This section is from "The Horticulturist, And Journal Of Rural Art And Rural Taste", by P. Barry, A. J. Downing, J. Jay Smith, Peter B. Mead, F. W. Woodward, Henry T. Williams. Also available from Amazon: Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste.
The fruit crop in Western New York, after passing through several trying changes of temperature, promises well, and may now be considered out of danger. On the evening of the 18th of May we had a violent thunder shower, accompanied with some hail and a great deal of wind, that in many places blew down houses and uprooted large trees. It injured the peaches, pears, and plums considerably; apples were just in a sufficiently backward state to escape. What made it worse, were several cold, rainy days that followed. The peach trees looked worse than we ever saw them, and for a short time all hopes for a crop were abandoned. On the last days of May, however, it became warm, and trees recovered rapidly - the curled and bloated leaves dropped, new healthy leaves pushed out, and the fruit that remained on swelled rapidly. Nothing can afford a stronger proof that it is cold and variable weather that affects the peach leaf, than the fact that as soon as we have a warm and steady temperature, the sickly leaves fall, and the tree assumes a healthy hue.
From the first of June up to this time (17th), we have had a remarkably favorable time for vegetation, and the growth made among trees and plants is fully equal to that of our best seasons at this time. On the 14th, 15th, and 16th it was excessively warm, the thermometer ranging from 94° to 96° in the shade; the atmosphere at the time was dry, and vegetation for the moment seemed on the point of being suspended, but a timely shower came, succeeded by a more temperate warmth, and now growth is luxuriant.
Green peas grown in the open ground appeared in the Rochester markets on the 13th Juno for the first time this season, we believe, and in two or three days after that were abundant, cheap, and good. The Early Kent, as far as we know, beats the other early sorts nearly a week.
On the 12th Bauman's May, Early Purple Guigne, Belle d'Orleans, and Early Richmord cherries were ripe. The Belle d'Orleans is the earliest light colored cherry we have yet seen.
Our correspondent, A. G. Hanford, Esq., of Waukesha, Wis., writes us that the Early Purple was ripe with him on the 13th, so that Waukesha and Rochester are about equal in regard to the ripening of fruits.
 
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