REPORT ON FRUITS. 



BY MARSHALL P. WILDER. 



In accordance with the request of the Board, I have the 

 pleasure to submit the following Report. Although it has 

 been generally considered that the climate of Massachusetts 

 is somewhat unfavorable to the cultivation of fruits, except- 

 ing the apple, it is found that the enterprise and indomitable 

 perseverance of her sons compel her unfertile soil to yield 

 some of the finest fruits that are produced in any part of the 

 world ; and it is safe to say, that nowhere else in the Union 

 are finer specimens of the apple, the pear, the strawberry, 

 and occasionally other fruits, to be seen, than at the exhibi- 

 tions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. By the 

 enterprise and perseverance of the cultivators of Massachu- 

 setts, many of the most popular varieties in our country have 

 been raised from seed, constituting some of the most desira- 

 ble sorts for wide and general cultivation. 



With the close of this year, half a century will have 

 passed since the organization of the Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society, from which has emanated, more than from 

 any other source, the remarkable extension of fruit-culture 

 which now permeates and enriches our whole land. In few 

 things is progress more apparent than in the advancement of 

 pomological knowledge on this continent. I have on many 

 occasions spoken of this; but I have thought it might not 

 be inappropriate, now, at the close of the first quarter of a 

 century in the history and operations of this Board, to allude 

 again to the remarkable 



EXTENSION OF FRUIT-CULTURE, AND THE IMMENSE CROPS OF OUR 



COUNTRY. 



At the time of the organization of that society, the cul- 

 tivation of fruits for the market, or for exportation, was 

 limited to a few States. In the year 1816, Mr. Coxe, the first 



