554 Domestic Notices : — Scotland. 



The Meeting unanimously approved of the Report of the Committee, 

 after which, the Chairman addressed the meeting in nearly the following 

 terms : — 



" When I had the honour of addressing you in June last, I submitted to 

 yon a few remarks on the comparative coldness of the preceding months 

 and the consequent retardation of vegetation in all the departments of 

 horticulture. 1 stated this condition of climate to have prevailed very 

 generally throughout England ; and we have since learned that it ex- 

 tended to neighbouring countries, particularly to France. Hence it has 

 happened that, contrary to ordinary experience, the actual period at which 

 various flowers and esculent vegetables were produced was, this season, 

 pretty nearly the same in all parts of Great Britain. Of this fact, a striking 

 illustration soon after appeared in some of the public papers of this city, in 

 which it was stated that, in a former year, a dealer in Edinburgh, who had 

 imported green peas from London, which he was enabled to sell at 2s, 6d. 

 when the market price in Edinburgh was 45. 6d. per peck, had tried the 

 same experiment this year, but not with the same success ; for the green 

 peas were nearly as early with us this season as with our neighbours in the 

 south, and could not be purchased in Covent Garken Market at a price 

 that enabled the dealer to undersell the native grower. It was stated, also, 

 on the occasion before alluded to, that though vegetation had been kept 

 back some weeks beyond its ordinary progress in this country, it had at 

 length come forward with so much vigour, and the blossom on the fruit 

 trees was then so general and so fine, as to hold out the promise of a more 

 than usual production of late fruit. This promise, with regard to the actual 

 crop, especially of the hardier fruits, has not disappointed expectation ; but, 

 from the unusual prevalence of rain, and deficiency of sunshine, the period 

 of growth has not ceased sufficiently early, but has run, as it were, into that, 

 which, in other years, has been employed in the ripening process. The 

 fruits, therefore, of various kinds, which were sent in yesterday for compe- 

 tition, as raised in the open air, were inferior, both in number and quality, 

 to what they have usually been. This was more particularly remarkable as 

 to the more delicate kinds of fruit, as peaches, nectarines, and apricots, the 

 best specimens of which were not deemed to possess the rich flavour and 

 mellowness they acquire in_ better seasons, and many of them were far 

 from being ripe. Of apricots not one sample was sent in for competition, 

 whilst in 1826, the Fruit Committee was summoned at least three weeks 

 before the ordinary time of meeting, to inspect some uncommonly fine 

 apricots, remarkably alike, both for size and quality, and which were then 

 advancing fast to the condition of over-ripeness. The more hardy fruits 

 sent in for competition, as apples and pears, were not deficient in size, but 

 few of those which appeared to have been recently plucked from the tree 

 had reached maturity, and the greater number were far short of it. Of 

 course, the fruits raised in stoves and hot-houses are little affected by the 

 lowness of atmospheric temperature ; but even these may be expected to 

 suffer in some of their finer qualities from the deficiency of sunshine. It 

 was partly from this failure in the fruits of natural growth, and in part too 

 from the very unfavourable state of the weather for some weeks past, that 

 the Committee appointed to make arrangements for the projected fete in the 

 garden, which was to have been held this day, deemed it prudent, after 

 mature deliberation, to abandon it altogether for this season. They did 

 not wish to incur the responsibility of putting the Society to the expense 

 of such an exhibition when there would have been so much difiicultjMn 

 procuring a sufficient supply of good fruit ; and when the season was so 

 precarious, that little dependence could be placed on an adequate attend- 

 ance of company, especially at the time when the more influential classes 

 of the community were absent from town. They were also of opinion that 

 a failure in a first attempt at an exhibition of this kind might go far to ob- 



