290 'As^EMBLT 



DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 



REP(mT OF COMMITTEE. 



The undersigned cbairman of the committee on Fruits for the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia respectfully submits the following report to the con- 

 sideration of the Congress of Fruit-growers. 



The committee regret to say that little has been done by them to 

 carry out the purpose intended by their appointment. Owing to the 

 great failure of fruit this season, it was thought but little information 

 could be obtained either satisfactory to the committee or useful to the 

 community at large ; but your committee assure the Congress that the 

 importance of the subject is duly appreciated by those who have had 

 the honor to be selected, as well as by the citizens of the District of 

 Columbia generally, and with great pleasure report that they have re- 

 ceived the assurance of a hearty co-operation from most of the fruit 

 growers, and trust that when a more propitious season will allow it, 

 they will be enabled to add at least a mite to the mass of highly im- 

 portant information which your labors will be sure to collect. 



The failure of fruit in this District this season is mainly owing to 

 the heavy frosts about the time the trees were coming into bloom. 

 The peach seems to be the most important failure here on account of 

 the great extent to which we have embarked in its cultivation as a 

 crop for the supply of our own and the neighboring markets. Some 

 few facts have come under the observation of your committee, which 

 though they may be generally known to the practiced cultivator or to 

 the man of observation, yet may not be wholly uninteresting to some 

 of the community. 



Your committee allude to the exemption of the peach and other fruits 

 from the fatal effect of the frost in some particular localities, amid the 

 almost total destruction around. It appears evident to this commit- 

 tee that the main cause of this exemption is to be referred to the com- 

 parative elevation of those localities above the surroundmg country. 

 If the frost be light the orchards on the low grounds or bottoms only fail, 

 whilst all others escape, and in proportion as the cold increases the effect 

 reaches to the higher ground, gradually extending upwards; but such is 

 the effect produced by the upward tendency of heat and the conse- 

 quent settling of cold growing out of the difference in theii specific 



