Wl. A. C,
COLLECTION

ADDRESS

SEVENTEENTH SESSION

mtxxtm f amalajjical ^otitU,

HELD IN ROCHESTER, N. Y. ,

Sept. 17, iS, 19, 1S79.

By MARSHALL P. WILDER,

TKESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY.

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.

1S79.

^

ADDRESS

SEVENTEENTH SESSION

wmuM f omalogitiil ^otutv,

HELD IN ROCHESTER, N. Y. ,

Sept. 17, iS, 19, 1S79.

By MARSHALL P. WILDER,

PKESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY.

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.

1879.

ToLMAN & White, Puinteus,

383 VVASniNGTON St.,

Boston.

ADDRESS.

Members and Delegates of the

American Poniological Society :
Gentlemen : —

Having held the office of President of this Association
during its whole life, with the e'xception of two years
out of thirty-one, 1 regret exceedingly my inability to
be present, and by your continued favor, to occupy the
chair, as I expected to do, at Rochester. But Provi-
dence seems to indicate, by the late accident which
has impaired my physical ability, that it is not my duty
yet to risk a journey so far from home.

For twenty-nine years you have elected me as your
President, and with a unanimity far beyond my merit.
I most sincerely desire ever to cherish a profound sense
of gratitude and thankfulness for the honor conferred,
and the confidence reposed in me. My thanks are
especially due for the cordial and vigorous support I
have received from my official associates. It was my
intention to be with you at this meeting and to
extend to you an invitation to hold our next session
in the city of Boston, when and where I should lay
down the high honors which you have so long con-
ferred on me. But my physicians advise me not to

take so long a journey and incur the labor which would
necessarily fall upon me.

RESIG:N^ATIO]Sr.

With thanks which no language can express, for the
repeated honors conferred on me, and for your kind
cooperation and support during this long period of
official service, and with the assurance that I have no
higher ambition than to be associated with you in a
cause so honorable, and to be a co-worker while life
should last, 1 deem it, under present circumstances,
my duty to tender my resignation as President of the
Society. Under the belief, so often expressed by
you, that my official services were important to the
establishment and success of our Society, I have
willingly conformed to your wishes, and should my
health be fully restored, which I fondly hope will be
the case, I will cheerfully respond to any call you may
make on me. I beg to assure you that whatever
my relations may be to you, I shall ever entertain a
lively sense of gratitude to those with whom I have
been associated and an ardent desire and ambition to
promote the welfare and renown of our Society. If
honor, distinction, and respect have been attached to
the office, I have had them lavished on me ; if toil,
anxiety, and expense, then I claim to have borne my
full share.

Pkogress.

When I reflect on the rapid progress which our
Society has made since its establishment, how it has
risen from the small beginning of a few States, until
its jurisdiction embraces a catalogue of fifty States, ,
districts and territories, with lists of fruits adapted to
each, — how its list of members has increased from a
few dozens to many hundreds of practical and scientific
cultivators, and numerous sister associations have spread
over our fair land, from the British Provinces to the
Gulf of Mexico, all working together in harmony with
each other to aid us in our great work of planting
throughout our vast domain, gardens, orchards, and
vineyards of the best fruits known, — when I reflect
upon the comparatively small value of the fruit crop
of that day, not considered as worthy of a place in our
national statistics, now rivalling in value some of
the most important crops of our country, I feel
an interest that can scarcely be exjoressed in words.
When we consider the astonishing increase in fruit
culture, the immense number of trees sent from this
place and its vicinity and from other parts, distrib-
uted all over this continent and even to foreign lands —
the wonderful increase of peaches, grapes, strawberries,
and other small fruits, and the ease with which they are
sent to market — the rapid development of new lands
suited to fruit culture, and that throughout our broad
land, wherever the foot of civilization has iDlanted

8

itself, the enterprise of fruit culture is sure to keep
pace with it — it is not easy to estimate its future im-
portance, whether for the production of an article of
luxury, of home consumption, or of foreign commerce.
In this connection permit me to refer you to the
recommendations in my previous address ; to the great
increase of fruit culture in our country, and to the
revenue arising therefrom. This is constantly increas-
ing, showing a great augmentation since that time in
our shipments abroad. I have not the statistics at
hand, but as an evidence of the fruit shipped from
New^ England — not including those from Connecticut,
which w^ent to New York — we find that more than half
a million barrels of fruit were shipped from Boston,
and ports east from Boston in 1878. Of this number
fully two hundred and fifty thousand barrels were
grown in New Hampshire alone, three quarters of the
balance were from Massachusetts, and the rest from
Maine.

Lessons of Experience.

In that address I endeavored to sum up the ex-
perience which had been acquired during these years
of our association, and the opinions I had so fully
and freely expressed on former occasions on the topics
connected with our art. I shall withhold any ex-
tended remarks in the present address, and simply
refer to a few of the most important lessons w^hich
have been acquired by the experience of the past.
I have often alluded to these before, but I desire to

9

call your attention to them again, and first, the expe-
diency of

Producing New and Improved Varieties

from seed, either by cross-breeding or from the natural
seed of the best known kinds extant. These are the
best methods of increasing and preserving a perpetuity
of choice fruits, so that they may be adapted to the
various soils and temperatures of our widely extended
and constantly increasing domain. Therefore, confirm-
ing my oft-repeated suggestions, I most earnestly desire
to enforce them and thus to obtain in the future more
and more of those superlative fruits that grace the
catalogues of different sections of our country. Go on
without fear of disappointment. This is the road that
leads to success. Who knows what glorious fruits you
may create to bless the generations that are to follow
you?

Advantages of Cross-Fertilization or Hybridi-
zation OF Plants.

What wonders have been achieved in the vegetable
kingdom by cross-fertilization in our own time ! But still
greater wonders are to be realized by this art as time
advances, producing new and improved varieties of
still greater excellence. Instances are so numerous of
wonderful improvement by the application of this art
in the production of magnificent fruits, flowers, and
vegetables, as to need no reference in detail. I have

10

so often, during the forty years of my own experience,
alluded to the importance of this art as the true means
of rapid progress, that I refrain from extended remark
and desire only to repeat again my former advice, to
plant the most 'perfect and mature seed af our very best
fruits, and as the means of more rapid progress to
crossfertilize our finest fruits for still greater ex-
cellence. Thus I have discoursed to you for many years —
thus I have promised to do while I live. This is our
work, to direct and help nature on in the course of im-
provement.

Who that has witnessed the amazing improvement
by the application of this art in the Rose, Camellia,
Dahlia, Azalea, and other plants in our own time, —
who that has seen the hybrid grapes of Ricketts, Rogers,
Ellwanger & Barry, Moore, Campbell, and other practi-
tioners, can doubt the potent influence of the cross-
impregnation of plants ? Who that reflects on the
astonishing advance made by hybridization of the Ca-
mellia in France and Italy, the Camellia and Azalea
in Belgium, England, and France, and the improvement
in the vegetable kingdom generally, can hesitate to say
that this art is the great secret and source of the won-
derful advance which has been achieved during the
last half of the present century ? Who that has seen
the magnificent plants in our own conservatories, or the
grand plant collections of England produced by this
art, but would exclaim, " Truly, here, at last, have we
found the philosopher's stone !"

11

This improvement is all within the hand of man, to
use it as he will. The field of progress is endless, and
it is yonr duty, gentlemen, to occupy the ground. The
same Divine power that gave us the infinite species of
plants and trees, also furnished them with the ability
not only to perpetuate themselves, but under judicious
treatment, and a wise selection of parents, to produce
indefinitely still better varieties than we now possess.
In a word, we must depend mainly on the production
from seed for fruits adapted to the various locations of
our vast territory. And what richer legacy can a man
leave to the generations that are to follow him, than
a fine, delicious fruit, which he shall have originated
by his own hand. This will be a living monument to
his memory when posterity shall recline beneath the
shade of its branches, and pluck the luscious fruit from
the trees which he has left them.

Thinning and Packing of Fruit.

The importance of properly thinning our fruit trees
when bearing redundant crops is more and more appa-
rent. To produce fruit that commands a good price
in the market has become an absolute necessity. This
is seen especially in that intended for exportation,
apples of good size, fair and properly packed, com-
manding in the English market fully double the price
of those which had not received such care. Such also
is the case in our own markets, Baldwin apples of one
grower bringing two to three dollars per barrel, while

12

.his neighbor's, which had received no such attention,
brought but a doRar. To produce such fruit, trees
must not only have good cultivation, but should be
properly thinned, excessive production being always at
the expense of both quantity and quality. This lesson
we learned long ago, and I have often endeavored
to impress upon cultivators the importance of following
it. Therefore you will excuse me for calling your at-
tention to it again.

The export trade of our American products is con-
stantly increasing, and among them the fruits of our
country, especially apples, are always in regular de-
mand, and as new facilities are afforded for their ship-
ment a constant trade will be ensured of great import-
ance and permanency to our commerce. Nor is this
demand likely to fall off. These facts should encour-
age our fruit growers to devote more and more of their
broad acres to the production of fruits to meet the
constantly increasing foreign demand.

Value and Importance of our Society.

I have often spoken of the salutary influence of our
association. The more I reflect upon its operations the
more am I impressed with its usefulness, and with the
importance of perpetuating it through coming time.
" The idea of voluntary combinations and associations,"
said Mr. Webster, " is the great modern engine of im-
provement." This power of association, bringing in
contact man with man, and mind with mind, and the

information acquired thereby, is of more value than
the same information derived from books. It is this
centralization of experience which has produced by
our Society and similar associations the great improve-
ment which we have witnessed in our American fruits.
Who can predict what the future influences of our own
Society may be when our vast unoccupied territory,
suited to the cultivation of fruits, shall be occupied for
that purpose ? Let us therefore discharge the duties
of our day and generation, so that our children may
have cause to bless our memories, as we now cherish
the names of those who laid the foundations of our
Society, and have brought it forward to its present
flourishing condition.

Our work is of great magnitude, embracing an entire
continent, opening up to us new resources and
demands, and calling for constant and untiring energy
and enterprise. The importance and usefulness of our
association is seen in a review of its work for twenty-
seven years, which I gave in my last biennial address.

We have made great advances during the thirty-one
years of our history, and experience from the best
sources is flowing in to us every day. The spirit of
investigation is now thoroughly alive, and we have
opportunities for improvement such as have never been
afforded to any other Pomological Association on the
globe. Our resources are abundant, and so kindly
does nature cooperate with us under the benign influ-
ence of man, that he can mould her almost to his will.

14

and make of the rough and acrid wilding a most beau-
tiful and delicious fruit, and thus we can go on producing
indefinitely as fine varieties as we have ever seen.

When we review what has already been accom-
plished, in a country so varied in soil and climate, who
can set bounds to our progress during the remainder
of this century, where, by the exchange of personal
experience the representatives from the different parts
of our continent become kindly affiliated and united in
the bonds of friendship and reciprocal regard, and by
promoting the cause in which we are engaged we have
learned to respect each other.

All this has been accomplished without financial aid,
except that received from membership, and occasional
sums from individuals to meet deficiences. In this
connection I desire to state that I have paid over to the
treasurer three hundred and twenty-seven dollars and
twenty-nine cents, being the balance in my hands of
the Downing Monument Fund, with interest to this
date. This has been done in accordance with the con-
sent of the heirs of Mr. Downing and his administrator,
and the Committee who had. in charge the erection of
the monument.

But the time has now come when means are wanting
to constitute a fund to insure the publication of pro-
ceedings in future. I take the liberty of suggesting
the propriety of soliciting from all life members who
have paid but ten dollars, to forward to the treasurer
ten dollars more each, and make their contributions

15

the same as are required now for life membership. And
permit me to add that no better appropriation of money
can be made, and I trust that when our friends are
making donations and bequests for benevolent objects,
they will remember the American Pomological Society.

Catalogue.

Agreeably to our former custom, I have no doubt
our Catalogue will receive special attention in regard
to its enlargement and revision. This is one of the
most important labors of the Society. Great advanta-
ges have already resulted from it to the country and
the world, and we owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Barry,
Chairman of the General Fruit Committee, and his
associates, for the intelligence, enterprise, and careful
discrimination exercised in the preparation and correc-
tion of its columns, which posterity will never forget.
This Catalogue is becoming more and more valuable
with every issue, embodying, as it does, the ripest expe-
rience of the best cultivators in all parts of our coun-
try, and classifying, as it does, our fruits, registering
from time to time every thing that is valuable, and
entering upon its pages every thing that is desirable for
the various sections of our widely extended continent,
and rejecting such fruits as may, on careful trial, be
deemed unworthy of a place in its pages. Into this
Catalogue is condensed the substance and essence of our
proceedings and all the various State reports, and with
every revision it maybe expected to approximate nearer

16

and nearer to perfection. If this Society had rendered
no other service than to give to the world its Catalogue
of Fruits, it would have fulfilled an important mission.
And if I were asked again what was the most important
measure ever adopted by the Society, I should answer
as before, — its Catalogue of Fruits. Persevere, then,
in this line of our researches, and you will embrace in
its register every new or old fruit of good quality, with
its peculiar adaptation, and whether worthy of exten-
sive cultivation. Persevere, I say, in your noble work,
and you will leave to the generations that shall follow
you richer memorials than those of marble or of brass,
that can only perpetuate in lifeless praise the value of
your services on earth.

Insects and Diseases Injurious to Vegetation.

In regard to insects and diseases which are making
such devastating progress in our own and other lands,
it is not necessary for me to enlarge, as cultivators are
fully aware of the importance of the subject. Thanks
to Harris, Riley, Fitch, Glover, Le Baron, Thomas,
Packard, and other entomologists, who have devoted
their lives to the investigation of this subject, and
from whom we have already derived so much benefit
in the past, and to whom we look for aid in the future
in teaching us how we may arrest the depredations of
insects, and the remedy for diseases, we have discov-
ered means for the destruction of many insects and
diseases of trees, and we have faith in the ultimate

17

triumph of man in discovering remedies for, or the
means of preventing, most of these that vegetation is
subject to from the ravages of insects. Everlasting vigi-
lance is the price of reward, and this is especially true
in contending with the host of vile creations that we
have to meet with in the culture of fruit trees. I
desire, however, to call especial attention to the rav-
ages of that terrible insect, the phylloxera, which is
now become of such vast importance to the grape
growers of Europe, and has brought them to a condi-
tion little short of desperate.

From the interesting paper by our Mr. G. W.
Campbell, Commissioner from the State of Ohio to the
Paris Exhibition of 1878, in the Twelfth Report of the
Ohio State Horticultural Society, it appears that the
only reliance of the French vineyardists for overcom-
ing this scourge is the grafting of their varieties on
stocks of the American species, among which the Jac-
quez, supposed to be identical with Longworth's Cigar
Box Grape, is preeminent for health and vigor. Mr.
Campbell says " The enthusiasm in favor of the Amer-
ican vines reminds me of the flush times in America
when the ' grape fever ' was at its height, and when
grape growing was the all-absorbing question in many
parts of this country." Although we deplore the loss
to the French vinej^ardists, the recognition of the
health and vigor of the American species cannot but
be gratifying to those who have labored so diligently
to originate and introduce new and improved varieties.

18

It is also gratifying to know that, though as a rule the
French do not like the flavor of our wines, they admit
some of them to be good, and we believe that with the
lapse of time they will be more and more appreciated.
It is matter for great thankfulness that on this conti-
nent we have thus far experienced but little injury
from this scourge, and the health of American vines in
France affords strong hopes that we may continue to
be exempt.

Since writing the above we are informed that the
phylloxera continues its deadly march over the vine-clad
hills of France, having, it is estimated, already destroyed
some 900,000 acres of vines, and great fears are enter-
tained for the safety of the remaining vineyards of that
country.

In Memoeiam.

Since our last session several members of our Society
have closed their pilgrimage on earth, but their labors
in our cause will live to bless the world, and their
names will be treasured up in our memory as benefac-
tors to mankind.

First in order we would remember Hon. Willard C.
Flagg, whose death was announced in a circular just
as our last volume was going to press. He died at his
residence, Moro, Illinois, on Saturday, March 30th,
1878. His memory will ever be cherished by us for
his great ability and fidelity as Secretary of the
American Pomological Society, and the various other

19

institutions of our country with wliicli he held official
relations. Few men of his age have held more offices
of honor and trust, which were properly referred to in
a closing page of our last issue.

Mr. r. R. Elliott, formerly Secretary of this Society,
died at Cleveland, Ohio, in February, 1878. Mr. E.
possessed large experience as a pomologist and horti-
culturist, and from early life was a contributor to
public journals, and was also an author of several
popular works on these specialties. He was one of
our early members, and ever took an active part in
the proceedings of our Society. For many years he
was Secretary of our Society, and had a natural facility
for accomplishing the work of that officer. He will
be remembered by a large circle of friends throughout
the country, as one who did much for the promotion
of American horticulture and pomology. We delight
to remember him at one time as one of our most useful
men ; but misfortune overcame him. We remember
his valuable services in the cause we are seeking to
promote, but it is not our province or duty to speak of
his misfortunes or frailties. No, let us rather spread
the veil of charity over his grave, and remember the
good he has done. Peace to his ashes !

Silas Moore, Vice-President for the State of Rhode
Island, died at his residence, near Providence, several
months since. He was one of the older members of
our Association, having held for many years that office.
Mr. Moore was one of the oldest nurserymen of New

20

England, well skilled in his business, highly esteemed
for his probity, and had done much for his own and
adjoining States to promote the present advanced con-
dition of American pomology. He was a modest and
unpretentious man, much interested in the welfare of
our Society, and had exerted a happy influence on the
fruit culture of his own and adjoining States. He was
a useful man in his profession, and respected as a
citizen.

Dr. A. P. Wylie, Vice-President for the State of
South Carolina, died at Chester, nearly two years since.
Many will remember his interesting and scientific
paper on the cross-fertilization of American and
foreign grapes, especially on the different forms of
pollen grains, showing how it was not possible for some
kinds to fertilize others. They will also remember the
fine specimens of grapes of his own crossing which he
has shown at the various exhibitions of the American
Pomological Society, especially the Peter Wylie, now
in much repute, at the South. Dr. W. was a modest
unpretending gentleman, and was eminently a man of
science, much attached to the cultivation of fruits, and
the results of his investigations are of great interest
not only to horticulturists but to vegetable physiolo-
gists. His loss will be much deplored by all who
knew him.

Dr. H. A. Swasey, died at Tangipahoa, Louisiana, of
yellow fever, September 18th, 1878, in Washington
Parish, at his post of duty as a physician in contending

21

with this fearful disease. Dr. Swasey was born at
Saint Johnsbury, Vermont, but had resided at the
South for a long time. He was a strong friend of the
American Pomological Society, and warmly attached
to the pleasures of rural life. He was one of our Com-
mittee on Native Fruits, and on the Revision of the
Catalogue. During a long and busy life he was con-
nected with the agricultural and horticultural press.
He was for a considerable time editor of our " Home
Journal," of Louisiana. He published a horticultural
journal at Yazoo City, Mississippi ; was connected
with the " Rural Alabamian," at Mobile, and took
editorial charge of the '' Southern Plantation," at
Montgomery. He was a constant contributor to the
agricultural and horticultural press, dispensing freely
of the knowledge he acquired, and much of the horti-
cultural improvement in the South is due to his zealous
and unselfish efforts to promote the public good.

Although it has not been our custom to refer to
others than those who have held official relations with
us, I think it proper also to notice the death of Col.
Edward Wilkins, of Chestertown, Maryland, w^ho died
December, 1878. From Col. W., it will be remem-
bered, the Society received especial courtesies at its
session in Baltimore. At his invitation the Society
visited his extensive peach orchard, the dimensions of
which would astonish the world. It was probably
the largest of which we have any record. He was
much attached to fruit culture, and did not confine

22

himself to peaches alone. He was one of the fathers
of the immense peach trade, and his orchards were
wonderfully successful. He was one of the foremost
horticulturists of Maryland, full of enthusiasm, and
characterized by business-like methods in this and
other walks of life. He was universally respected
as a progressive man.

There may be others who have held official relations
with us, who have died since our last session, of whom
I have not been informed ; if so, I trust appropriate
resolutions will be passed, expressing our respect and
gratitude for their services in our cause.

Conclusion.

In conclusion, with a heart full of gratitude for
the many honors you have conferred upon me as your
President, I now lay down the robes of office with
which you have clothed me for twenty-nine years,
feeling assured that though we may die, our institu-
tion shall live, and as time advances, others will take
it up and foster it with the same love that we have
entertained for it.

Cherish, then, the friendships and kind sympathies
which have existed between us. The cause you seek
to promote is the cause of civilization and humanity.
A few more years and those who now occupy these
seats will have closed their labors on earth, but the
same earth will brino; forth its myriads of fruits and

23

flowers, and yield its bounteous harvests for the ser-
vice of those who may come after us.

A few more days, a few more months, and he who
now addresses you will have joined the great congre-
gation of the dead, and have passed beyond the hori-
zon of life, but his spirit shall continue to render
thanks to the Giver of all good for the blessings which
have flowed from the influence of our association. May
it live on and on, and be perpetuated as a benefactor
of mankind. And what more dutiful or grateful ser-
vice can we render to our kindred or our country than
to hand down to posterity the choicest fruits we have
been enabled to produce for their use. May the suc-
cess of the past cheer and stimulate you to greater
exertions in the future, and although you may not live
to reap the rich harvest which you are now planting,
your children and your children's children shall rejoice
in the result of your labor long after you shall have
passed over the river to those celestial fields,

Where the verdure of spring time forever shall reign,
And the perfume of flowers float o'er the bright plain,

Where the noontide of summer and autumn shall blend,
In a harvest of fruits that never shall end.