REPORTS 



OF THE GENERAL COMMITTEE ON FRUITS. 



It was ihe expectation of the Congress, in appointing the general 

 committee J consisting of sub-committees in most of the States, to 

 have full reports from all the principal sections of the Union; and it 

 was the intention of the chairman to present a digested abstract, 

 showing the result of the experience thus accumulated, in a condens- 

 ed form. 



But the disastrous frost of April, 1849, more fatal in its effects, and 

 more severe through the country generally, than any for thirty years 

 previous, cut off most of the crop of fruit, and thus made it difficult, 

 and often impossible for the state committees to collect that precise 

 information regarding different varieties, which was needed. Many 

 of the committees, therefore failed to make any report — not from 

 want of interest in the subject, but solely from the impossibility of 

 collecting materials. Another season will, it is hoped, enable them 

 to present this part of the subject in a more satisfactory shape. 



As the following reports, though incomplete, contain a great deal 

 of information highly useful in a local point of view, it has been 

 thought advisable to present them entire, and leave all generalisation 

 till the whole subject is presented this autumn, in a more complete 

 form 



A. J. DOWNING, 

 Chairman General Fruit Committee. 



