michael pear, is not known ; yet it was a subject 

 for remark, that the St. Michael (White Doyenne) pears 

 were, the past season, unusually fair. Perhaps some peculiar 

 state of the atmosphere that causes the one may tend to pro- 

 duce the other ; and the exemption, wholly or partially, of 

 both from certain effects may be attributed to the same cause. 



After the experience of another year, — a year, too, pecul- 

 iarly favorable to other varieties, — the Diana grape, a seed- 

 ling raised by Mrs. Crehore, of Milton, seems to maintain its 

 relative superiority over the other varieties of native origin. 

 Notwithstanding its berries are small, and produced in small 

 compact bunches, yet the sweetness of its berries, their free- 

 dom from that hardness of pulp and foxy taste so character- 

 istic of American grapes, and other good qualities, justifies 

 for it a claim of superiority ; and, with its earlier season of 

 maturity, entitles the Diana to be considered as the best 

 grape adapted to culture in the open air in New England 

 that has as yet been produced. 



A general statement, at the end of the year, in a periodi- 

 cal devoted to horticulture, of the weather of the season that 

 has just closed, together with some notice of the horticultural 



