3150bb0051STbbT

LIBRARY

OF THE

MASSACHUSETTS

AGRICULTURAL

COLLEGE

NO..^ V:___J____ DATE.4 -J5 J5lt3

SOURCE- CaurL- _ J .0-Tt>- . . _^ cjc.

TiETOKT OF

THE CONNECTICUT
POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY

FOR THE YEAR 1900

Wiiih proceeDing$ of tte Cent!)
annual Meeting, 1901

EDITED BY THE SECRETARY

PUBLISHED BY

THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY

1901

i

Officers of The Connecticut pomological
Society (1901)

President NORMAN S. PLATT,

395 Whalley Ave., New Haven

Fice- President JOHN C. EDDY, Simsbury

Secretary HENRY C. C. MILES, Milford

Treasurer ROSWELL A. MOORE, Kensington

COUNTY vice-presidents

Hartford — A. C. STERNBERG, West Hartford
New Haven — E. M. IVES, Meriden
Fairfield — A. C. INNIS, Stratford

Litchfield — B. C. PATTERSON, Torrington
Middlesex — C. E. LYMAN, Middlefield
New London — CLIFTON PECK, Yantic
Windham — H. B. BUELL, Eastford

Tolland — Prof. A. G. GULLEY, Storrs

standing committees

Injurious Insects

Prof.W. E. Britton, New Haven,

Connecticut Experiment Station

Harvey Jewell, Cromwell
Prof. H. A. Ballou, Storrs

Fungous Diseases

J. H. Putnam, Litchfield

Dr. W. C. Sturgis, New Haven

Connecticut Experiment Station

A. B. Plant, Branford

Markets and Transportation

J. H. Hale, Chairman,

South Glastonbury

N^eiu Fruits

F. L. Perry, Chairman,

Bridgeport

Exhibitions

George S. Butler, Chairman,
Cromwell

Membership

Orrin Gilbert, Chairman,
Middletown

Legislation

A. R. Wadsworth, Chairman,
Farmington

^ount ipiragant Wreae

J. Horace McFarland Company

HARRISBURG • Pen .N SYLVANIA

EDITOR'S NOTE

OUR Society has now attained its tenth year. The
record of its work has been preserved and the main
features published in Volumes I and II. A third is
now added, comprising a report of the year 1900, together
with the proceedings of the Tenth Annual Meeting, and
herewith is presented to the members of the Society and
the people of the state generally.

We are glad to say that the employment of a stenog-
rapher has made it possible to record the various papers,
addresses and discussions, in full, which we trust will be
appreciated by all. So complete a report will, doubtless, be
welcomed by such members as have been unable to attend
all of the meetings, as well as by those who may seek
the latest and most reliable information concerning the
science and practice of fruit-growing and the progress of
Connecticut Pomology.

The rapidly increasing importance of Connecticut as a
fruit -producing state and the fact that of peaches alone
there are nearly three million trees now growing in the state,
and the value of this year's crop reaches over $650,000,
places the organization representing this large industry in a
position of importance and responsibility. Therefore the
work of this Society must appeal to every lover of fine
fruits within our state.

The editor takes this opportunity to thank all who have
in any way assisted in the preparation of this report, and
especially those who kindly loaned the plates for illustrations.

(iii)

H. C. C. MILES,

Secretary.

3925

CONTENTS

Proceedings. p^^j.

President's Opening Address i

Secretary's Report 4

Treasurer's Report 8

Report of Committee on Injurious Insects 14

The Outlook for Small Fruit Growers. A. N. Farnham .... 24

Report of Committee on Fungous Diseases 33

The Connecting Link Between Fruit-Growing and Fruit-Selling.

J. Clarence Harvey 44

The Food Value of Fruits. Leroy A. Smith 51

Signs of the Times in Horticulture. Charles W. Garfield ... 58
The San Jose Scale and the Latest Methods of Treatment. W.

G. Johnson 75

State Legislation Against Fruit Pests; the Situation in Con-
necticut. W. E. Britton . 102

Address by Mr. H. W. Collingwood no

Ten Years of Pomological Progress in Our State. J. H. Hale . 113

Address by Mr. William Scott 124

Some Diseases of Orchard Fruits. M. B. Waite ... 131

The Spraying of Peach Trees. W. C. Sturgis 140

Grape - Growing and Wine - Making in Connecticut. Albert

Bernhard 144

The Methods of a Successful Plum-Grower. William H.

Skillman 151

Report of the Committee on Legislation 161

Suggestions on Fruit - Canning and Preserving. Mrs. Harvey

Jewell 167

Recent Observations in the Apple Orchard. A. G. Gulley . . . 182

Orchard Culture ; Best Tools and Methods. Ethelbert Bliss . . 189

Experiments in Fertilizing Orchards. E. H. Jenkins 193

Report of Special Committee on Fruit Exhibit 207

Report of Special Committee on Implement Exhibit 208

Report of Institutes and Field Meetings.

Institute at Southington, March 16, 1900 211

Institute at Stratford, March 31, 1900 217

(v)

vi Contents

Field Meetings. page

Strawberry Meeting at Branford, June 19, 1900 221

Connecticut Experiment Station, August 28, 1900 . . ... 224

Third Annual Exhibition of Fruits, 1900 226

Notes on Certain Diseases of Plants Recently Observed 233

The New Law Concerning Insect Pests 239

List of Members, 1901 ^43

Constitution and By-Laws of the Society

CONSTITUTION

Article I. — The name of this Association shall be The Connecticut

POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

Article II. — Its object shall be the advancement of the science and
art of pomology, and the mutual improvement and business advantage
of its members.

Article III. — Any person may become a member of this Society by
paying into the treasury the sum of one dollar per annum. If the annual
fee remains unpaid for two years, the membership shall cease and the
name be taken from the roll.

Article IV. — Its officers shall consist of a President, First Vice-
President, one Vice-President from each county, a Secretary, and a Treas-
urer to be elected annually by ballot, to hold office for one year, or until
their successors are duly elected.

The President, First Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer shall
constitute the Executive Committee of the Society.

Article V. — The Society shall hold its annual meeting during the
month of February, the time and place to be decided by the Executive
Committee, at which time the annual election of officers shall be held,
various reports submitted, and an exhibition and discussion of fruits take
place, also other necessary business be transacted. Other meetings for
special purposes may be arranged for and called by the Executive Com-
mittee whenever it is deemed advisable. Printed notice of each meeting
to be sent to every member of the Society.

Article VI. — The following standing committees of three members
each, on the following subjects, shall be appointed by the President, to
hold during his term of office, the appointments to be announced at the
annual meeting of the Society:

Business and Legislation, Fungous Diseases,

Membership, Ne--w Fruits,

Exhibitions, Markets and Transportations.

Injurious Insects,

Article VII. — This Constitution may be amended by a vote of two-
thirds of the members present at any annual meeting.

BY-LAWS

Article I. — The President, Secretary, Treasurer and the chairman of
each standing committee shall each present a report at the annual meeting
of the Society.

(vii)

viii By - Laws

Article II. — The President shall appoint annually two members to
audit the accounts of the Secretary and Treasurer.

Article III. — The Treasurer shall pay out no money except on the
written order of the President, countersigned by the Secretary.

Article IV. — It shall be the duty of the Executive Committee to
arrange the programs for the meetings of the Society, to fill all vacancies
which may occur in its offices between the annual meetings, and to have
general management of the affairs of the Society.

Article V. — The Committee on Legislation shall inform themselves
in regard to such laws as relate to the horticultural interests of the state,
and bring the same to the attention of the Society, and also the need of
further legislation. And when so directed by the Society, shall cause to be
introduced into the General Assembly such bills as may be deemed neces-
sary, and to aid or oppose any bills introduced by others, which directly or
indirectly affect the interests of the fruit-grower.

Article VI. — The Committee on Membership, with the cooperation
of the County Vice-Presidents, shall bring the work of the Society to the
attention of fruit-growers throughout the state and by such means as they
deem best strive to increase the membership.

Article VII. — The Committee on Exhibitions shall suggest from time
to time such methods and improvements as may seem to them desirable in
the conduct of the exhibitions of the Society, as well as fruit exhibitions
throughout the state.

And with the assistance of the Executive Committee shall arrange the
premium lists and have charge of all exhibitions given by this Society.

Article VIII. — It shall be the duty of the Committees on Insects and
Diseases to investigate in regard to the ravages of these enemies of fruit
culture, and to suggest how best to combat them and prevent their spread;
to answer all inquiries addressed to them by the members as far as possible,
and, when necessary, promptly lay before the Society timely information
on these subjects.

Article IX. — The Committee on New Fruits shall investigate and
collect such information in relation to newly-introduced varieties of fruits,
as is possible, and to report the same to the Society, with suggestions as to
the value of the varieties for general cultivation.

Article X. — The Committee on Markets and Transportation shall
inform themselves as to the best methods of placing fruit products upon
the market, and bring to the attention of the members of the Society this
and any other information concerning profitable marketing.

Article XI. — The Society will adopt the nomenclature of the Ameri-
can Pomological Society.

Article XII. — These By-Laws may be amended by a majority vote
of the members present at any regular meeting.

SOL'THINGTON. CONNECTICLT

President Cunnecticut Pomolo^ical Society, /goo

Proceedings of the
Tenth Annual Meeting of The
Connecticut Pomological Society

THE tenth annual meeting of the Society was opened at
Jewell Hall, Hartford, Wednesday- morning, February 6,
1901, at 10.30, with President J. H. Merriman in the
chair. An unusually large number of members and others were
present for the opening session. President Merriman, in open-
ing the meeting, delivered the following address:

Fellow Officers and Members of The Connecticut Pomological
Society:
Agreeably to the custom established by my predecessors, I
suppose I am expected to address .you with a few introductory
remarks. As you know, I am not a public speaker, and cer-
tainly not one like Brother Hale, who has but to open his mouth
and it talks itself; nevertheless, I will submit a few thoughts for
your consideration. I am glad to meet and greet so many
familiar faces, and congratulate you all upon the auspicious cir-
cumstances under which our Society enters upon the new cen-
tury. It is now three hundred strong, and yet is but a child
ten years old. The past year has been one of unprecedented
growth and prosperity, showing that interest in horticulture is
broadening and deepening in our state through the organized
influence of our Society. For many of us, however, who own
commercial orchards disappointment has been written in many
lines. The apple crop promised a bountiful yield until the 12th
of September, when the hurricane that swept over our land
from Texas to Maine blew off about 80 per cent of the fruit,

(I)

2 The Connecticut Pomological Society

which was thereby rendered worthless, and many thousand
baskets of peaches shared the same fate. The very severe
drought of the summer caused the fruit to be smaller than
usual, and in some sections what would otherwise have been
thousands of baskets of peaches was fruit which was wilted and
dried on the trees, and perfectly worthless. Berries and small
fruits also suffered severely. In many sections of the state peach
buds were killed during the winter, and by the late freeze in
May, except on high elevations and near the shore; which
again proves the wisdom of setting our peach trees on elevated
locations. Then again, the past month has been fraught with
much damage, due to ice. Many valuable trees have been
ruined, and many more badly broken and damaged. But, while
these reverses are fresh in our memory, as we look back for the
last eleven years I can recall but one total failure of the peach
crop in our state. This certainly should inspire us with renewed
courage and hope to press steadily on towards the mark of the
high calling, for it is the highest calling connected with agricul-
ture. It brings into its fold and front the brainy, thinking men
who work with mind and muscle. It requires little thought to
plant and care for a hill of corn or potatoes, but to properly set,
trim and care for fruit trees from year to year, to study their
habits and food supply, to fight insects and fungous diseases,
and to thin, pick and prepare the fruit for market, are all things
that need forethought and judgment. He who will not look
ahead and take time by the forelock will himself be led by the
forelock.

In regard to the peach yellows, I regret that so many small
growers seem so indifferent to its ravages. They have little to
lose, and seem to care little for the losses of others. Eternal
vigilance in pulling out and destroying trees infected with this
pest is well understood by commercial growers to be the price of
success. The small growers need the prompting influence of
judicious laws to awaken in them a sense of honor and justice.
If our legislative committee could frame a law that would be
effective, and at the same time that would not be burdensome
upon those parts of our state where peaches are not raised, it
would be of great importance to our fruit interests; a law that
would at once appeal to the honor and sense of justice of our

Tenth Annual Meeting 3

Legislature, and recommend itself to the good judgment of our
people. In this connection the prohibition of selling diseased
fruit in our state would be advisable.

As I look back over the last decade and consider the work
this Society has done in producing luscious fruits for the multi-
tude of working men and women, in its uplifting and refining
influence upon its members, and in still further beautifying our
naturally beautiful scenery, — converting our bushy hill-tops into
picturesque scenes of rows of handsome trees laden with most
luscious fruits, and painted by the hand of God in artistic
beauty, and having a richness of flavor that challenges the world
to equal, and which brings so much joy and health to the con-
sumer, I think we may well congratulate ourselves upon having
done a great and good work that the state may well feel proud
of, and prompt it in the future to give us that substantial aid
that will enable us to still further extend the benefits of this
Society in all parts of the state so that our work may still fur-
ther redound to its honor and glory.

I consider our field meetings a potent factor for good.
Their object lessons are not easily erased from memory. We
learn from others' successes, as well as from their failures.
We are greatly indebted to our Experiment Station ior its co-
operation and help. The Station gives us scientific knowledge.
We must make the practical application. We give them some
knotty problems to work out in the laboratory, some of which
as yet baffle their skill, but all of which we hope they will soon
conquer, and particularly as to the little midget which is only
detected by the most powerful microscope, but which caused
the blue, ashy appearance of our peach leaves during the past
season.

I would particularly remind you of the importance of our
horticultural exhibit at the Pan-American Exposition to be held
at Buffalo during the coming summer. We are to represent
the honor and reputation of our state in this department of
agriculture. I trust each member will feel a personal responsi-
bility in this matter, and so contribute to its success as to reflect
honor upon our Society and state. We occupy but a small
space upon the map, but are of large proportions. We excel
in arts and sciences, and in institutions of learning. We have

4 The Connecticut Pomological Society

Yale, the peer of all institutions of its kind, sending forth its
students to light the lamps of civilization in its westward march.
Our cities and towns are hives of industry, giving employment
to skilled labor which, in turn, gives us the best markets in our
country. We are in close touch with shipping points, so as to
export our surplus supplies. We have the climate and the soil,
inviting us to cultivate and occupy, and God has promised the
increase. "i£«/ transtulit siistinet,^^ — He who planted will sus-
tain. That is indeed a fitting motto for our beloved state.
We are co-workers with God.

"Faith and works go hand in hand.
To till the soil was God's command.
Then, if success you would attain,
Work with hand and heart, soul and brain.''

Brothers, we come here to disseminate knowledge. He
who would hoard up his experiences for himself is unworthy of
our Society. We come here to send the plowshare of thought
deep into the soil of bigotry and ignorance, to cultivate thor-
oughly, and let in the sunlight of God's truths as they shall be
revealed to us, and bring forth fruit that shall redound to our
honor and glory.

The report of the secretary, H. C. C. Miles, for the past
year was then presented, as follows:

THE SECRETARY'S REPORT

Mr. President and A4 embers of the Society:

Of the several farmers' organizations in the little state of
Connecticut, none, I think it is safe to say, has been of more
service to the people of the state than the Connecticut Pomo-
logical Society in the past nine years; and now, at the opening
of its tenth year and the beginning of a new century, it is
most gratifying to be able to say that the Society is stronger
than ever and promises to continue its usefulness for many
years to come.

As required by our rules, I shall try to give you briefly a

Tenth Annual Meeting 5

report of the Society's condition, with some account of
the past year's work as far as the secretary's office is con-
cerned.

Perhaps of most interest to you will be a report of our
membership. We have enrolled sixty-five new members dur-
ing the year. The total number of bona fide members to-day
is 309. (I say bona fide members for the reason that our by-
laws have determined that no person whose membership fees
are unpaid for two years shall be considered a member, and
while we have in all 339 names on the roll, the thirty delin-
quents must be counted out when we consider our actual
membership.) Perhaps it is to be expected that from year to
year some will drop out of the list, but we can but think it
more a matter of carelessness than that a man should be so
short-sighted as to withhold a dollar for membership in a
progressive horticultural association when the returns are so
large. We must all admit that the problem of keeping
our present membership, also gaining new members, is no
easy one to solve and requires much effort on the part of
your officers. Other societies have the same thing to con-
tend with. I want to say right here that our Membership
Committee, especially Mr. Ives, has done excellent work in
securing new members. Our county vice-presidents might also
fulfil their duty in this respect and interest fruit-growers in
their sections in our work. In addition to this, let each
member see that his own membership is renewed promptly,
and also bring into the Society at least one friend during the
year. From February i, 1900, to February i, 1901, I have
received and paid over to the treasurer for membership fees
and from other sources, in all $244, and have drawn orders
for the payment of bills to the amount of $901.10.

During the past year the Society has held six meetings,
— the annual meeting in February, two institutes, two field
meetings and the annual fall meeting and exhibition. Of the
annual meeting of a year ago I need not speak. The pro-
ceedings have been printed and are here ready for distribution.

March 16, 1900, a second invitation from the Grange in
Southington to hold an institute in that town was accepted.
Despite a severe storm of snow and ice, a good meeting was

6 The Connecticut Pomological Society

carried out, with an excellent attendance, and the discussions
were instructive and interesting.

Another institute meeting was held at Stratford March
31, through the courtesy of Housatonic Grange. Coming to
this section of the state for the first time, the Society was
welcomed heartily and well entertained. New members were
added and an increased interest in fruit culture among the
people of Fairfield county resulted from this successful institute.

We would urge other granges and local organizations to
cooperate with the Society in holding these pleasant and prof-
itable one -day meetings. There is no better means of bring-
ing about a better appreciation of farm life and the pleasures
and profits of fruit-growing We have now on file invitations
from several granges, and hope to carry out five or six insti-
tutes this winter. We believe no better use can be made of
the state's money as given to the Society than in conducting
such meetings as these.

The series of field meetings as planned for last summer
was somewhat handicapped by the serious drought that affected
most fruit crops. Many of our members expected to entertain
the Society, but few wanted to exhibit " drought -stricken "
farms. Messrs. A. E. Plant & Son, of Beauford, however,
had courage to invite the members to visit their farm June 19.
The large number of visitors found there were no apologies to
be made for this fine fruit farm, and all were loud in their praise
of the thrifty-looking fruit and vegetable gardens, the orchards,
and especially the extensive strawberry fields, for which latter
fruit Messrs. Plant have gained so enviable a reputation. All
felt well repaid for attending and expressed a desire to visit Bro-
ther Plant again at no very distant day.

August 28 the Society met on the grounds of the State
Experiment Station at New Haven, nearly two hundred mem-
bers enjoying the hospitality of Director Jenkins and his staf¥
of workers. Much of practical interest to the fruit-grower
was seen in the various departments of the Station, and after a
lunch a trip was made to the large vegetable and fruit farm of
the Atwater Brothers, near Cedar Hill. Here the discouraging
effects of dry weather were plainly to be seen; yet it taught a
valuable lesson in that the fruit farmer must be prepared to meet

Tenth Annual iVIeeting 7

such difficulties and overcome them. I must add that some
splendid vegetables and fruits vv^ere shown in the packing sheds,
attesting to the skill of Messrs. Atvvater as market -gardeners.
These field meetings continue to be one of the most valuable
features of our work, affording as they do the opportunity to
see fruit-growing conditions as they really exist and to discuss
around the growing tree or plant problems of vital importance to
us all. We should aim to hold one or more each month from
June to October, and they would repay many times the cost of
time, money and effort. We hope there will be a generous
response next season to the appeal for farms to meet upon.

Again our Society scored a success in its annual fall exhibi-
tion held at Middletown, October 4-5, 1900, the best show in
many respects we have yet held. There were fifty -six exhibi-
tors, nearly eight hundred separate entries of plates of fruit, and
$320 was awarded in premiums. The showing of handsome,
perfect specimens of the fruit - grower's skill was magnificent
and called forth the admiration of all who saw it. Surely our
annual fruit exhibits are the finest thing of the kind ever seen
in Connecticut and compare favorably with those of older and
larger state societies. Great credit should be given our JVliddle-
town members and friends for their hearty support of this
exhibition.

The $500 annual appropriation from the state has been of
great assistance in carrying out the Society's work. It makes
possible the publication of a creditable report of our proceedings,
which is important as showing to the state what we are doing,
but also as a means of preserving valuable horticultural informa-
tion for future reference, and if the work is continued will form
a library of greatest value to every cultivator of the soil. Can
any one contend but that the money thus spent is well invested,
and could not an increase, even, be used to still greater advan-
tage? Why should not the state contribute liberally to an
industry so closelv related to the welfare of her farmer citizens?

In conclusion, let me say that if the Society has attained
strength and success the responsibility of keeping up to the
standard rests upon us all, officers and members. Your officers
have, I believe, done what they could with the means at their
command. Let us all be loyal to the organization and strive to

8 The Connecticut Pomological Society

keep it what its friends say it is, "the liveliest, brightest and
most practical society of fruit-growers in America."

Those who have so kindly assisted me in my labors the
past year know that I appreciate it and thank them.
Respectfully submitted,

H. C. C. Miles, Secretary.

On motion duly seconded and passed, the secretary's report
as read was accepted.

The President: "Next will be the report of the treasurer
of the Society, Mr. R. A. Moore."

THE TREASURER'S REPORT

Report of the treasurer of the Connecticut Pomological
Society for the year 1900.

Received
1900

Feb. 2. Cash on hand $482 52

15. Cash from H. C. C. Miles, M. fees .... 151 00

March 31. Cash from H. C. C. Miles, M. fees .... 29 00

June 19. Cash from H. C. C. Miles, M. fees .... 26 00

" 21. Cash from Comptroller no 09

Sept. 20. H. C. C. Miles 15 00

Oct. 5. H. C. C. Miles 12 00

Nov. 15. Orrin Gilbert, Sale of Apples 2 00

Dec. 6. Comptroller, State Appropriation 387 45

1901

Jan. 9. Orrin Gilbert, Premium Returned 2 50

23. Comptroller 142 77

" 31. H. C. C. Miles 11 00

$1,371 33

Paid

1900

Feb. 15. Cash paid Prof. Beach . . f30 00

15. Edwin Van Alstyne 18 76

" 15. L. R. Jones 31 12

" 15. A. G. Sharp 6 00

" 15. Rent of Hall Y. M. C. A 3500

" 17. J. H. Hale, Hotel Bills 10 50

" 20. H. C. C. Miles, Expenses 12 15

Amounts carried forward $'43 53 fi>37i 33

Tenth Annual Meeting 9

Amounts brought forward $i43 53 $1,371 33

March 2. A. C. Gilbert, Lantern Slides 3 65

" II. N. P. Daniels, Printing i"* 7S

" 15. Tuttle Morehouse & Taylor, Printing ... 14 75

April 3. Milford Citizen, Printing 2 50

Error in check Oct. 20, 1898, H. C. C. Miles 4 00

May 15. H. C. C. Miles, Office Expenses 14 32

June 4. H. C. C. Miles, Salary for 1899 50 00

" 22. J. Horace McFarland Co., Printing Reports 414 00

" 23. N. P. Daniels, Printing 24 76

" 23. R. A. Moore, Postage on Report 21 49

" 23. F. J. Sperry, Reporting 25 00

" 23. Tuttle Morehouse &: Taylor 5 50

" 23. Milford Citizen, Printing . . .... i 5°

Sept. 18. H. C. C. Miles 16 95

18. J. R. Clark, Printing 13 80

Oct. 4. Orrin Gilbert, Cash for Printing i 50

6. Clarence H. Ryder, Printing 6 50

" 23. H. C. C. Miles, Expenses 22 61

Dec. 7. Premiums 314 00

" 15. R. A. Moore, Expenses and Postage .... 13 14

1901

Jan. 31. J. R. Clark, Printing 15 65

" 31. H. C. C. Miles 14 05

" 31. J. H. Merriman 615

" 31. H. C. C. Miles, Salary 50 00

" 31. Clarence H. Ryder, Printing 7 00 1,219 10

Balance in the Treasury, Feb. i, 1901 $152 23

Still due from the State $112 55

Balance in the Treasury 152 23

Total amount due from State and in Treasury $264 78

R. A. Moore, Treasurer.

Mr. Moore: "That shows the transactions for last year.
We are in hopes that the Legislature will do something better
for us than they did last year."

The President: "Before the treasurer's report can be
accepted it will have to be referred to the auditors. Also the
bills will have to be audited. 1 will appoint Mr. Fenn, of Mil-
ford, to act with Mr. Sternberg, of West Hartford, as auditors,
the other member of the committee not being present."

lo The Connecticut Pomological Society

The President: "I will ask Mr. E. M. Ives to report for
the Committee on Membership."

Mr. Ives: "Mr. President and Members: It seems to
me that our Society's growth is an all-important thing, and I
wish it might be so regarded among the fruit-growers of Con-
necticut. We may think that we get a little aid from the state,
and that our dollar apiece that we pay in does not amount to
very much in helping out the Society, but our urgent needs are
so great that we want all the dollars that we can get, and the
increase in our membership is one of the things which gives our
Society prestige, and at the same time gives us a strong incen-
tive to work. We all want to build up a large, vigorous society,
and while we have had a fair measure of success in that line of
late we want to be still more successful, and that object would
be attained if all would join this Society which gives us such
good results. It costs only a dollar to join, and that certainly is
not very much to put out when you consider the benefit that
comes every year, especially with our publication. I think our
most prolific source of membership is perhaps in our institutes
and field meetings. We often drop right into new territory,
and thereby secure new members. We cannot always get them
out, but by going to them, and bringing to the growers the
benefits of our meetings, it interests them, and has a strong
influence in inducing them to join.

"I think it will be a great benefit to us if we can have a few
institutes held during the coming months. If there are any
openings for us I am sure we can soon arrange a program, and
we can give a good program, too, without going out of the
state for speakers. We have plenty of material here; men who
are able to interest an audience in any part of the state, and I
hope there will be openings for several institutes this coming
spring. Now I hope to see a good many, or all of the present
membership that are here, give us their dollar. Encourage the
Society by renewing your membership. Keep in touch with it."

Mr. Hale: "Mr. President, I want to say just a word
about this committee report. We have interfered with the
dignity of our conventions, somewhat, in years gone by in con-
stant urging of our members to do their duty, to pay their dues.
We have had to do it. Week before last I was out at a meet-

Tenth Annual Meeting ii

ing of the Western New York Horticultural Society. I have
heard about them before, and they most always have a hall full
of members, but the greatest number of paid memberships that
they have had before this year was 560. This year they had
the secretary's desk outside of the door, and the secretary was
kept busy issuing membership tickets which admitted them to
the hall, and they had a recorded membership of about eight
hundred, — more than they had ever had before. They had 800
who paid to go in. In other words, in other years when they
seemed to have had just as big a crowd at the meetings, 240
people had been going in and listening to the urging of the
secretary that there was the place to chip in without paying any
attention to it, but this year when they adopted that plan there
was that large number of people over the highest membership
before who wouldn't stay out when they had to pay to get in.
I don't suppose we could adopt that plan here. I wish we
might."

The President: "That .suggestion comes a little too late
for this year."

Mr. Hale: ''We are asking and receiving state aid, so
we could not shut out anybody I suppose, but their plan
showed how many would pay rather than be shut out."

Secretary Miles : "I would like to say right along' that
line that down in New Jersey they are doing away, or talking
of doing away entirely, with membership fees, and asking the
state to support them entirely. I do not think we want to
take either that course or the one Mr. Hale has just referred
to. I think we can be more or less independent of the state,
as we have been, and at the same time I do not think we
want to shut out any one who wishes to come in and hear
our proceedings. At the same time we would like that little
extra dollar to help ' grease ' the machinery."

The President: "The report of the next committee,
that on legislation, will have to be deferred, as the members
are not present."

The President: "Report of the Committee on Exhibi-
tions. Prof. A. G. GuUey."

Professor Gulley: "Mr. President and Gentlemen : The
only exhibition we made last year of any importance was the

12 The Connecticut Pomological Society

one at Middletown. There were a few samples shown at
different meetings, but that was our show of the year. Those
of you who were there don't need to be told about it, and
those of you who were not there and did not see it do not
deserve to be told about it. It is possible, however, that there
are some who would have been there if they could. The
secretary has already referred to it, but I can say this* that so
far as any exhibition of fruits that I have seen since I came
east of the Hudson river is concerned, it was far ahead of any-
thing. Certainly those who saw this exhibit can be sure that
Connecticut can produce good fruit, and we have some ex-
hibitors to bring it out, and they are becoming better educated
in that line right along. That exhibit showed that they are
increasing very rapidly in knowledge of fruit. That is one
thing which the fruit which has been produced in the last four
years has shown. There has been not only more of it but it
has been in very much better shape, and better named. That
exhibition was certainly full of encouragement to fruit-growing
in Connecticut.

"Now, aside from our exhibit, and that is about all that
belongs directly to this Society, but some of you are aware
that it has been supposed to look after the exhibit of the state
at the Pan-American Exposition. That is the work of the
State Board of Agriculture. This Society has not been called
on for assistance in any shape except for fruit for that show,
They have paid all the bills, and furnished the means for
carrying out the work, although I have been appointed by this
Society as its delegate to carry out this work. I began the
work at the Middletown meeting and gathered up several
barrels of fine fruit, which I took to my house and re-sorted,
and then repacked and had it placed in cold storage. I have
sent out a good many circulars asking for fruit for this exhibi-
tion, and altogether have received in response about twenty
barrels of apples for this work. Those who have furnished
this fruit are all, with a very few exceptions, members of this
Society, and every man who in response to that circular agreed
to send fruit has done so with one exception. I sent out
about 150 circulars, and I had some dozen or fifteen responses
that they could not do it. If the fruit which has been sent

Tenth Annual Meeting 13

to me goes through the winter in good condition, as I hope
it will, we shall be able to put on at the opening of the show
a good stock. Of course our exhibit is nothing like the 300
barrels that the Western New York Society have, but they
went right into the market and bought. We did not do that.
This fruit of ours was all contributed, so far as I know. The
State Board of Agriculture has laid out a plan for exhibiting
this summer, and we are in hopes, provided the Legislature
will give us the money, to put on a show of fruit at the open-
ing of the Exposition, and then keep an exhibit there right
through until the show closes. It will mean a lot of work,
and I hope to have the cooperation of the members of this
Society. I shall be looking for fruits to put on there, and
shall probably be calling on you by letter or in some other way
for the specimens to put on. You are the ones that will have
to furnish it. Along towards the last of the season it is my
intention to visit some of the shows and solicit the whole
exhibit that may be there; take out what I want, what I con-
sider worth while, and send that on, and about the ist of
October I shall expect to be able to put on there about as
handsome a show of apples and fruit of a general character as
has ever been shown from Connecticut. We expect to beat
our last year's exhibition by 50 per cent. We shall have
instead of 800 plates, a thousand of them, and make a grand
show. When our annual show is about over 1 shall move to
confiscate the whole business, and ship it to Buffalo to finish
up our show there with. That is the plan I have."

The President: 'T would like to ask if Professor Gulley
intends to show any Connecticut peaches?"

Professor Gulley: "Oh, yes. I referred to that in a
general way. Through the peach season — yes, sir. And the
same way with other fruits. From the ist of August, and
following it up through the season there is no reason why we
should not be able to show all our fruits. My idea is we
shall have to put on about three times a week from the ist
of June up to the ist of August, anyhow. Then in August
we shall have to handle peaches and plums. The fruits can
be shipped from here by express and reach there the next day,
and our stock will have to be replenished in that way right

14 The Connecticut Pomological Society

straight along through the season. Later in the season, when
we can get apples, we shall not have to change the exhibit so
often. 1 am in hopes those other fruits, more perishable fruits,
we shall be able to ship from here and have them reach Buffalo
in good condition. There is no reason why we should not."
The President: "The next is the report of the Com-
mittee on Injurious Insects, by Prof. W. E. Britton."

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON INJURIOUS INSECTS

The Insect Committee for 1900 has few serious insect dep-
redations to report to the Society at this meeting. This does
not necessarily mean that such attacks were rare or unknown
during the season, but rather that they were not reported to
your committee by the members. The only new thing that is
liable to assume the nature of a pest is the peach -leaf mite, and
too little is known as yet about this organism to warrant any
predictions in regard to its future behavior. We beg leave,
therefore, to place before you a few notes regarding some of the
old insects and the methods of destroying them.

LEAF-EATING INSECTS

The "apple-worm," i. e., the larva of the codling moth,
Carpocapsa pomonella, L., was found inside an Abundance plum
and feeding on it. The forest tent -caterpillar, Clisiocampa diss-
tria, Hiibu, was found feeding upon apple foliage at Walling-
ford. The Abbott sphinx, Thyreus ahbotii, Swains, was re-
ceived from Bridgeport, where the larva was devouring the
foliage of the grape. A small brown beetle, Anomala lucicola,
Fabr., was feeding upon grape leaves in Suffield; and another
lighter-colored species, Colaspis brunnea, Fabr., had been injur-
ing the foliage of the grape and strawberry at Mt. Carmel.

The caterpillar of the "gray plume moth," Oxyptilus perisceli-
dactylus, Fitch, was received from Yalesville. This insect feeds
in the unfolding leaves of the grape-vine, drawing them together
with a web to form a nest. As it usually eats away the bud, the
season's growth is arrested. In a small plantation the cater-

Tenth Annual Meeting 15

pillars may be crushed inside their nests, but this, as well as the
other leaf-eating insects just mentioned, can be destroyed by
spraying the vines with Paris green.

SCALE INSECTS

The San Jose scale, Aspidiotus perniciosus, Comst., must still
be regarded as a first-class pest, and several newly infested local-
ities have been discovered during the past year. Your com-
mittee has received this insect from ten different places. In
spite of the fact that much published matter about this insect
has been circulated and that much has been said about it in
these meetings, several of our leading fruit-growers are only just
awakening to the fact that it is breeding rapidly in their own
orchards, and they are beginning to realize that it is a most un-
desirable inhabitant. This insect must be recognized as a per-
manent factor in fruit-growing, and every orchardist should be
prepared to give his trees an annual treatment to destroy it. A
spray of kerosene and water, containing 20 to 25 per cent of
kerosene, applied in late winter or early spring before the buds
open, with a pump made especially for the purpose, seems to be
about the best treatment that can now be recommended. A
10 per cent mi.xture can be applied to hold the scale in check
should it be discovered during the summer when the trees are
in foliage.

Putnam's scale, Aspidiotus ancy/us, Putn., was received from
two localities during the year.

The scurfy bark-louse, Chionaspis furfurus, Fitch, has been
received nine times, and the oyster-shell bark-louse, Mytilaspis
pomoriim, Bouche, once during the season. Both of these scales
pass the winter in the egg stage, so that it is useless to attempt
to destroy them by any ordinary spray applied during the winter.
The eggs hatch during the latter part of May, and an applica-
tion of soap and water the first week in June will destroy the
young scales. The writer used a 10 per cent mixture of kero-
sene and water successfully against the oyster-shell bark-louse
as late as June 23 on a tree of Kilmarnock willow which was
badly infested: the insects were killed and the foliage uninjured.

i6 The Connecticut Pomological Society

PLANT-LICE

The pear psylla, Psylla pyricola, Forst, was abundant and
caused much injury. Mr. A. B. Plant sprayed some of his
trees at Branford about June lO with lo and 15 per cent of
kerosene mixed with water. Had the application been made
about three weeks earlier it would probably have been much
more effective. As it was, few of the insects were killed, and
they damaged the trees as usual. Neither the 10 nor the 15
per cent mixture injured the foliage.

Mr. Plant also used the 15 per cent mixture against the
purple aphis, Aphis mail., Koch, on young apple twigs. Both
the new growth and the lice were destroyed. Shrubs of Spiraa
Van Houttei and Japanese quince, Cydon'ia Japonica, were sprayed
by the writer on June 23, with a 10 per cent mixture to kill
plant-lice; the lice as well as the foliage remained uninjured.
Dr. Sturgis used a 15 per cent mixture on Spiraea at his place,
and killed the lice without injuring the foliage. The apple aphis,
Aphis mall, Koch, was sent to your committee from Newington
and New Haven.

THE PEACH- LEAF MITE

A peculiar metallic lead -colored appearance of the foliage
of certain trees has been prevalent in many peach orchards of
Connecticut during the past season. On examining these leaves
with the microscope, the surface cells forming the epidermal
layer appear as if their contents had been destroyed and con-
tained bubbles of air. At first the trouble seemed like one of
a purely physiological nature, which might have been caused
perhaps by the protracted drought, as no evidence of parasites
was discovered. But the same trouble occurred in the vicinity
of Washington, D. C, where it is thought to be the work of
a very small mite belonging to the genus Phytoptus. It is
certain that the mites are found in connection with this pecu-
liarity of the foliage, but it has not as yet been ascertained
how the mite causes the injury, nor even established definitely
that the mite is wholly responsible for the trouble, though
such is thought to be the case. This mite does not form galls,

Tenth Annual Meeting 17

like a near relative, Phytoptus pyri, Scheuten, on pear foliage,
nor does it eat away the surface like the common red spider.
I have had no opportunity to observe the operations of the mites
on the leaves and am not able to state whether they live inside
or outside the tissues, though in many leaves sectioned and
examined I could find no punctures through the surface layer.
My attention was not called to the presence of the mites
until late in the season after they had left the foliage to con-
gregate on the twigs where they pass the winter underneath
the bud -scales. Specimens were received from two localities,
and the same species was found to be present on the Station
grounds. This parasite will be a subject of investigation next
season, and 1 should like to receive for examination peach
twigs and leaves from fruit-growers in all parts of the state
where the presence of this mite is suspected.

In conclusion, I wish to call your attention to the fact
that this committee is always ready to identify insects and
give information regarding their habits, injuries, and the treat-
ment to be used in combating them. Sudden outbreaks may
be investigated and emergency circulars issued if the circum-
stances warrant it. But the committee itself can do little
and its reports will be of little value unless it has the cooper-
ation of every member of this Society. This report should
be an account of the injuries of fruit insects of the whole
state for the season, yet it is impossible for your committee to
cover the entire state, and therefore must depend to some ex-
tent upon the observations of members. It is hoped that the
committee may receive more assistance along this line in future
years. AH of which is respectfully submitted,

W. E. Britton, Chairman.

The President: "Next is th*e report of the Committee
on New Fruits. Mr. Edwin Hoyt, of New Canaan."

Mr. Hoyt: ''Mr. President, I did not know until I had
word from the secretary on Monday that I was the Commit-
tee on New Fruits. If I had I should have looked up the
matter somewhat and been prepared to talk to you, but I
will do the best I can under the circumstances.

i8 The Connecticut Pomological Society

" I do not know that any new fruits have come before us
this past year that need much examination. There are some
new apples that are being brought forward. The latest one
that has come to the front is the Opalescent. That is a
beautiful name. That is to be pushed by a company who
are growing the trees very largely, and, judging from the cir-
culars that they are sending out, it possesses all the qualities
for a market apple. They claim it is a good winter apple,
and a good money-maker. That, however, is not a new story
for anybody who is interested in fruits. They are all rhat
way. I asked a gentleman to send me some samples of the
apples, and I brought one up so that you could see it. One
value of it is that it is a late keeper. In the circulars which
are sent out advertising this apple there are some strong tes-
timonials from people who say that they have seen these apples
exhibited in 1899 which were grown in 1897, — exhibited in
February and March the second year after their growth. This
apple comes from Illinois, and the people who have put this
out have so much faith in the apple that they say they will
present any person buying trees of them at their price with a
written guarantee to take all the apples that those trees will
grow until those trees are past twelve j^ears old at $2.50 a
barrel. If you want to make some money by selling your
apples, there is your chance.

" Another apple has now put in an appearance called the
'North Star.' I do not know anything about it. I do not
spend much time on these new circulars that come out. I
hope by and by to tell something about the new varieties, for
we have about seventy of them set out.

" I do not know that there have been any new plums
brought out in the last year or two which deserve any par-
ticular notice or attention. If I wasn't a very modest kind of
a man I would speak of the October Purple, because that is
our plum, you know. My experience with it has made me
feel that it is a valuable plum. This is the first year that
ours have fruited, and we had some handsome specimens of
fruit from three to three and a quarter inches in size, and it
is the best flavored plum I have ever eaten. It is a splendid
grower and makes a fine, handsome head. I think it better

Tenth Annual Meeting 19

than the Burbanlc, but we must test and tn" it before anything
very positive can be said of it.

" There is one of our new fruits that it gives me a good
deal of pleasure to speak about, and that is the Green Moun-
tain grape. I see that some of the largest horticultural socie-
ties have put it at the head of the list. If I have to lose
$4,000 or $5,000 in trying to introduce it, it is an important
fact to know that the fruit-growers of western New York
acknowledge it to be one of the best that has been brought out.

"Strawberries I don't know anything about. I think Brother
Hale can give us more information about them than most any-
body here. It is of very little consequence anyway, because
the variety that will do the best with me, and that I would
praise up, if set out on some of your places you would con-
demn. Almost every new kind depends upon the soil. If a
new variety comes along that does well on your soil, plant it.
If it does not, do not plant it. It would be very hard to tell
what kind of strawberries would be the best for the farmers
of Connecticut to set out.

"In relation to new peaches, we do not have any new
varieties ourselves. I am well enough satisfied with the Con-
necticut, Heiley, Mountain Rose, the Crawford Early, and the
Elberta. The Elberta, so far as our experience goes, caps the
climax for profit, beauty of fruit, form and vigor of the tree,
etc. I have not tried to introduce any new peach. There are
some two or three, and there are some free -bearing peaches.
I do not have so much faith in those as some, so we have
never tried to introduce these ever-bearing peaches that so
much has been said about. I have always believed that a
thing in its day was best, and a peach that will bud all the
time I should not like so well as one having its season, giving
you a full crop, and getting out the way. There are some
varieties, of course, that you may ask me about, and that have
their friends, but with us it is our aim to keep down varieties.
We have about fifty now, and if you are growing trees you
will quickly find out what a trouble it is to grow that number
of varieties, and grow, as we do, 120,000 of a kind."

A Member: "I would like to ask Mr. Hoyt if he thinks
early peaches are the best for commercial purposes ?"

20 The Connecticut Pomological Society

Mr. Hoyt : ''Early peaches, so far as my experience goes,
I do not think are profitable for commercial purposes. They
rot: most of the early varieties rot."

Mr. Rogers: "I would like to ask if he knows anything
about the Emma or Elberta ?"

Mr. Hoyt: "The Elberta I referred to as one of the
best. The other I have never heard of."

A Member: 'T would like to ask Mr. Hoyt what he
thinks of the Early Rivers. We have found it to be a very
early white peach, and with us it has not rotted."

Mr. Hoyt: ''The Early Rivers will be, I think, as good
as any we have. Of course, there is some distinction between
the various early varieties. Some do not appear to rot as badly
as others, but that is the great trouble with most of these early
varieties."

Mr. Miller: "How about the Triumph?"

Mr. Hoyt: "That is an early peach, but I think it is
like most of these early varieties; it has that objection."

Mr. Miller: "Have you had any experience with the
Foster ?"

Mr. Hoyt: "The Foster peach is a good peach. It comes
into condition about the right time, but there is no better than
the Crawford Early. The Crawford comes in at about the
same time. It is a little earlier if anything. The Foster is a
very yellow peach, and is very attractive in the basket."

Mr. Rogers: "Don't you consider the Foster better than
the Crawford ?"

Mr. Hoyt: "No, sir."

Mr. Rogers: "Up in our section it is considered far
superior."

The President: " Do you know anything about the
Connecticut ?"

Mr. Hoyt: "Nothing about its quality of bearing to any
extent as yet. We have it growing. We have included the
Champion peach this year and are very much pleased with it.
It is a splendid large white peach with a little blush. It bears
well, and the peaches are of very large size, very attractive
and very salable. I do not know as we have the right kind>
but what we have got have done very fairly."

Tenth Annual Meeting 21

The President: "The Champion peach has done well
for me. I have been pulling out some old trees that have
done good service. It is an old peach."

The President: "If Mr. N. S. Piatt, the state pomolo-
gist, is in the room, we would like to have his opinion about
some of these new fruits."

Mr. N. S. Platt: "Mr. Chairman, I have not had a
chance to watch new fruits except in peaches. I have had the
Triumph, Greensboro and Waddell, and also one or two others.
The Triumph is a good bearer, a bright -looking peach with red
cheeks, but is rather watery. It is very early; perhaps about
the 30th of July, or somewhere about there. 1 should not
think it would be good for anything for market.

"The Greensboro is about the same looking, white with rec
cheeks, and of good size. It is large enough, and fine -looking
enough for market. It has not rotted, so far as I can see, on
my own trees. It ripens about the 25th to 28th of July. Its
keeping qualities are probably not great, and I suppose it will
rot like all early peaches in our climate do. It looks very well,
and aside from that trouble I should think it would be a good
market peach. It is the best early peach, so far as I have seen,
for family use. It is certainly ahead of the old Waterloo and
that class of peaches. The Triumph with me rotted. It
looked pretty and handsome, but rotted. As to the Waddell,
and one or two others, I have not had a chance to see which
was the earliest, but they were of good size, and large enough
for market. They ripen rapidly, are quite large, and perhaps
will be desirable for market peaches. I have a later white one
that I am sure if it behaves as well hereafter as it has done it
will he worth while as a market peach. It is as large or larger,
is evidently a better bearer and as good-looking a peach as the
Stump, and would be about ready to pass into the market when
the Stump has passed.

"The Japan Blood I had for an early peach, but that is
determined to rot, and is worth nothing at all as a market
peach. It is one of the early ones."

Mr. Ives: "Some one asked about the Emma peach
before you came in. You know something about that?"

Mr. Platt: "I have four or five trees three years old. I

22 The Connecticut Pomological Society

think there has been an occasional peach on them, right
among the Elberta. It is a peach that is a week or ten days
later than the Elberta, greener, and not as desirable so far as I
have observed it. I do not think it is as good a bearer as the
Elberta, but only having had about a half-dozen peaches I am
not able to sav much about it."

A Member: "I would like to ask about the Waddell; if
that is a peach that is grown as a market peach ? "

Mr. Platt: "If it could be grown in large quantities I
don't know but it might be if marketed quickly. I have only
had one crop on two trees. It is large enough, and a good
bearer, and hangs on the tree all right."

A Member: "It is large enough, but isn't it a little ten-
der, and a little off for shape? "

Mr. Platt: "I don't know as to that. I am speaking
simply as I have seen it. It would be pretty hard to tell from
one crop whether it was a peach you want or not."

Mr. Sternberg, reporting for the Auditing Committee, stated
that the committee had examined the accounts of the treasurer
and found same correct, and on motion duly passed, the report
was accepted.

The President: "We have with us Brother Hale, the
"Peach King," who is ready to report for the Committee on
Markets and Transportation. I think he ought to know some-
thing about transportation. He has been transported to Georgia
often enough."

Mr. J. H. Hale: "Mr. President, and Brothers and Sisters
of the Connecticut Pomological Society: When I was ap-
pointed Committee on Markets and Transportation at the last
session, and they finally got me as chairman of it, I started out,
in a general way, to see what might be done in working the
matter up, and made a little progress, but as it came a little
further towards spring I commenced to realize that my duties
in connection with the picking and getting to market of 225
car-loads of peaches in Georgia, and fifty more in Connecticut,
would give me about all the business on my own hands that I
could attend to, and so I notified the next member on that
committee that I would not be able to do any work on that
committee because I should be out of the state; but two good

Tenth Annual Meeting 23

frosts came along in May, and they settled the question of the
transportation of last year's fruit crop in Connecticut ; there
was no trouble in taking care of it. That is about where the
matter rests now. Nothing, practically, was done. I do be-
lieve, however, that there is, and will be an opportunity for
associate work in this state in successfully marketing our fruit
products, but we have got one very serious interference; and
that is, our splendid local markets tempt every one of us to plan
to sell all we can at home, and not bother about what the other
fellow will ship away. We are going to take advantage of what
we have got, and then if anybody gets tripped up in trying to
ship away it will be the other fellow. That fact constantly
tempts us away from any plan of cooperative work. I am con-
vinced, and I think Air. Evans, who was chairman of a commit-
tee that I talked with at a meeting of the State Grange, is
convinced that the local conditions are such that all of us want
local sales more than we want cooperative work. 'There is no
question that there will be an advantage to us in extending our
markets, but if that is done it will have to be done by localities,
not through or by one general committee, but from centers.
For instance, from a center like Hartford, and from another
center like Middletown, and another perhaps at Wallingford,
and again at Milford, and so on at the various points in the
state where fruit is grown in quantities. It seemed to me, and
at the same time it appeared to Mr. Evans, that it was a matter
for local committees to manage. If you have a local committee,
or a local organization, and then in addition to that you have a
central organization, it will be about the best thing of the kind
you can get. There was an attempt made in Delaware this
present year from which we can learn a useful lesson. For ten
years they had the Delaware Peach Exchange, which attempted
to handle their peaches, and it did it successfully in one way,
and very unsuccessfully in another. This season they had a
cooperative effort in distribution of the crop, while the central
organization aimed to set the standard of grading, picking, etc.,
and furnished a general label with the number of each grower.
And, of course, if he could keep up to the standard, his number
told in the market who he was and where he was, and in that
way the grower got the benefit of it. We might do something

24 The Connecticut Pomological Society

of that kind here in our state. No plans were laid out by the
committee, however, and we did not meet the issue, because
the frost met us before. We have not yet struck the flood -
tide of prosperity in Connecticut. Our markets here have
kept pace marvelously with our production, but adversity will
surely come some day unless we are prepared for it. I fear un-
til we have a little of it it will be hard to make our people do
much. It is hard to make people do anything unless they
have to, and until we have gone through one year of real thor-
ough mix-up and disaster I fear we shall not come together as
we ought. If we could come together through local associa-
tion and united effort it would undoubtedly be of great benefit.
When that is done, the very first question that will confront
us will be the question of money. How much money will you
put in? There is no use in putting a man's name on the list,
and there is no use in making a move in any way at all until
you know how much capital each man will put into the work,
because in looking up markets, and in attending to various
matters that will have to be taken care of, somebody has got to
be paid. Associated efforts of this kind have failed, and always
will fail, I don't care where they are, because some man has
done the work, and then when they passed around the hat
those that were benefited did not chip in. If we are going to
do anything of this sort in Connecticut, let us raise the money
first and then do the work afterwards." (Applause.)

The President: "We have a man with us who is not
the king of the peach business, but who is king of gardeners
in Connecticut, and he will give us ' the outlook for the small
fruit grower.' Mr. A. N. Farnham, of New Haven."

THE OUTLOOK FOR SMALL FRUIT GROWERS

Mr. Farnham: "When I received the program on Sat-
urday of last week I found that our worthy secretary had
placed me upon it for a speech on ' The Outlook for Small-
Fruit Growers.' This was news to me, for I took it from his
letter that he wanted me to say something not only about the
growing of small fruits, but to make some observations on the
past season in the same general way, and as I prepared my

Tenth Annual Meeting 25

paper previous to receiving the program, I shall have but little
to say upon the subject as announced.

"Much I may say to-day is only what is well known by the
experienced grower; but there may be those present who have
not had much experience, and to those I may possibly say
something which will be to their advantage. At least it may
give them a new thought, or cause them to study into the
matter, and see whether it be so or not, and so lead them to
experiment for themselves as most of us have had to do.

"A writer has said: ' Small fruits to people who live in the
country are like Heaven ; objects of universal desire and very
general neglect.' I have often noticed and wondered why
people living in the country failed to raise a good and abun-
dant supply of small fruits. You may visit farmer after farmer
right here in Connecticut, and you will only find an occasional
one who grows a good liberal supply of small fruits; enough
so that his family can have all they want of the most health-
ful things we have to eat, and even if he goes to the expense
of planting he often sufifers them to be choked with weeds,
or run out by grass. What a blessing and comfort they are
withholding from themselves and family! Especially would the
children enjoy these things. But, although the matter is neg-
lected by some, I think perhaps there are now more people
who are interested in and derive more pleasure from the grow-
ing of small fruits than the growing of anything else, unless it
be flowers. The person who has only a city lot, as well as
the one who has acres, generally grows something in the small
fruit line. The man who works in the shop or store, and has
just a little time to spare night and morning, often delights
in growing either strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, cur-
rants or grapes, or perhaps some of each, thus being able to
gather from his own garden perfectly fresh fruit each day
rather than having to eat fruit that may have been picked for
days and lost much of its flavor, and at the same time gener-
ally getting it at much less cost, quality considered. But most
of us who are here to-day, while we profit in the same way
as just described, grow them for the money profit to be
obtained in order to help gain a livelihood.

"The season of 1900 will probably be remembered by most

26 The Connecticut Pomological Society

small fruit growers for some time to come. We were confronted
in the early spring, just as strawberries were coming into blos-
som, with a frost which, although it proved not to be very de-
structive in most localities, caused us considerable alarm as well
as quite a little expense. I, for one, went to a large outlay in
covering several acres; but those that were not covered came
out better than expected, as the atmosphere was so unusually
dry scarcely any dew formed, although it was cold enough to
crust the ground. We still continued to cover the second day,
as the local weather station predicted another cold night, and
all appearances indicated the same, but we were happily mis-
taken, as it warmed up during the night. This is one of the
unpleasant features in small fruit growing, but one we all have
to face every few seasons in common with all tillers of the soil.
"The subject of frost carries me back several years to an
experience that may be of benefit to some. Several years ago
I had a field of strawberries in form nearly square, containing
some three or four acres. The indications were that there
would be a hard frost, and it proved to be so, ruining most of
the crop. Towards night we hastily prepared to try and ward
ofi the frost by building fires on the two sides of the field from
which we thought the wind would carry the smoke across the
patch. We lighted the fires in the evening, keeping them going
until we found it to be useless, as the vines were stiff from frost.
I think it was two years later when it looked like frost again,
and we talked it over and concluded to try fires on all four sides
of the field, which was situated about as the other field was,
except that it contained nearly twice the amount of ground.
We carted stumps, and brush, and a lot of old tar roofing paper,
also getting a good supply of coal-tar and kerosene, designing to
make a thorough job of it. We lighted the fires, of which
there were twenty-six in number, about lO P. M., and after a
time we tried to make more of a smudge in order to produce
more dense smoke by using salt hay and coarse stable manure,
and we did make it roll of? in great black clouds; but all to no
purpose so far as the frost was concerned. The smoke rapidly
passed upward, it being comparatively still, as most frosty nights
are. After so thorough a trial I decided that fires were useless
as well as quite expensive, as aside from the expense of the

Tenth Annual Meeting 27

material it took quite a force of men to keep the fires from
burning too briskly, and so as to keep them making plenty of
smoke. I would rather depend on covering in some way.

"Returning to 1900, very soon after the cold snap we found
ourselves at the beginning of one of the most severe and pro-
tracted droughts that many of us ever experienced. It was only
the pieces that were on naturally moist ground, or where arti-
ficial watering could be applied, that yielded much of a crop,
although good cultivation and keeping the ground in good con-
dition was of very great benefit. The outlook for strawberries
was good, but extreme drought began to tell on them after the
first pickings, and quickly cut them short, drying many of
them up on the vines. In fact, this was the case with all kinds
of berries to a more or less extent. Blackberries, in some places,
suffered even worse, completely drying up before picking com-
menced. I saw a patch owned by an experienced and gener-
ally successful grower, and upon good ground, and yet they
were an entire failure. In this case the good care was not suflfi-
cient to save them. He would have had a wonderful crop in
an ordinary season, as the vines were loaded. I had a very fair
crop as it was, the berries being grown upon a northerly slope,
on a medium and gravelly soil. Raspberries suffered about the
same as strawberries, some pieces giving a partial crop, while
others were ruined. I knew of some fields that gave light pick-
ings, while a few did quite well. I am sure with both black-
berries and raspberries good cultivation had very much to do
with the returns. I saw some fields of late strawberries that
did well, but they were upon good moist ground and had the
best of care, but I think these crops were the exception rather
than the rule. We had given our berries of all kinds good care,
and our strawberries were well mulched, but in mid -season we
found the drought had cut our crop short about one-half.

"I read of a grower who cultivated his strawberries right
through the whole of the picking season with good success.
I should hardly have thought that the best way, as it would
seem that the fruit must certainly be more or less dirty from
the dust that surely would arise. I think I would rather
depend upon a mulch to help retain the moisture. It would
seem to me that constant cultivation all through could be

28 The Connecticut Pomological Society

practiced to more advantage in blackberries, raspberries and
currants, but there are those who say, ' Never cultivate rasp-
berries in a dry time.'

"Strawberries will grow upon almost any soil, but a good,
deep, sandy loam is most desirable. I think you will get the
largest specimens on quite heavy soil, but not the largest
profit, taking everything into consideration one year with
another. New land, as soon as well broken, is desirable for
berries, as they will invariably do well, and also there is the
big advantage to be gained, especially when you intend to take
several pickings from them, of being able to keep them clean
with much less expense. Ground that has been plowed and
cropped is preferable to sod ground. A few years ago, before
we had such fine facilities for refrigeration and rapid transit, so
that the berries from all parts of the South could be put into
our markets in such fine condition, the person growing the
earliest berries could generally make more than those growing
later ones, and for that purpose one needed a warm and light
soil. You would perhaps get smaller berries, but the price
more than made up the difference. Now, however, we gain
much less advantage, as the berries from the South begin to
arrive so early in the season, and so continuing from points
a little further north that the market is kept full up to, and
at the time of our ripening season, and from the fact of their
having been in the market for so long a time the people do
not as eagerly grasp for the home-grown article unless we make
the price nearly as low as that of the fruit shipped in.

"There are differences in opinion as to how long a straw-
berry bed shall be run. 1 presume the largest number of
growers practice taking two pickings, but many advocate only
one, while some say three or four. 1 have known some to say
as high as nine. I think existing circumstances in each in-
dividual case the best guide to decide this matter for the grower.
If he finds his bed infested with any of the varieties of weeds
which are hard to conquer, he had better plow it under
rather than to continue to try and run it, but if it is upon
ground that he has little trouble in keeping clean, and if the
vines look thrifty, it will do to run it as long as he can see a
good outlook for its doing well. One of the most profitable

Tenth Annual Meeting 29

beds I ever grew I kept a portion of six years. For real
profit I think it should have been plowed under the year
before, but for pleasure in the experiment I continued a part
the last year. I have often kept a bed an extra season, tak-
ing ofi simply what I could get because I did not want the
ground to use early and did want it later in the season.
Being engaged in the market -gardening business, in this
respect, of course, I would be differently situated from many.
One advantage in only taking one crop is lessening the chance
of loss from insect pests. I had the root -worm a few years ago,
but plowed the infested fields under, and got rid of it entirely.

"There are different methods of growing, the most common
and generally accepted plan being the narrow matted row.
This plan affords the easiest method in taking care of them,
especially those from which you calculate to take two or three
pickings, and it also commends itself in picking, as careless
pickers will not be as liable to step upon the berries as in the
wide row, where the picker has to reach much further.

"As to varieties, there are so many good ones that it would
not be an easy task to advise except in a general way. If one
is going to ship his product to some distant market he needs to
select a fairly firm berry, while for a near-by market one need
not select especially for firmness. While quality is an essential,
still the wholesale grower need not be so particular as the one
who grows to sell directly to the consumer, or even some very
particular marketman. If he wants berries from early to late,
of course the grower must plant those varieties that will give
him such a succession. A grower should certainly select a kind
that will do well upon his own soil. This can best be ascer-
tained by trial and experiment. There are some varieties that
will do well upon almost any soil, while others need a very
heavy and moist soil, or one just adapted to them, notably the
Parker Earle. I have seen few good crops in this section.
We read of some phenomenal crops produced by this variety,
while the old 'Crescent,' or one of its type, would produce a
fair crop anywhere. We find the imperfect berry is generally
the most productive. Many dislike to be compelled to plant
different kinds, and do not always know what kinds to use to
fertilize with, and it is somewhat bothersome in picking to keep

30 The Connecticut Pomological Society

the fruit separate. Unless the varieties look somewhat alike
they do not look as well in the same basket.

"The question is often asked, 'What is the best berry to
fertilize with ? ' There are numerous good ones, but to get
the best results one needs to use a kind that will blossom at the
same time as the ones he desires to fertilize. He also needs to
look out, and get those which produce an abundance of pollen.
There are those who say that if you desire a firm berry you
must use a firm berry to fertilize with. I find opinions differ in
regard to this.

"The covering of berries during the winter has become the
general custom. Many advocate covering before frost sets m.
I generally wait until the ground has frozen so that we can
drive over the field. My ground does not throw the plants out
to any extent, as it is mostly a sandy loam.

"Now, as we ask, 'What is the future outlook' for small
fruits we must consider the market demands and conditions as
we find them at the present time. The strawberry, of course,
is the one most extensively grown of any of the small fruits,
and owing to the fact of this most sought-for and luscious fruit
bearing transportation well, it is sent into all sections, and, as
I have stated, it comes to us very early from the South, before
our own ripen, and we, in turn, send ours further north in like
manner. All sections where it can be grown to any advantage
are growing more than formerly, thus only leaving the market
open for outsiders before theirs ripen. The rapid transportation
of to-day allows them to be sent such long distances we all
suffer in the greater competition thus afforded.

"Raspberries have sold at medium prices for several seasons.
Through winter-killing, and oftentimes the breaking of the
vines from snow, the profits are kept rather short. Then
again, when heavy rains occur during the picking season it
causes more of a loss than with any other of the small fruits.
We consider there is but little money in them until better
prices can be obtained.

"Blackberries have sold fairly well, but not generally at
prices that will give profit enough to cause them to be planted
very extensively. Many are trying the dewberry, and we see
them advertised as the best paying of the blackberries. That

Tenth Annual Meeting 31

is a question. There probably is more work entailed in grow-
ing the dewberry.

"Gooseberries seem to be a fruit for which there is little
demand. A few can be sold green, while there is a limited
call for them for canning, but I have never seen a season with
any large demand. It has always seemed strange to me that
people did not use them more extensively, especially for can-
ning purposes. I think they would pay fairly well if a market
could be found for them.

"I am afraid currants can seldom be made to pay any great
profit. They have been very low in this section for several
years, and the sale has been rather dull even at the low
prices. One of the causes of this has been the placing upon
the market of so many gelatines and jellies that take the
place of the real jelly, of which more was formerly made from
fruits. This also affects other fruits, but probably not to such
an extent as the currant.

"Grapes are another small fruit of which considerable quan-
tities can be sold, but the price is altogether too low to offer
any great inducement to plant, unless for some purpose other
than selling for eating.

"There has been a large increase in the planting of small
fruits in the last few years. As far as I have been able to
learn, as much was set last year as usual, and in many local-
ities even more. I have noticed that many nurserymen have
reported for the last year the largest sales ever made. This
would go to prove more extensive planting. I have also no-
ticed that a great many who have been growing fruit more
or less send out cards or small catalogues, stating they have
small fruit plants for sale, and what they would naturally sell
added to the sales of the established firms would prove con-
clusively that the acreage of small fruits must have been in-
creased to a large extent. The widespread drought had a
very serious efifect upon the newly planted fields, as the growth
was naturally checked, and many died outright. This will
undoubtedly somewhat curtail the crop of fruit for the coming
season, and may be a benefit generally. It certainly must be
if there was an over-planting, as many think was the case,
but I can see nothing else to cause any great change either

32 The Connecticut Pomological Society

one way or the other. We know the demand for and con-
sumption of small fruits has greatly, increased, but has it fully
kept pace with the rapid and wide increase in production ?
Opinions seem to vary in regard to this. Small fruits have for
several years been sold as cheaply as they could be produced
at any profit. I think perhaps for the last six years prices
have averaged less than at any great length of time previous,
although there have been years all along when prices would
run down pretty low. We need not expect much of a change,
as, if we have a short crop locally or anything causes a good
demand or an increase in price, inside of a few hours it is
flashed over the telegraph or told over the telephone, which
has so completely put one place in connection with another,
that the market is soon supplied, thus keeping the price from
rising very much.

"I don't know that we can grow our fruit much if any
cheaper to-day than for the last twenty years. Labor costs
just about the same, and we pay just the same price for
picking. Crates and baskets are quite a little cheaper, which
is about the only perceptible difference.

"The grower of all fruits must strive to grow the best, as
with the market well filled it is much easier to sell a good
article than an inferior one, and there is a great deal more
pleasure in it, as well as often a better price. The time is
here when it is imperative to try and grow the very best of
everything that we grow upon the farm. This has always
been the best plan, but to-day we are without choice if we
are going to succeed and make any money. We must do
this; selecting only the best varieties, giving all crops the best
of care and fertilization, and by so doing, doubt not you will
find the balance on the right side of the ledger."

The President: "If there are any questions to ask Mr.
Farnham, they had better come up at this time, as that com-
pletes the small fruit papers."

Dr. Smith: "I would like to ask Mr. Farnham how he
fertilizes for two or three years for strawberries?"

Mr. Farnham: "I use some commercial fertilizer, but
almost always use, to a certain extent, stable manure, particu-
larlv on certain kinds of ground. I do not use that so much

Tenth Annual Meeting 33

on ground where it would be too heavy, but on suitable
ground stable manure is about right. I find it more univer-
sally used to-day than ever. Commercial fertilizers are all right
when rightly used. Opinions differ somewhat about them.
Some say use them in the spring to start the crop, but I
think that most of us have come to the opinion in growing
our garden crops that it is a good thing to use both times, —
when you are starting the crop and along through the season
as required. If it is a good thing to give plants for break-
fast, it ought to be good for dinner and supper."

The President: "What are best six strawberries to plant
for market? "

Mr. Farnham : "I should not consider m3'self competent
to answer that question. The Bubach is good for a near-by
market. I think we have got to look quite a little while
before we surpass that. The Haverland is good, and the Glen
Mary, and of the newer ones they are talking about, the
Excelsior and Johnson's Early. I have had some of those set
this last year, but I cannot say much about them. You can
select from a dozen different varieties, and it would be very
hard to say between the Saunders, the Tennessee, the William
Belt, Wolverton and Brandywine. The Bismarck is also a
good berry. When it comes down to the late ones, you have
got to get down to two or three varieties."

The President: "We will now listen to Dr. W. C.
Sturgis, of New Haven, who will give us the report on
'Fungous Diseases' if he is ready."

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FUNGOUS DISEASES

Your committee, appointed for the purpose, begs to present
the following report on the fungous diseases observed in the
orchards, vineyards and small-fruit plantations of the state,
during the past season.

ORCHARD FRUITS

Apples. — The principal diseases affecting apples in Con-
necticut are the scab {Fusicladiiim dendriticum) , the sooty spot
{Phyllachora pomigenaf) and the brown speck of Baldwins, the

34 The Connecticut Pomological Society

cause of which is as yet unknown. The dry weather during
the past season was instrumental in holding in check both the
scab and the sooty spot. Both of these diseases were less prev-
alent than usual and, in orchards which are thoroughly and
consistently sprayed, the damage caused by them was almost
inappreciable.

Your committee desires to call to the attention of orchard -
ists a bark disease of apples, formerly attributed to the effects
of the sun or of cold, but recently found to be caused by the
growth of a specific fungus {Sphteropsis Malorum) , and very
fitly named "canker." This is the same fungus which attacks
the fruit, producing a well-known brown rot. The tree itself,
when attacked, usually exhibits on the trunk or larger branches
slightly swollen areas, the bark of which is dark colored, rough
and cracked, sometimes so much so as to expose the wood.
As distinguished from the effects of sun -scald, the bark afifected
with canker usually clings tightly to the decaying wood. This
trouble has occurred in abundance on the grounds of the
Experiment Station, and specimens have been sent in from
neighboring towns. It bids fair to become one of the most
serious pests in apple orchards which do not receive the very
best treatment in the way of feeding, tillage, pruning and
spraying.

Your committee earnestly requests information concerning
the presence of canker in the apple orchards of the state.

Cherries. — The fungus {Monilia cinerea) , which is usually
responsible for serious injury to cherries by its attacks upon both
the fruit and the twigs, was not as prevalent as usual this year.

A leaf-curl of the cherry, caused by the fungus Exoascus
Cerasi, has been observed, but is as yet rare and confined to
one or two localities.

The black knot {Plowrightia morbosa) is, of course, abund-
ant wherever it is allowed to remain unchecked. Under such
circumstances, it becomes a constant menace to the profits of
careful orchardists who, at present, have no means of protec-
tion against their neighbors' carelessness and negligence.

Peaches. — The mold {Alonilia fructigena) and the scab
{Cladosporiutn carpophilum) did somewhat less damage than
usual during the past season. This was due, in a measure, to

Tenth Annual Meeting 35

the dry weather. Nevertheless, in the orchards examined, the
loss of perfect fruit from these two causes averaged from 5 to
20 per cent, or more. As usual, fruit grown on low, damp
ground suffered the most. So far as the Monilia is concerned,
it appeared to attack the twigs with unusual severity. This
is a more serious phase of the trouble than when the fungus
is confined to the fruit, since it involves great labor to remove
and destroy all the affected twigs, and if the latter are allowed
to remain on the trees, they become a fruitful source of in-
fection the following spring.

The experience of the past season indicates that strong
Bordeaux mixture can be applied to peach trees before the
flowers open, and that, for later applications, a mixture con-
taining not more than two pounds of copper sulphate and
double the quantity of lime, to fifty gallons of water, may be
used. During the ripening period, a solution of potassium
sulphide may prove serviceable, though this has not yet been
demonstrated.

Pears. — The fire-blight {Bacillus amylovorus) , unquestion-
ably the most destructive disease which pear -growers especially
have had to combat, seems to be gradually succumbing to judi-
cious treatment. The removal and burning of affected twigs,
as soon as the first symptoms of the disease appear, and, in par-
ticular, the prosecution of this work during the winter, have
resulted in the practical eradication of the disease from orchards
which a few years ago were in a fair way of being ruined by it.

Plums. — The fruit -mold {Monilia fructigena) was very de-
structive, owing to a period of damp, muggy weather while the
fruit was ripening. Experience in many sections of the country
has shown that, by repeated applications of Bordeaux mixture,
followed by the ammonia solution of copper carbonate during
the ripening period, plums of the European and Domestica
types fan be fairly well protected from the inroads of this fun-
gus, and that without injury to the foliage. This is not true
of the Japanese varieties, the foliage of which is even more
susceptible to injury from fungicides containing copper than is
the foliage of peach trees. In such cases, a winter treatment
with strong Bordeaux mixture, the avoidance, by pruning, of
dense masses of foliage, judicious thinning of the fruit and the

36 The Connecticut Pomological Society

immediate gathering and destruction of fruit showing any sign
of the mold, must be relied upon to reduce the trouble to a
minimum.

The black knot {Plowrightia morbosa) . As in the case of
cherries, growers of plums for profit have finally succeeded in
rendering this once-dreaded disease a practically negligible
factor in the plum orchard. There are two seasons of the year
at which the black -knot fungus matures spores capable of
spreading the fungus. One is in January, the other in May or
June. In November and December the fungus is inactive; the
summer spores have disappeared, the winter spores are not yet
ripe. This, then, is the season for destroying the knots. They
should be removed by cutting of? the twig or branch bearing
them (cutting at least three inches below the knot), and these
cuttings should be burned. If they occur on the large limbs or
upon the body of the tree, they can be sliced of?. In any case,
the cut surface should be covered with paint or grafting-wax.
It has been demonstrated over and over again that the black-
knot is readily controlled in this way, but, of course, there is
always danger of reinfection from neighboring orchards or from
wild hedgerows, so long as the force of public opinion is not
sufficiently aroused to compel owners of orchards and waste
ground to destroy this pest. It occurs upon all native species
of plums and cherries, both wild and cultivated.

Quinces. — The growing of quinces on a commercial scale
appears to be waning in Connecticut. V^ery few new orchards
are being developed and the older ones are being allowed to
decline.

The principal disease which we have noted on quince trees
is the familiar \eai-spot {Entomosporium maculatum) . This was
the first disease selected in this state to illustrate the value of
fungicides, and it has been a standard and brilliant illustration
of this fact for many years. It would be difficult to name a
plant disease which is> at the same time, so destructive to the
tree attacked and so easily controlled.

Another fungus which has been sent in to us with increas-
ing frequency by quince -growers is the rust {Rcestelia auran-
tiaca) , which attacks the young fruit and the twigs, dwarfing
the former and producing on the latter peculiar, knot - like

Tenth Annual Meeting 37

swellings, covered with pustules filled with orange spores. Cut-
ting off and burning the diseased parts is the only known
remedy for this trouble. The winter stage of the fungus
occurs on cedar trees and junipers, in the form of the familiar
"cedar-apples," so called. The destruction of neighboring
cedars should, therefore, be a prominent feature in the care of
orchards, whether of apples or quinces.

SMALL FRUITS

Blackberries. — During the past season, as always, the an-
thracnose {Glceosporium Venetum) has been widespread and
severe. In some instances, cutting out and burning the old
canes at the close of one season, followed by thorough spraying
during the next, has produced very gratifying results. On the
whole, however, when once a plantation has become seriously
diseased, the best practice is to destroy it, root and branch,
by fire, and start a new plantation elsewhere, using the ut-
most care to avoid diseased stock. The thorough use of
Bordeaux will, unquestionably, very much prolong the produc-
tive life of a plantation which, in the beginning, is free from
disease.

Raspberries. — The same remarks regarding the prevalence of
anthracnose on blackberries apply to raspberries. We desire to
call special attention to two diseases of raspberries which ap-
peared with great severity during the past season, practically
ruining the crop in certain localities. The first attacks the
fruiting canes and its effects are seen in a sudden wilting of the
leaves, accompanied by a blighting and shriveling of the young
fruit. Sometimes only a single cane in a stool is affected, but
more often the whole stool becomes involved and the canes
eventually die back completely. The cause of the trouble is
very obscure. Although the symptoms above ground some-
times accompany the presence of crown -gall and root -knot
below ground, this is not always the case. No fungus has been
found constantly associated with the disease and, at present, we
can only wait for the work of another season to throw further
light upon the trouble, and meanwhile recommend the destruc-
tion of diseased plants.

38 The Connecticut Pomological Society

The second disease affects the canes and is seen in the form
of warty masses of whitish tissue of a spong_v or cheesy con-
sistency, which burst through the bark, detaching the latter in
long strips. It is a most striking and unmistakable disease.
Practically, nothing can at present be said regarding the cause
of this trouble, except that the character of the diseased tissue
resembles that of the crown -gall of raspberries and peaches, and
that all three diseases may be caused by one and the same para-
site. No method of treatment can be recommended, unless
it be the heroic one of destroying affected plants. Meantime,
we shall await with interest further information regardmg the
prevalence of this disease, on the part of those interested in
small fruits.

Straivberries. — Practically, the only serious fungous disease
affecting strawberries in this state is the leaf-spot {Spharella
Fragar'ice) , commonly, but erroneously, called ''rust." As to its
comparative prevalence during the past season, we are unable
to speak from personal observation, and we have received no
reports bearing on the subject from growers. It is safe to say,
however, that it has gradually been decreasing in virulence,
owing partly to the growing practice of burning over the beds in
the autumn, partly to the use of Bordeaux mixture, and, in
a high degree, to the production and selection of resistant
varieties.

VINES

Grapes. — It is most satisfactory and encouraging to note the
fact that whereas a few years ago the anthracnose, Sphaceloma,
the downy and powdery mildews, Plasmopara and Uncinula, and,
above all, the dreaded black rot, Lastadia, rendered the profits
of the vineyardist extremely precarious, the universal use of
Bordeaux mixture or other fungicides has enabled him to count
with certainty upon healthy and abundant crops. Your com-
mittee has received no reports relative to the diseases above
mentioned, and it is reasonable to hope that the time is coming
when it will be unnecessary to include in our annual reports any
reference to the fungous diseases of grapes.

In concluding its report, your committee desires to record

Tenth Annual Meeting 39

again its conviction that, without more cooperation than at pres-
ent exists between its members and the members at large of the
Society, the possible usefulness of the committee is seriously
impaired. The appointment, by this Society, of a special Com-
mittee on Fungous Diseases, and the fact that it demands peri-
odical reports from that committee, give some evidence that the
fruit-growers of Connecticut are alive to the importance of the
practical study of such diseases. Yet the evidence of any inter-
est in the subject, on the part of the individual members of the
Society, amounts almost to nothing.

During the past season we have received not a single report
or communication concerning the prevalence of any well-known
fungous disease, or the means which have proved successful in
combating it, while we have received no more than a ''baker's
dozen" of inquiries concerning diseased plants, accompanied by
specimens. The question, therefore, arises, whether your Com-
mittee on Fungous Diseases was appointed merely because it has
become the fashion among pomological societies to have such a
standing committee on its letterhead, or whether it owes its
appointment to a desire on the part of the members of the So-
ciety to turn it to some practical use. If the former view is
correct, then your committee would respectfully suggest that it
be dismissed without delay. If, however, the Society desires to
encourage the investigation of diseases which annually reduce
the profits on fruit crops in a very considerable degree, the
committee stands ready to render every assistance in its power,
by receiving specimens of diseased plants and submitting them
to experts in such matters; by determining, as far as possible,
the specific cause of disease and suggesting remedies; by visiting
orchards; by responding to inquiries concerning spraying appa-
ratus and the use of fungicides; by conducting cooperative ex-
periments; by receiving and collecting data relative to the preva-
lence and spread of fungous diseases ; and by doing all it can to
assist the members of the Society in their efforts to produce
fruit of the highest quality, and thus to add materially to the
value of membership in the Society.

If your committee is continued on the basis of cooperation,
and only on that basis, it is prepared to take steps which, in the
opinion of its members, will in future make its work of practical

40 The Connecticut Pomological Society

value to even^ member of the Society. To this end, we bespeak
the active assistance, in the ways above outlined, of every mem-
ber of the Society.

Respectfully submitted,

W. C. SturgiS, Chairman,

G. S. Butler,

A. B. Plant.

A Me.Mi5ER: "What time do you recommend spraying for

raspberries? "

Dr. Sturgis: "Just as soon as the leaves come out."
The morning session was closed at this point and a recess

taken to 1.30 p. m.

AFTERNOON SESSION — FIRST DAY

The Society was called to order at 1.45 P.M., President
Merriman in the Chair.

The President: "For a few moments I will start the
question list. No. i reads, ' What, and how many varieties,
would you plant in a commercial apple orchard of 500 trees?' "

Mr. Hale : "If that applies to Connecticut I should say
not more than three or four kinds of red winter apples. I
should probably plant more Baldwins than anything else, but
be sure and know what it is that you do plant. Probably
some Sutton Beauties and a few Rome Beauties. If we knew
as much now as we will ten years from now we probably
would n't plant any Baldwins at all, but the trouble is we
don't know, so it is best to be on the safe side and plant
something that we know something about."

Professor Gulley: "That is one of the questions that
was brought up at the New York Society. I think there are
one or two apples that they referred to there that we do not
talk much about, the Jonathan and the Rome Beauty. I do
not know as to the Jonathan why it should not be good to
plant here. I can't see why that is not as good for a red
winter apple as some of these other varieties that we hear
more about. We are getting every day or two that very
question: what to plant for a winter apple. I have prepared

Tenth Annual Meeting 41

a list of what to plant for winter apples, but unfortunately I
left it at home. It does not seem to me that we should
make our list any wider than we do now as to varieties, —
not more than three or four for winter apples. I think we
have varieties that are better than Baldwin, and I should like
to hear some expression of opinion on that."

Mr. Moore: "What is there that is better than the
Baldwin ? "

A Member: "The Sutton Beauty."

Professor Gulley: "No doubt that is one of them, and
I believe the Jonathan is going to be one of them, too. I
am not sure but the Rome Beauty will be one. This year
the Sutton has not kept well; it is all right otherwise. The
Sutton is just as good to eat in October as it is to-day. The
Jonathan is going to be a good one, and the Wagener is
going to be a good one. I saw some samples of magnificent
Wagener apples, the only ones I have seen in the state.
It is a good grower, and a good apple in many respects. It
ought to be tested by our growers to see what it will do. I
suppose there are others that could be brought in if we went to
work to see if we could find some more varieties than we have.
I think a little work and careful watching would bring out
some first-class new apples well adapted to this climate. I
think there are men right here in this audience who have got
varieties on their own lands that they know are good, but it
may be that they are not just the apples that are adapted to
New England, and it may be that they are. I don't know.
I wish they would speak out and tell us what they have got,
and give us the benefit of their experiences."

Mr. Hale: "In answer to the question of Professor Gulley
as to the Western New York Horticultural Society, 1 want to
say that there was a long discussion there about the varieties
of winter apples, and more was said in favor of the Rome
Beauty than any other one red apple. It is of very fine form
and very uniform in shape. The western New York people
seemed to incline to the belief that it is a better keeper than
the Baldwin. I had rather doubted that before. I have not seen
it here in Connecticut, but there is no doubt it is a good apple.

"At the meeting of the IVJaryland Horticultural Society

42 The Connecticut Pomological Society

there was a fine exhibition of red winter apples produced in
the mountain regions of western Maryland. Through the
courtesy of the Maryland Society they are now on exhibition
here in the hall to-day. There are several varieties there
which will thrive well here and it would be worth your while
to look them over.

"I believe, with Professor Gulley, that unquestionably there
are half a dozen of red winter apples that are better varieties
than the Baldwin, but we don't know it for sure, and that is
just where the trouble lies."

Mr. Ives: "1 looked at some of those apples, and they
certainly look to be very desirable apples. They look very
fine, but is there any certainty that because they grow well
in Maryland they also would here?"

Mr. Hale: "I believe, and I know, than any of those
apples that thrive well in that mountain region of western
Maryland at an altitude of 1,400 feet will do well here."

Mr. Moore: 'T have been making a test of the Sutton
Beauty and the Baldwin this winter. I have not many of
either, but they were both raised in the same field, and both
have had equal care. I opened a barrel of Sutton Beauties
and a barrel of Baldwins at the same time, and I think the
Buttons kept rather the better. That was rather an induce-
ment in treating fruit if the quality is all right. In my case
the quality was certainly inferior to the Baldwin. My family
prefer the Baldwin either for cooking or eating. In cooking
my family found the Suttons much inferior to the Baldwins,
and for eating certainly."

The President: "My experience perhaps is not worth
very much, but I think if I was going to set out those five
hundred trees I would make the first three hundred trdes
Baldwins, and then I would make the next hundred and fifty
Baldwins, and the last fifty, — I guess I would put in Baldwins."

Mr. Hoyt: "Professor Gulley was speaking of the Jona-
than. The Jonathan apple I think is going to be a very
desirable apple. The trees bear young and fruit very pro-
fusely. The apple grows fast and is of a beautiful color. In the
orchards that bore this year the fruit was a little dull in color, but
I think you will make no mistake if you set Jonathan apples.

Tenth Annual Meeting 43

"I also want to speak of the Wagener. That is an apple
I never have tested until this year. I never have had a very
favorable opinion of it, but my opinion, from the exhibitions
I have seen of it, and from the exhibition of it in our own
orchards this year, has become more favorable. The trees
bore young, bore fully, and the apples are of good color and
fair size.

■'As to the Sutton Beauty, I should say to you as I said at
the meeting of the State Board of Agriculture, go slow with
the Sutton Beauty. The Sutton Beauty does not grow well
as an orchard tree. If you graft it in the top with the
Baldwin or some strong-growing Northern Spy grafts, I have
no doubt it would do well.

"There is one other apple that I meant to have spoken
of this morning, which I think promises fine for a fall apple,
and that is the Princess Louise. It originated in Canada. It
is a fall apple, and I think one of the most beautifully colored
apples that I ever saw. It is a fair standing apple, but of
course you can't raise it in as large quantities as you would
a winter apple. The old Baldwin is still the stand-by, and at
the same time don't forget the Rhode Island Greening. The
time is coming when the Rhode Island Greening will fetch a
great deal more than it does now."

Mr. T. S. Gold: "Our president has taken it for granted
that one question which has been agitated from time to time
is fully settled. That is, that the orchard with one variety
will bear just as well every year as those same trees of that
variety would bear if there were other varieties planted with
them. Now, it is claimed that there are some varieties that
do not bear well unless there are other varieties planted with
them. I am inclined to think that that statement is pretty
well sustained. Whether it is fully so with regard to the
Baldwin or not I don't know, but I think I should prefer in
planting an orchard of Baldwins to put in the others, as that
might insure me against that possible failure that the Baldwins
sometimes meet with. I am not fully satisfied about it myself,
and should like to know whether there is anything in that
idea. Is there anybody here who has any facts upon that ?
Whether or not, if you plant a single variety the trees will

44 The Connecticut Pomological Society

bear as regularlj^ and as well as in an orchard where different
varieties are brought into close contact ? "

Mr. Hale: "In answer to that, of course the apple
orchards of western New York which they planted twenty-five
to thirty years ago when the Baldwin was the one main apple
throughout Niagara county and through that region ought to
afford some information, and they do. Some of those orchards
have done well. There are orchards, however, which were
planted solid with Baldwins which have failed for ten years in
succession to get a perfect crop of fruit. There have been
years and years when they had very few apples indeed, and I
think the best orchardists are adopting the plan of introducing
other varieties into their orchards."

The President: "I think that may be true of some
kinds, but I do not think it is so with the Baldwin. I have
had them year after year with good, full crops. I don't think
it makes any difference."

Mr. E. Hoyt: "There is another apple that I might
speak of, and that is the McDonough Red. The trees of
that variety that fruited for us produced an apple of fine
appearance. It is a fine, heavy bearer, bears young, and
produces a fine dark red apple. It is a beautiful apple, and
compares well with the Jonathan. It is as good in color as
that apple but I don't think as good a keeping apple. I do
not think it will keep as well in this climate as it will further
north, but certainly the fruit is a beautiful apple, and the tree
is a good grower."

The President: "We have on our list of speakers for
this afternoon Mr. J. Clarence Harvey, of New York, editor
of the "Fruitman's Guide," who will give us 'The Connect-
ing Link Between Fruit Growing and Fruit Selling.'"

"THE CONNECTING LINK"

Mr. Harvey: "It has been said of a man who never
suggested evil, Mr. President, that he could always suggest a
remedy. Now, while it is not in my power to tell you what
spraying mixture you should use, or what fertilizer you should

Tenth Annual Meeting 45

use, or what tools you should use, I can at least turn my
prospectus over to you and tell you something of the function
of the trade journal. It seems to me that one of the best
things, and one of the most beautiful pictures that I have in
my mind to-day, is associated with one of the most beautiful
poems I ever knew.

"Come back a few years with me on the wings of your
imagination, to where the greenclad trees are waving on the
campus of Bowdoin College. There stands the Cambridge
poet, Longfellow, fifty years after his graduation, his snow-
white hair blown by the summer breezes, his lips voicing the
sublime thoughts and lessons of his ' IVlorituri Salutamus.'

" 'Oh! Caesar, we who are about to die,
Salute you,' was the gladiator's cry,
In the arena, standing face to face,
With death and with the Roman populace.

■'So, that grand and noble nature, knowing that his sands
of life were ebbing, saluted not only his classmates but the
youth who were to fill their places, and assured them that it
is never too late to take up a task if the end to be attained is
worthy, and gave as an answer to the cry:

" 'It is too late.' Ah! Nothing is too late.
Till the tired heart has ceased to palpitate.
Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles
Wrote his grand tEdipus and Simonides
Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers.
When each had numbered more than four-score years.
And Theophrastus, at four-score and ten
Had but begun his ' Characters of Men.'
Chaucer at Woodstock, with the nightingales.
At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales.
Goethe, at Weimar, toiling to the last.
Completed Faust when eighty years were past.
These are indeed exceptions, but they show
How far the gulf stream of our youth may flow
Into the Arctic regions of our lives,
Where little else than life itself survives.'

"So I, in spite of the years that have taken the thatching
from my roof, have set myself a task, that of creating and

46 The Connecticut Pomological Society

building up a connecting link between you, the growers, and
those who distribute and sell your products.

"He (the distributor and seller), if he does his duty to your
shipments, has little time to write to you all, but I can catch
him sitting on an apple barrel, taking his after luncheon cigar,
and I can find out his likes and dislikes, his theories and plans,
his demands and his restrictions, and once a week I can take
his words as a text and preach to you through the mails.

"1 know that in attempting to get you together in this
way, for an exchange of ideas each week, I have taken a large
contract, a contract which is beset by so many difficulties that
at times I am reminded by my limitations of a story which I
know you will pardon, because its moral points so directly at
me and illustrates how thoroughly I realize how much I have
to learn. Two pomological gentlemen were walking over a
fruit farm one day, and through the farm ran a railroad. As
they came to a crossing, they saw a young bull, with his head
lowered, pawing the earth and bellowing and making all the
necessary preparations to butt the approaching express train off
the track. One of the gentlemen said to the other: ' Now,
what do you think of that?' The other gentleman replied:
'Well, I admire his pluck, but damn his judgment.'

"I think, however, that I have one advantage over the
bull. The express trains with which I come in contact occa-
sionally slow up and take me on board, as 3'ou have done at
this meeting.

"Just what the function of a trade paper should be is a
problem, and the trouble is that any man who even half way
solves that problem retires from business, owns his own auto-
mobile and leaves the solution to his successors. But in the
struggle to solve that problem, there are countless benefits to
be derived by the man with the hoe.

"When your receiver writes that your car-load of peaches
or apples or berries went straight to the dumps and that the
charges are seventeen dollars more than he could even dream
of getting for them, a feeling of unrest steals over you and you
hunger for a few more details than are given you in the receiver's
typewritten letter. There is where your trade paper comes in
with its weather reports, trade conditions and record of sales.

Tenth Annual Meeting 47

"On the other hand, its columns are open for your reports
on prospects and conditions. If your orchards or your fields
look promising, your receiver must enlarge his avenues of dis-
tribution lest local gluts destroy your market. The trade
paper should be an information bureau, where facts by wire,
mail messenger and personal contact concentrate, and after
being summed up and an average taken, are given to you
again for guidance in your business transactions.

" 'How shall we ship our goods?' 'What shall be the
style of the package ?' ' How shall we grade our products ?'
' By what route will they reach the market in the best con-
dition ?' ' When shall we begin to ship ?' ' How long can
we keep the season open ?' ' What new markets can we
count on for distribution ?" These and a thousand other
questions rise, and if you read your trade paper religiously,
however much it bores you, at times, you will find that some-
how, somewhere, by somebody, the questions get answered.

"Then, too, you keep in closer touch with the sellers of
your products, for we all have something to sell, whether it
be brains, potatoes, muscle or ingenuity; they are all mer-
chantable commodities. Through your trade paper and its
comments and items and illustrations of men and things, you
are, as it were, within arm's length of those with whom you
are dealing.

"You do not ship cauliflowers to the man who died last
week if you are getting your weekly budget of news by the
earliest mail, nor do you write to the man who eloped with
the mayor's daughter for quotations on Seek-no-furthers or
smooth -skinned pears.

"But among the most important of the attributes of the
trade paper is the fact that the trade paper needs you. When
we say to the broker and jobber and commission man: ' Please
advertise with us,' he promptly says, 'Why?' and we must
answer: 'Because we go directly to the people you want to
reach,' and in order to go to those people we must seek out
this grower and get the matter that another grower wishes to
know. It is simply a case of scratch-my-back-and-I-will
scratch -yours, and the trade paper does the scratching.

"We sometimes send the paper to a man for a few months

48 The Connecticut Pomological Society

to whet his appetite for it — to let him acquire the habit of
taking it from the office and then we write him: ' Since such
a time, we have been sending you the paper and we hope 3'ou
find it a help. May we have your subscription ?' I assure
you we are quite apt to get a postal, saying: 'I am reely too
huzzy to read trade papers,' and he spells really with two e's
and busy with two z's.

"It is not difficult to picture that man hurrying to his place
of business before daylight, to put seven barrels of apples on
a wagon and five crates of fruit on a truck and then for the
rest of the day chewing a five-cent cigar and telling the Chi-
nese laundryman next door what ought to be done with the
tarifif. That's the kind of a man who is too busy to read a
paper devoted to his interests.

"Imagine if you can, our good friend Hale leaving anything
about peaches unread during the peach season. If I remem-
ber rightly, I had some difficulty in making him a convert, not
that he didn't believe there were things to be told, but he
doubted my ability to tell them. I am not quite sure that he
is convinced yet, but at any rate he now gives me the benefit
of the doubt.

"And now another point with regard to the mechanical
side of a trade journal. It. should be well printed, in clear
type, on good paper, and attractively arranged under con-
spicuous headings so that it may be a pleasure rather than an
effort to read it. It makes a world of difference whether
your dinner is served on broken plates and over soiled table
linen, or whether the table and appointments are carefully
arranged by a competent waiter, and the same principle applies
to a weekly feast of reason and flow of soul, even though
there be a strong business flavor to the gifts the gods have
provided and the printer's devil has put forward.

"There are, as well, duties which the subscriber is apt to
forget. Reciprocity should prevail. If a reader gets from
some communication, valuable ideas which save him time or
money or labor, he should allow his conscience to assert itself
and during the long winter evenings sit down and write out
the result of some of his own investigations and experiences
for the benefit of the other man. It will be good mental

Tenth Annual Meeting 49

exercise and far more profitable in the long run than quar-
reling with the hired man.

"The paragraph in the prayer book which tells how prone
we are to do those things which we ought not to do, and
to leave undone those things which we ought to do, is no-
where more strikingly illustrated than in the line of trade
papers. A man will look for his daily paper and miss it as he
would miss his morning coffee if it were not regularly forth-
coming. He will cling to the strap of an elevated train with
one hand and wrestle with his paper with the other in a wild
endeavor to find out how somebody he doesn't care about was
murdered by some one he doesn't care to know.

"That same amount of effort devoted to his trade paper
would quite possibly have brought him ten cents more per
barrel on that day's car-load of apples. And, what is more,
you, sitting at your cosy fireside, reading the paper which he
neglected, will have gained the right to say: 'Why didn't
you get that extra ten cents on my apples ? I see Mr.
Jones, on the opposite corner, did so. I guess I'll try Mr.
Jones.'

"I know that many of you are pomologists, not for revenue
only, but because the artistic side of your natures cried out for
the development of the earth's gifts. You don't believe that
talents should lie hidden in a napkin. You want to put a red
cheek on a green apple or to make the red apple redder. You
love to flirt with Mother Nature: to stroke her breast with
the hoe, massage her with the harrow, and manicure her with
the pruning knife, and feed her with fertilizers to see how
she'll act.

"And so far as you are willing to confide in us we gladly
send the results of your labor and thought out to the world,
and our only regret is that the world to which we send it
isn't larger.

"If I am not exceeding the time limit I will say in con-
clusion :

"Men glance the morning paper through and say:
'There's nothing in it. All a senseless mess.'
Three lines of censure when they go astray,

They'll climb ten flights of stairs to stop the press.

B

50 The Connecticut Pomological Society

No man who has a grievance, real and true,

In this the age electric, suffers long.
If he but seek the press, 'twill justice do;

'Twill state his case. The public rights the wrong.

''The man with goods to sell who sits and mopes.

In some back office, hung with cobwebs gray.
And feeds his soul on last year's blasted hopes.

And wonders why no business comes his way.
One day, wakes up; spends ten to make a five.

And finds next day, that five will make a ten.
His lesson learned, henceforth he keeps alive

And keeps his name before his fellowmen.

"I did not come to canvas for an ad..

Nor make you think of these things, 'gainst your will;
I simply point a way, more bright more glad.

More easily the pocketbook to fill.
Tar Soap and Beeman's Gum, Sapolio,

And Ivory Soap and Pillsbury's Best Flour
Now bank their millions. Some one chanced to know

That ink and paper wield a wondrous power.

"But not alone the posters red and blue.

Nor yet the broad display of black and white,
The squibs, three lines in length, perhaps but two.

We read, remember and repeat at night,
These plant the seeds that grow within our minds,

And bring conviction home to us at length.
The spoken word but brief existence finds,

But, printed, it acquires a tenfold strength.

"These white-winged messengers of news and chat.

Of song and story, prose and mellow rhyme,
Are angels, sent to teach us 'where we 're at,'

And keep us posted, saving half our time.
Nor would I hint that editors have wings, —

I sometimes question if they ever will;
We have our heaven on earth, when some one brings

Full payment on a long neglected bill."

Mr. Harvey's very interesting and unique address was
much enjoyed by all present. At its conclusion the president
introduced Dr. Leroy A. Smith, of Higganum, who presented
the following valuable paper on "The Food Value of Fruits":

Tenth Annual Meeting 51

THE FOOD VALUE OF FRUITS

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :

If you will take that program and add three more words
to the topic announced ''To the dj^speptic" you will get my
subject correct. I happened to be one who was unfortunate
enough some thirty odd years ago to contract that terrible
disease, diphtheria, following which I have had quite a train
of bad conditions, about all I could have, and among them
dyspepsia, and therefore I have tried all these years to find
something to eat that would not distress, and at the same
time something which would benefit my little body. So my
topic will rather be my personal experiences with fruit eaten
under such circumstances.

Almost any one wants a good appetite so far as I know.
I pity any one who does not have a desire to eat. We
observe that most people like good things to eat, and yet,
notwithstanding, a great many will say, "We do not have
anything very good to eat at our house." Of course they
do not.

It is hard to tell any one what to eat, for there are so
many opinions. One will tell you that you eat too much ;
another that you do not eat enough. This one will say
"You do not want to eat any breakfast," that one "Do not
eat any meat," while another will say, "Eat more meat."
Did you ever hear that any one has said, "Do not eat good
ripe fruit"? I never have. Perhaps the latest fad for an
all-round ration is buckwheat cakes and cheese. I cannot
account for the channels in which some minds run. Perhaps
you may be able to do so. Let me say right here that I
often tell my dyspeptic patients "it is not so much what you
eat as how you eat." I have had patients say, "I crave
baked beans, but the doctors have all told me not to eat
them." But I tell them, "If you really crave them, eat them
(with the pork left out), and as yet I have to see the first
one harmed thereby.

I am going to tell you to-day what I have found best for
me to eat and how to have some of it cooked. In the fruit
line, strawberries will be the first I will mention. There are

52 The Connecticut Pomological Society

a great many people who say they cannot eat strawberries
and strawberry shortcake. I will venture the opinion that
the reason for such inability is unripe fruit and poorly made
shortcake. Have you ever eaten a piece of shortcake at a
restaurant, with the cake three-quarters to an inch thick,
with only one layer of strawberries, and they not near enough
together to be neighbors, and the berries not half ripe? And
after eating the same you have felt as though some one had
dumped a load of lead into your stomach. If you have not,
I have, and paid my twenty or twenty-five cents for same,
and tried to make myself believe for a little while only that
I had been eating fruit. I very soon found out that I had
been eating one of the most indigestible compounds made of
lard and flour, and I felt like one who thought the next best
thing to do was to take an emetic, and offer my little prayer>
"Lord, forgive me this time, and I will never do so again."
I will venture to tell you how to eat strawberries.

First, for a family of four, not less than four quarts of
berries each day, and they to be thoroughly ripe. I discard
all of the very sour kinds. Please do not eat warm bread or
biscuit with berries.

Next, how to make a shortcake. Make a plain biscuit
cake shortened with butter. Roll as thin as possible, and
bake in three layers, a little butter spread over each laj'er to
prevent sticking together, and bake quickly in a hot oven
until brown. One hour before the cake is ready, have pre-
pared two large quarts of strawberries which have been cut
in two, and sugar put on to them. When the cake is baked,
separate the layers and place in a deep earthen dish, and
cover each layer with the berries, adding cream if you wish,
and cover tightly with a plate; set the same in the oven
with the door left open, and when ready for dessert one
quarter of this will make one feel as if he were dining at a
king's table, for you have not been eating a lot of stuf?y
shortcake with hardly any fruit but lots of fruit and very
little cake.

1 have been telling you how I eat my strawberries. In
fact, that is the way we make our shortcake for peaches and
blackberries. Perhaps right here I might say that we eat

Tenth Annual Meeting 53

plenty of cherries, grapes, plums, and blackberries, and our
butcher's bill is smaller on account of it, and our health
much better.

Some, yes, many, are afraid of grapes since the appendi-
citis scare in the papers. The late Dr. Storrs told me that
he hardly ever found grape seeds in the appendix. That
reminds me of the influence of one of those squibs in the
newspapers. When located in Hartford twenty-five years ago,
he would see about every year a little notice telling the
benefit of nettleroot for neuralgia, and it would not be three
hours before we would have a call for nettleroot. I think it
will be some time before people get over the scare those
notices gave and go to eating grapes again as before. We
used to buy grapes by the dozen baskets before ours began
to bear.

But I must hasten on to two kinds of fruit that people
do not eat enough of; viz., peaches and apples. Why? We
usually buy peaches by the number of baskets at a time,
select the perfectly ripe ones to eat each day, and when they
ripen faster than we can eat them we can them, and a peach
is not fit to can unless it is just ripe enough to eat, and if
we have a number of baskets we can always have enough for
four to six cans at a time. If late in the season, and we
know we will not get any more, we fill all the available space
in the refrigerator with peaches, and for weeks we have all
the peaches we want to eat, and hardly ever have to can any
of them. I would rather pay a dollar or more for a basket
of peaches than the same amount for beef bones, even if
there is a little touch of meat on them. I am not so much
afraid of uric acid poisoning from eating peaches as flesh, and
you all know that rheumatism is not a pleasant disease to
have, especially when you want to sleep, and cannot because
of the terrible pain. Eat more peaches and less meat if you
want to have less rheumatism. I would be willing now to
stop and eat some nice ripe peaches. Perhaps you think they
would be better than my talk, and I would agree with you.
Next to strawberries I place peaches, and only wish the
season for them was longer.

The apple wnll be the last fruit that I will mention. It

54 The Connecticut Pomological Society

is the stand-by. We can have apples the year round with a
very little trouble. Who says that an orange is better than
an apple? The peel of an orange is not fit to eat, and the
pulp no one ought to eat, and all you have left is a little
juice, — good, I know, but what a price to pay for a few
teaspoonfuls of orange juice ! The next time any of you
think that an orange is better than an apple, stop right where
you are and eat one, and then eat a good ripe apple, and see
whether you have not been mistaken. No one ought to put
away for winter use less than five or six bushels of apples for
every one in the family, and if you have good -sized boys
make the bushels eight for each one. In fact, we should eat
more money's worth in fruit than in meat for health. We
have found that uncooked apples had better be eaten just
before meals, but that is not the way we eat the most of
our apples. There are so many ways that apples can be used
that I will mention only a few. Apple tapioca pudding makes
a dish that if more was eaten, and less pie, it would be better
for the human family.

Brown Betty, a good way to use up old bread, with some
cream and sugar, makes a dessert good enough for any one.
Baked apples are fine, especially sweet apples, but there are
so many wormy apples that I am rather spleeny against them,
and had rather they would be pared and sliced to remove all
the bad places than to eat them, not knowing what I was
eating. The twentieth century, however, is going to do
away with all bad fruit, I suppose.

Apple custard baked as a squash pie (if you want, once
in a while, to eat pie crust) some think is very fine. Of
course, a good nice fat-sliced apple pie, with thin pie crust,
tastes good, even if the laws of health are broken.

A good many think that an apple dumpling is one of the
rare treats. The last place 1 saw one was in a wash-bowl,
where it had landed after leaving the stomach of a patient,
who felt better, a good deal, than he did before he threw it
up. I rather think the wash-bowl is a better place for an
apple dumpling than my stomach.

We use nearly every day, and almost every meal in the
day, just stewed apples (during their best season). What

Tenth Annual Meeting 55

can you ask for that is any better with your meals ? I do not
mean as you do when you say you like coffee. Excuse me if
I say you do not like coffee, with the cream and sugar left
out. I mean stewed apples with no sugar, unless with some
of the more acid kinds.

Now, then, to sum up. Let me urge upon j'ou, raise all
the fruit you can. Give away (to the poor, I mean) all you
can, and sell all you can. Do not forget that the apple is the
best all-round fruit we have, and if you eat apples in the right
way, with other fruits in their season, you will be healthier,
happier, and a good deal more handsome.

The President: '^ Taking up the question list again —
Question No. 3. ' What effect does spraying with Bordeaux
have on the keeping qualities of apples ?' Can some of the
professors tell us ?"

Mr. Loomis: "That question seems to imply that spray-
ing with Bordeaux is the best way. I know of some folks
who by some actual observation find that Paris green alone is
very effectual."

Mr. Platt: "Bordeaux put upon the apple leaf, and
upon the European plum leaf, keeps that leaf in a more
healthy state than it would be otherwise, as frequently the
leaves will be broken off by a fungous disease of some sort,
and drop off prematurely. Now if Bordeaux is used the leaves
will hang on much longer; in fact, almost until the frost comes
and causes them to fall. There is one effect. The apples are
filled with the good qualities of the fruit in consequence of
the leaves remaining on in good condition. The flavor of the
apple is better, and the texture of the fruit is more solid and
heavy. The apple itself will remain on a sprayed tree longer
than it does on a tree that is not sprayed, and it keeps longer
after you get it off. I think if anybody tries it fairly they will
come to the conclusion that it is of great benefit."

Mr. Loomis : "How about the Bordeaux mixture setting
sufficient to kill the apple bud ?"

Mr. Platt : "No; it will not with ordinary care. Do
not use Paris green, for I believe Bordeaux is much better, is
less dangerous, and gives better results."

56 The Connecticut Pomological Society

Mr. Hale: ''This matter was up at the meeting of the
Western New York Horticultural Society, and the general
opinion there was that the apples from trees that have been
sprayed with Bordeaux were sounder and of better keeping
quality, It helps to make good, healthy foliage, and that is a
great help to the proper development of the fruit. I do not
think there is any question in the minds of those who have
sprayed with Bordeaux but that they get far longer keeping
apples, and far better looking ones."

A Member: "I have sprayed my own trees with a mixture
of Paris green and water until this year, when I sprayed with
Bordeaux mixture. I could not tell what the difference in effect
has been though, because, although my trees were well loaded
with fruit, there came along that big wind that took off about
eighty per cent of them, so I have had no chance to make a
comparison."

Mr. InniS: "I would like to ask in this connection if it is
possible to know why this year particularly, the Baldwin
perhaps worse than most any other variety, both on the
sprayed and unsprayed trees, have rotted so from the core
outward ? Nine-tenths of my fruit, all Baldwins, went that
way, and much of it was so much so that the apple on very
little pressure would simply break all to pieces. I would like
to ask if anybody here can account for it ? "

The President: "Perhaps that was a local trouble con-
fined to your orchard."

Mr. InniS: "-t may be local so far as our locality was
concerned, because my neighbors, many of them, were in
exactly the same boat."

A Member: "My orchard was troubled in the same way.
First you would see a little spot that was just perceptible
around the stem, and by examination you would find that it
went right through to the core. 1 put in ninety bushels of
Baldwins on one day, and when I came to look them over
this winter I found that a large percentage had started from
that way, from the stem inward to the core, and from the
core outward to the stem."

Mr. Ives: "I would like to ask if they were sprayed
with Bordeaux mixture ? "

Tenth Annual Meeting 57

Answer: "They were not."

Mr. Fenn: "I had some trouble with m}- Baldwin apples
which never occurred before. I found that they decayed
right around the stem. In a good many cases you could pick
up an apple that you thought was sound, squeeze it with
your hand, and j^ou could crush it to mush. I do not know
what was the cause of it, but I know this: that my Baldwin
apples are very much more tender this year than usual.
Whether it is on account of the tree, or the season, I don't
know, but they bruise easier than formerly when they were
sprayed. I will say that I use a pound of Paris green to
sixty gallons of water. Years ag.o I did not use any Paris
green and I only got about 80 per cent, of an average crop,
and a lot of second quality and third quality of fruit at that."

A Member: "I was troubled the same way with Baldwins,
although very few of ours have decayed, and I don't think
they are so apt to if you keep them where it is cold. My
son says that he never saw apples rot as they have this year.
I spray with Bordeaux and white arsenic."

The President: ''Question No. 4 — 'If the leaves drop
from the currant bushes soon after the fruit is picked, are
such bushes healthy ? " "

Mr. Hale: "The dropping of the foliage very soon after
fruitage indicates weakness in the plant. Good healthy plants
should keep their foliage until September or early October.
If they drop their foliage as early as that I should want to
spray in the spring with Bordeaux, and again during the
summer."

Mr. Fenn: "I have made it my practice to spray for the
last three years and with good results. I have used Paris
green and Bordeaux mixture, and leaves hang on my currant
bushes until the frost takes them off. That has been the
experience of my neighbors also."

Mr. Innis: 'T would say in regard to the currant, and
of course the gooseberry is a full cousin if not a half-brother,
that without spraying the gooseberry bush is entirely stripped
of its foliage usually by the ist of August, and if it is
stripped you can depend on it that the next year your crop
w^ill be small, and the size of the fruit will be small, whereas

58 The Connecticut Pomological Society

if you can have the leaves stay on until the natural time
for the bush to shed in September or October, shovi^ing that
the plant is healthy, your crop the next year will be good,
other things being equal. That is so with both the currant
and gooseberry, and I have found no exception to this rule."
At this point the president introduced the next speaker of
the afternoon, the well-known horticulturist, Hon. Charles W.
Garfield, of Grand Rapids, Michigan. In a most admirable
address, Mr. Garfield discussed the subject of "Signs of the
Times in Horticulture."

SIGNS OF THE TIMES IN HORTICULTURE

After the long and weary voyage, fraught with discourage-
ments, nearly checkmated by a mutinous crew, the words
announced from the lookout which put heart and life into
every one, opened a bright promise for the future and united
all in one great purpose upon those feeble vessels commanded
by Columbus were, "Land ahead."

From that time to this this same expression, although used
often as a byword, has meant a great deal in times of despair,
has brought light into darkness and changed discouragement
into hope. To-day, amid all the disturbances in the commercial
world, all the anxieties connected with statecraft, there is a
feeling among most thoughtful people that there is safety in
looking toward the land. The tendency to center everything
in the towns must be changed, or the congestion will breed
ill health. Wisdom, discretion and a long look ahead all unite
in the feeling of safety which comes with the growing popularity
of rural life. Downing's advice, given more than fifty years
ago, came too early to enter into the purposes of men in this
country, but that counsel was made a purpose in England, and
the result of it was that land -holding became popular; the
cultivator of the soil became the leader of affairs ; the farmers
became something more than the bone and sinew' of the land:
they were the nerves also.

In a recent number of "The Outlook " the Spectator men-
tions this difference of feeling with regard to the promises of
rural life between England and the United States, and empha-

Tenth Annual Meeting 59

sizes by his illustration the truth that, as our country grows
older, the ownership of land, the development of a landed
estate, the business of farming will become more and more
popular. I verily believe that we are at the beginning of an
epoch in this country, during which the men that are most
greatly interested in affairs of rural life will rapidly forge to the
front in moulding the destinies of the nation.

Americans have some attributes of character that emphasize
their ability to make the most of the situation. I can perhaps
illustrate this better by negative examples. In traveling through
the southeastern part of France, and in skirting the beautiful
lakes of Switzerland, I found a climate that was adapted to
the growing of a wide range of fruits. The climate and the
conditions have been there always, and still the people have
not taken advantage of them and they do not grow the range
of fruits that I find in a great many places in our own country
not nearly as well situated or having half the valuable attributes
of an advanced horticulture. In the vicinity of Boston, for
instance, fifty years ago, there were grown nearly all of the
finer varieties of pears known to the Old World. In the
western part of Michigan we have all of the finer varieties of
peaches extant growing successfully. In parts of Missouri and
Kansas the finest apples in the world are growing in the greatest
variety, but, in this ideal location for fruit culture which I
mentioned, I found fruits of only moderate value and rarely
any of the best.

The reason that you people live in Connecticut, and my
people live in Michigan, may be found in a variety of causes,
but whether in Connecticut or in Michigan we adjust ourselves
to the conditions, and we bring to our conditions an ability
and resource which enable us to evolve pronounced success.

There is a tendency in the realm of horticulture as well as
in commerce, to equalize the conditions in different localities.
Each locality reaches over into the ground of the other, and
this fact is not one to be ignored or sneered at, but to be
considered thoughtfully in connection with the business side of
the occupation, and dealt with in such a way as to recognize
it as a factor of great importance in connection with the
attainment of success. The grower and the seller of products

6o The Connecticut Pomological Society

must recognize in each other an agent for the prosecution of
the world's business, and by mutual concessions and thought-
ful consideration render each one useful to the other in the
furnishing of earth's most delightful products to the con-
sumer.

In the evolution of a wider horticulture, general -purpose
things will naturally drop out. This is just as true in our
occupation as in the work of the stockbreeder. The Jersey
cow for cream and butter takes the place of the general-
purpose animal, regardless of the fact that she will not turn
out a very good carcass for beef near the end of her career.
The breed of sheep that will produce the finest lambs for the
early market, and thus bring the largest profit for the smallest
outlay, will supersede the other animal that produces a fair
crop of wool and a fair grade of mutton. So in our field the
type of carrot that is a fair table product, and if not used for
that purpose will do well as a stock product, will not answer
the purpose, because the consumer calls for the finer quality
of goods for his table, which can never be raised profitably for
animals. The beet that produces the largest percentage of
sugar is devoted to the sugar interests, while the variety that
has the fine color and the delicate flavor must be grown for
the connoisseur's table. We cannot choose the sweet corn
that is only fairly sweet, but grows to a large size, with the
view of turning it into ensilage if not used for the table,
because the market demands the highest quality in corn for
the table and for the can. The apple that is pretty good for
culinary uses, has fair quality for dessert, and has pretty good
shipping qualities, is not the apple for the future. The
dessert demands the best, the culinary use demands the best,
the distant market demands just as good quality as it can get,
but the shipping quality must be the leading attribute. We
cannot ignore these conditions, but we must adopt them, and
suit ourselves to them in our career as horticulturists.

Specialties suited to the location are the order. Cranberry
marshes that are admirably adapted to the growing of this
delicious fruit must not be drained so that the land can pro-
duce cabbages, because the cabbage suits itself to a wider
area. The quality of soil suited to the growth of celery will

Tenth Annual Meeting 6i

naturally lead to the centralization of celery -growing in certain
localities especially suited to this vegetable.

In my own town, on the south side of the city, we have
soil that seems to be especially suited to the growing of
lettuce, and so the glass houses devoted to the growing of
this product are springing up everywhere upon this soil; while
upon the west side of the town there is a soil that is perfectly
suited to the growing of the highest grade of carnations and
roses, and the result is that this industry is attaining a high
development in this locality.

A set of greenhouses came into my hands in a little village
just outside of our town. We tried lettuce and cucumbers
and carnations, with just a moderate kind of success, but did
not attain the high standard that we sought. As a result of
experiment, we found that upon the soil in this locality we
could grow a high grade of parsley, and in two years' time we
put a product upon the Chicago market that was recognized
of such quality as to secure a name for the village in which it
was grown.

The sugar beet is another illustration. In certain localities
it is found to develop more perfectly than in others, and natu-
rally in these localities the factories will be established.

In western Michigan the peach territory is somewhat lim-
ited, so that no matter what the quality of soil or how suc-
cessfully other things may grow upon a given location, if it is
admirably suited to peaches, peaches must be grown there, and
other things sacrificed in the interests of this fruit. So we
find everywhere that these conditions must be recognized and
we must square ourselves to the situation.

New factors are coming in constantly to modify the horti-
culture of the day, and perturbations will often lead to the
discovery of the relationship of these factors to the trend of
the business. Among these I may mention first the telephone.
The first horticultural telephone that was put in in our city
was at my own farm, and I was called for some time a "tele-
phone farmer," rather in irony than otherwise, but I very soon
learned that it was a great deal easier selling my products over the
wire than it was to put them on the market at two o'clock in
the morning, the early hour being necessary to get a position.

I

62 The Connecticut Pomological Society

The electric railway has arrived upon the scene, and brings
the truck farmer into closer communion with the green -grocer.
With the telephone upon which to take orders, and the swift -
moving carriage to take the products to market, we have two
great factors in the horticulture of the future. The wonderful
development of refrigerator cars is working marked changes in
the business of horticulture. Speaking after the manner of
men, we sometimes feel like "registering a kick" over the
progress of the daj'. When the refrigerator car puts upon
the Grand Rapids market the finest Georgia peaches at just
the time when our local early fruits are ready to be sold, and
this southern fruit is in perfect condition to be used, it seems
as if the bottom was knocked out of the peach business in
our locality. But we "get our second wind" and learn as
quickly as possible that our early fruits are not hardly fit to
eat anyway, and it is just as well not to have them in market;
and so we change our methods and grow the later kinds that
do not come in competition with our neighbors' fruit. The
result is all in the interests of the consumer, for he gets a
better quality of fruit throughout the season.

In my boyhood days 1 used to make a nice lot of money
out of the garden by selling watermelons. In these later j^ears
the Alabama and Georgia, Arkansas and Missouri melons are
placed upon our market in perfect condition long before we
have any for sale, and when our crop of ordinary melons is
ready for sale, nobody wants to buy them. How do we suit
ourselves to the conditions? For we must do this. Why, we
simply grow a quality of melons that cannot be shipped. We
use our soil to grow the Dark and Light Icings, and melons
of that quality which hardly bear transportation in any other
way than on spring wagons, and so we hold our own.

Economic storage comes in as a wonderful help to the
horticulturist and to the tiller of the soil. To-day, a few
men in our town are putting upon the market the finest
quality of Greenings, Jonathans, Northern Spies, in the face
of the fact that our fruit decayed very rapidly last autumn
and it was with the greatest difficulty under ordinary methods
that we could have any for winter use. These men are en-
abled to do this because they have taken advantage of the

Tenth Annual Meeting 63

storage system, and this fine -flavored fruit is kept in perfect
condition to put upon the market day by day in a season when
it brings the largest price and when it is most attractive to
the consumer.

Then, there is the rural mail delivery that has developed
so rapidly throughout our country, which carries the market
reports to the farmer every morning. This, with the telephone
and rapid transit, puts the countryman in close touch with his
fellows and enables him to take the same advantage of knowl-
edge that his city brother does in the business of the town.
The carrying facilities have been very rapidly perfected during
the more recent years. At the World's Fair we had a per-
fect exhibit of Australian apples, that compared favorably with
anything we put upon the tables from the states; and I saw
in the London markets as perfect barrels of apples from
Australia as were delivered from France, notwithstanding the
wide expanse of sea to be traversed.

Suitable combinations are of no inconsiderable importance
in arranging a business in horticulture. I find, for instance,
that winter eggs are profitable. In order to have winter eggs,
hens must have green produce. For years there was a waste
of green produce from my truck houses, so the winter egg
was combined with the winter lettuce, and the combination
proved to be profitable.

We found, in the growing of cucumbers, that in order to
have a perfect set upon the plant within the forcing house, a
great deal of work was required with the brush to perfect the
fertilization of the blossoms. We added a few swarms of
bees, and found that they not only did the work of fertiliza-
tion in the greenhouse in a most perfect manner, but they
fitted in nicely with the other branches of horticulture pursued
on the farm.

The utilizing of waste places is a matter of importance in
connection with the prosecution of horticulture. I recall a
simple instance now so common of utilizing all of the room
under the benches in the forcing house for the growing of such
plants as need little light. Our plaster caves at Grand Rapids
were considered to be utterly worthless holes in the ground until
some one of resource started mushroom beds in them and has

64 The Connecticut Pomological Society

developed a valuable industry in a place that w^as considered
utterly useless for any purpose.

In these days of close competition, the margins are so
often in the incidentals. When timbered lands cost almost
nothing a large part of the timber could be wasted in sawdust,
the trimmings of the logs could be burned up in heaps of
debris; but now when the stumpage is so high, the lumberman
must reduce the waste in sawdust to a minimum, and then it
must not be wasted but used as fuel. All of the poorest parts
of the logs are either held for wood or wood-pulp, and so
nothing is lost and really the margins of the business lie in the
careful using of what was once the waste.

The other day a friend of mine visited with me our church
edifice, looking over the place to see if there was anything
needed in the way of repairs. He is a furniture manufacturer;
he has engines and boilers and an extensive heating apparatus,
and one of the things he noticed in the church was that the
main pipes carrying the steam from the engine room to the
auditorium were perfectly bare. He said these should be felted
at once, and I asked why. "Because you are losing so much
heat. Why, if we were so extravagant as this with the heat in
our furniture establishment, we could not be in the business,"
illustrating to me forcibly the importance of economies in the
details. In no occupation in the world are these economies so
apparent or so important as in the prosecution of horticulture.

If I read the signs of the times aright, we must grasp, in
the right way, the most important levers of success; we must
grasp them with no uncertain movement. The horticulture
of to-day is upon a higher level than it was a few years ago.
Our horizon is a wider one, and we must recognize this. It
is well to have one's ear to the ground, but it is better to have
his eye toward the horizon. With the wider vision comes a
greater responsibility and greater need of knowledge and greater
intensity of action. With the progress must come a growing
respect for the products that we grow. In many southern
towns to-day the tomatoes are brought in loose in wagons and
one can see them upon the markets, the juices dripping
through to the ground. There are places in which the finest
apples are thrown into the lumber wagon and jolted of? to the

Tenth Annual Meeting 65

city. Potatoes are cut and haggled and bruised, squashes and
pumpkins are thrown with the utmost carelessness against each
other and against the hard sides of the wagon-box; but all of
this carelessness and lack of respect for the delightful products
of the earth meets its reward in small prices and in a degraded
view of the earth's most delicate creations.

The successful apple-grower to-day handles his specimens
with the most delicate care in the place of the old method of
shaking them from the tree. The grape is so handled as not
to remove the bloom from the berries. The strawberry is
picked with the most careful thoughtfulness, without marring
the delicacy of its texture. This care-taking pays not only in
money but it pays in the development of a genuine love for
the beautiful things that grow out of the horticultural art.

Another important matter that is growing with the years is
the systematic grading of products. The horticulturist was the
first to recognize the importance of this in connection with
his most delicate fruits, but the man who grows potatoes and
turnips and sugar beets recognizes the importance of a fine grade
of product that he puts upon the market. The consumer's
wants are thought of because the consumer makes demands.
He wants every specimen good and fit for use, and has no
patience with having the interstices of the larger fruits and
vegetables filled with small stufif that is no use to him. The
stronger he can make this demand, the better it will suit the
most progressive horticulturist.

Then, there is the matter of developing early maturity in
fruits and flowers and vegetables. The recognition of the
importance of this matter was first noted, I think, by the stock-
grower, and is illustrated in my own practice. I have a
highly developed Jersey cow. She had her first calf when she
was sixteen months old, and my neighbor farmers held their
hands up in holy horror, saying that I was going against nature;
that my cow would not be good for anything in a year or two.
But my beautiful cow is now a good many years old, and she
gives just as fine cream in just as large quantity as she did
years ago. 1 have given her the necessary care and she became
a cow none too soon for me, as long as she was good and as
long as she behaved well.

66 The Connecticut Pomological Society

We used to think that an orchard planted to Northern
Spies might be very well as a legacy to our children, but we
did not expect to get much value out of it ourselves. Now,
through the horticulturist's methods, it is common to bring
the Northern Spy as well as the Wagener into bearing in four
years' time.

We used to think that an orchard of standard pears would
bring no income for a good many years, but now there is not
so very much difference between standards and dwarfs in the
matter of early maturity.

The importance of this question of early fruiting in varieties
can scarcely be overestimated from a practical standpoint, and if
my neighbor does say that my trees came into bearing the third
or fourth year when he thinks they ought to remain eight or
ten before they bear their first fruit, and I will find they will
give out before their time, I still maintain that I shall not live
in my fears, but rather in my hopes. I shall have no anxiety
about the continuance of bearing of my early fruiting varieties,
if I can only give them the proper care. The recognition of
this is growing in inportance with the years, and if I were
to make a prediction with regard to the future of horticultural
products, I should say that it will be a larger factor as the
years go oil. Almost any kind of a horticulturist can grow
poor stufif, but it takes brains and pains to grow the higher
qualities of products. And brains and pains are at a premium.
"That is a beautiful apple; it just suits the palate, but it will
not ship," is a staterrient that will show in it an element of
weakness one of these days, and the man who uses the "but"
in connection with his product to excuse himself for inferiority,
will lack standing in his occupation.

One of the important things, it seems to me, that has been
neglected somewhat, is the cultivation of the dealer or the
grocer who handles the products of the orchard and garden and
greenhouse. He is, in a sense, considered a sort of enemy, to
be treated as if he was on the other side of the question from
us. Now, it is my opinion we should cultivate a very friendly
relationship with the man who sells our products. Would it
not be wise to take him somewhat into our confidence and let
him understand something of the difficulties in connection with

Tenth Annual Meeting 67

the growing of our product and the methods that we pursue, so
that he shall know better what values are put into the things
that we take to him to sell ? Would it not be a perfectly safe
thing to do to consider his judgment with regard to the kind of
things we should grow for the market, and through this
pleasant sort of copartnership, to be led to fewer mistakes in
creating what is ordinarily called a "glut" in the market?

And then, there is the other fellow, the most important of
all: the one who finally buys our products for the table. He
is the man to consider. We may not like his judgment; we
may think he is a great fool in many instances; but he is
there, and he is the man that furnishes us the money, and he
furnishes it the more readily to us if we can satisfy his wants
and even his whims. So it occurs to me that a pleasant sort of
relationship should be engendered between the man who is
close to the soil and the one who finally consumes the products
of that soil. The relationship will not only add to the stock
in trade of the consumer, but it places the consumer upon a
higher plane with regard to the products, because he under-
stands something of the infinite pains it requires to grow the
finest things for his table.

I am heterodox in another matter, but it seems to me that
the horticulturist puts in too many hours of manual labor. He
makes of his occupation a piece of drudgery rather than an
added delight to his life. How can a man see the brighter
side of rural life who puts in sixteen hours in hard work and
the other eight in sleep, hardly ever looking up to rest his
back, and never thinking about the stars that are above him,
on the theory that he cannot get a living and get ahead in
the world without doing this. It seems to me that the mistake
is that he does not recognize the importance of the "think
habit." But the danger is apparent to one who has eyes to
see, that a great deal of the success in the life of the horti-
culturist depends upon his carefully matured plans, and these he
cannot make successfully while he is a slave to the hard manual
labor for all the working hours of the day. The time spent in
learning what others have done, through the press, through
public gatherings and institutes, is the best time that the horti-
culturist puts in. It does not breed laziness, but it does

68 The Connecticut Pomological Society

awaken quickness of thought and aptness of methods in
many waj's.

There are some conditions to be dealt with in the evolution
of horticulture that awaken in us a spirit of antagonism, but
there is no sense in our disrespectful treatment of them because
they do not meet our approval. The department stores have
come into our commercial life, and many of us regret exceed-
ingly that this method has been brought about. We rasp
under the fact, but the department store has come to stay ; it
is a factor of our business, and the quicker we recognize this
and suit ourselves to it, the better we will get along. In the
evolution of a truer manhood, mechanics are urged to own
their own homes and have little gardens in connection with
them. The horticulturist says this will take a large part of our
market, because the mechanic gets his cash for his labor and
spends it for our products. It will not be any keen satisfaction
to us to kick against this development; it is a better one for
mankind, and the thing for us to do is to suit ourselves to the
condition, and be as helpful as we can to our fellows in the
mechanical industries, who seek to be happier by growing the
delicate things of the earth in their own backyards.

The gardener who, in the years gone by, was in the habit
of getting quite large returns from his market -gardens, finds
that the man next to him with almost no land at all, with a
glass structure, will make as much money as he does in a
year. There is no sense in kicking against the glass. The
thing to do is to make glass a factor in one's own gardening;
and so I predict that the gardens of the future will most of
them in our climate have as a prominent feature the forcing
house. Glass is at the front; it will maintain its ascendency
because it helps men to control the climatic conditions which
ensure success in the growing of products.

There is a new type of middleman that it seems to me
would be well for us to recognize as a partner in the business
side of horticulture, and that is the man who sizes up our
ablility as horticulturists and comes to us with ofifers for our
products, saying that he will take them as we grow them and
deliver them where they will do the most good. I own that
from my own experience, the man who can successfully grow the

Tenth Annual Meeting 69

very best things is liable to be the one who has no adapt-
ability for the sale of those things. I was a victim, for a
while, of the delusion that because I was able to grow a high
product, I could sell it; but I very soon learned that I had
not the ability to sell, and I would like to see that differ-
entiation in horticulture which would lead to a condition of
affairs that would enable the grower to give his entire time
and thought and skill to the growing of the very best prod-
ucts, and that the man with exceptional ability as a salesman
should take these products from his hands and put them upon
the market. The grower who has a taste for growing the
best things would be so greatly relieved that he could afford
to sell his products at a very much smaller margin and lose
thereby a great deal of worry.

Women have come into horticulture to stay. There are
certain branches of horticulture they are peculiarly adapted to.
A bright young woman of my acquaintance started three or
four years ago to grow a few violets in a coldframe. In a
little time she tried the hotbed, then she made a little green-
house heated with a stove. From this beginning she grew a
first -class product. I do not hesitate the prediction that
before many years she will have the finest violet house to be
secured and will be at the head of a large business, making
it a great success. There is no use in our finding fault with
this condition of affairs or trying to change the trend of
things. There are certain operations in horticulture to which
women are peculiarly adapted, and they will not only come to
the front, but their success will command for them a place
in the occupation, and the business will be improved in many
ways as the result of this development.

In all this business of horticulture, the hired man is to be
reckoned with. The farmers are everywhere in our state com-
plaining that they cannot get help. In truth, in almost all of
the rural occupations the cry is, "We cannot get help. As
soon as a man becomes valuable he leaves us and goes into
business for himself." I have only one suggestion to make in
connection with the hired man and the hired girl, and that is,
that they be treated with the respect they deserve when they
perform their duties acceptably, and if we wish to continue

70 The Connecticut Pomological Society

them in our service we must acknowledge them in a large
sense as our partners in the affairs of life and worth our most
thoughtful consideration; and until we take this fraternal and
humanitarian view of the conditions, we shall be constantly
menaced by the trials which are so commonly talked of in con-
nection with the hired man and the hired girl.

The occupation of the horticulturist is not one that usu-
ally leads to large wealth, but he has other compensations in
life more valuable than money. He must, however, if he
secures the highest benefits from these other compensations,
cater to some extent to the demands of wealth, because in
catering to this demand he most easily draws upon the reser-
voirs of wealth to aid him in the continuance of the occu-
pation that he follows.

As our population increases and becomes more congested,
the question of intensive soil culture becomes of the greatest
importance. The man who can get the largest returns from
the smallest space of ground at a minimum cost is the one at
whose feet we can afford to sit and learn. We must conserve
our energy and quicken our powers of observation, watching
the development of the needs, and moulding our methods
largely by the evolution of the times. And in so doing we
must avoid all the unnecessary strains of life. We must learn
to pick up the light end of the log and to save ourselves by
doing things the easiest way; we must recognize the fact that
there are more things we do not know that we can learn by
using to the best advantage our ability, than there are things
we do know.

Allow me to illustrate this in a homely way by the sugar
beet industry. For generations France and Germany have
grown the sugar beet, until, as a result of their success, certain
well-defined propositions were made upon which the native of
this country thought he could succeed. Among the other
things that were established as facts were the following: The
ideal beet is one of medium size, with only a moderate
development of length of root. The crown must be reduced
to its lowest terms because of the lack of sugar in it ; any
forked appearance of the specimen beet is against its value in
percentage of sugar. A good percentage of sugar is from 12

Tenth Annual Meeting 71

to 15. For 3^ears the production in this country has been
based upon what were supposed to be facts as expressed in the
above propositions.

All at once, in the Rocky Ford country of Colorado, the
sugar beet industry starts up, and it is found that under their
system of irrigation upon that soil beets can be grown with an
average percentage of over 20; that long beets produce just as
good sugar as the short ones; that there is as large a percentage
of sugar in the crown of the beet as in any other part; that it
does not make any difference whether the beets are forked or
single -rooted, the percentage is just the same — really knocking
out very many of what were supposed to be established facts.

We find in almost every branch of horticulture illustrations
of this same truth; that after we have learned all we can, some
day new conditions will in a twinkling produce an entirely dif-
ferent view. So we must not be too certain of what we call
our facts, and we must have a broad angle of vision and a
willingness to accept truth, no matter from what source it
comes, and utilize it to the advantage of our calling.

There are some auxiliary conditions that I desire to call to
your attention in connection with the "signs of the times," and
first, I may mention the matter of health. To get the keen-
est satisfaction out of our occupation, we must first have
health, and our methods must have this in view. And again, to
reap the largest profits (not limited to money profits) one must
know how to get the fun out of horticulture. By this I mean,
know how to do things just for the fun of doing them, not
always sizing up results by the amount that is turned into the
bank account; recognizing the old saw that "a shilling's worth
of fun is worth a shilling." Then, again, we must remember
that we are engaged in an occupation the object of which is
very largely the growing of products to feed the man -animal,
not only the one outside of ourselves, but the one nearest to
us. To grow such products and use them in connection with
living so as to give the keenest satisfaction to the palate and
develop the most complete organization of the physical man is a
high order of business and if well followed will necessarily be
well requited.

Then, in horticulture, the child's environment is to be

72 The Connecticut Pomological Society

thought of because he is the best product we have. We can-
not afford to neglect him in connection with our business;
we should utilize every possible method to make our children
happy in connection with their homes and with our work; and
recognize them as our partners in life to such an extent that
the occupation in which we are engaged shall be one of delight
to them and one that shall become a part of the history they
are making upon which memory will delight to linger.

Among the compensations of life in horticulture that are of
the greatest consideration we may enumerate those which arise
from what we sometimes call genius, but at other times,
wisdom. The most successful man is one who, while he grasps
the breadth of the situation, has the greatest knowledge of
details, and who is willing in all things connected with his
career to do his level best, for genius, you know, is the faculty
of taking infinite pains.

Then there are some side views in horticulture that are
supposed to attract only the specialist; but it seems to me there
are two directions in which every horticulturist, no matter what
his specialty may be, ought to take great interest. One is in
the realm of the nursery, and I am impressed with the thought
that in almost all branches of the practical art of horticulture,
there ought to be some interest in the nursery department. In
the growing of things from the beginning we get some of our
best lessons that apply to the practical subsequent operations in
the successful growing of almost all products for the market.

And in another direction I am certain that w-e all ought to
take more than an academic interest; and that is in the art of
gardening which finds its expression in the landscape. The
man who knows best how, from the dark mould of the ground,
to develop the delicate structure and high coloring of the peach
and the apple, is, in his way, an artist not without reputation,
but he is not recognized as he should be in the realm of art.
The man who takes a block of marble, and through his art
develops it into a beautiful effigy of the human figure, is
recognized by the world as the highest type of an artist. The
man who, with his brush and mingled pigments, places upon
the canvas a picture of a landscape, and does it with skill, has
recognition of high character in the field of art. Is not the

Tenth Annual Meeting 73

horticulturist who actuallv^ by prophetic skill, develops out of
the elements of his art, the real thing upon which that land-
scape is based, an artist as truly as the one who handles brush
and pigments? My own view may magnify the art that I love
so well, but it seems to me, in our field we have an art as
delicate, as attractive, as elevating and as influential as any art
in the world.

Now, while you rest your back and think for a minute, let
me call your attention to the field of education. The man who
has climbed by hard work through The schools to a commanding
position as the result of unremitting study is very likely to
feel that his reach is longer, his vision is wider than the one
whose work and thought are in connection with the soil; but
there are certain indications that in the field occupied by the
educators there is a growing recognition of the value of that
education which comes through a skilful development of the
products of the earth. Instead of that sort of patronizing
method which was once quite common on the part of the
educated man of the schools in dealing with the educated man
of the soil, we find in these later days that the schools them-
selves recognize the importance of the farmer's field as one in
which to do their best work ; and instead of having any of the
top-loftyism about them in connection with the men who
occupy positions in rural life, they are trying to get into closer
companionship with the farmer and the horticulturist; and to-
day there is a general feeling that has been growing with the
years that we all are climbing upward, and that the mountain
up which the horticulturist is climbing is one of as great
importance as the one up which the educator toils, and that
the range of vision is as broad from the one as from the other.
Scientists of the schools recognize scientists of the soil. I can
can also see a most delightful condition growing with the years
among the people who have to do with the soil who recognize
the great value of the scientific development so delightful in the
schools and the desirability of utilizing these attainments in
connection with their own practice. Thus is respect engen-
dered by the people in different callings for each other and the
growing appreciation of the truth that there is no aristocracy in
knowledge.

74 The Connecticut Pomological Society

Just one step further: I am glad to recognize a keener sense
of the importance of a study of nature in connection with the
development of the most successful methods in horticulture.
I am glad to notice that there is a growing tendency of people
in the city and the country to get nearer to each other and to
understand each other, and this is because the denizen of the
country is making it more worth the while. He is a larger
factor in the world and he is worth cultivating by his city
neighbor; and there is a growing respect for the art of horticul-
ture which shows itself in the expenditure of large sums of
money in the very things that are so common in the country,
in order that they may be a part of urban life.

In connection with this may I incidentally call attention to
a comparison between the dress of the American countryman
and his cousin across the water: and this is not wholly to our
credit. In a trip through England and on the continent some
years ago, I made a special study of the markets, and I could
not help but notice the respectable way in which people took
their products to market. The man who took his load of
cabbages or led his animals, or brought the product of his
orchards on marketing days to the central stations were all
dressed neatly and seemed to have a proper respect for the
products they were selling, and a recognition of the people
whom they expected would be their patrons. I am often
ashamed of the dress and carriage and conversation of the men
and women who bring the same products upon our own Ameri-
can markets. In this regard there is the largest opportunity for
a wise and healthy development that will meet the approbation of
all progressive horticulturists and all good citizens.

Now, in closing, let us for a moment reason together. We,
as horticulturists, are in partnership with God. He has put in
the largest amount of capital, but we have his confidence so
completely that He gives us full swing in the disbursement of
the dividends. We cannot grace our calling unless we appre-
ciate to the fullest the great responsibility of our tenantcy and
bring to it the proper honesty of purpose and recognition of the
greatest factor that accomplishes success in this oneness with
nature, which I mean by '' partnership with God."

We must have a higher regard for earth's beauty and have

Tenth Annual Meeting 75

an every -day appreciation that this is the most beautiful world
we know anything about and that we are placed in this garden
to till it and to use to the best of our ability all the attributes
of character with which we are endowed, and that we shall be
held responsible for every delinquency in dealing with the
elements that are placed in our hands; and that our sins of
omission as well as commission will be laid up against us as
truly in our treatment of the soil as in our treatment of each
other. We must learn to be honest through and through
and never to forget that this applies as truly to the soil as to
our brother men or our Creator; and that there is a religion in
horticulture that should go with us every day and that our
calling is holy in just so far as we treat it as the calling to
which God has called us; that the character which we develop
in connection with the work we have chosen to do in this world
will be moulded very largely by the view we take of the world
in which God has located us, and the purpose we put into our
dealings with the elements that are placed in our hands to com-
bine into beautiful and successful creations for the benefit of
man and the glory of man's Creator.

A brief recess was then taken, during which a very large
number of those present reported at the secretary's desk to
renew their membership in the Society.

The President: "We will now listen to an illustrated
lecture upon 'The San Jose Scale and Latest Methods of
Treatment,' by Prof. W. G. Johnson, former state entomologist
of Maryland and now associate editor of the 'American
Agriculturist.' "

THE SAN JOSE SCALE AND THE LATEST METHODS
OF TREATMENT

PROF. W. G. JOHNSON, NEW YORK

In taking up this question with you I feel somewhat like an
old darky 1 met in Georgia last summer. I was curious to
know whether or not they had any San Jose scale down there.
I did not ask my host if he had the scale on his trees, but I
went out and saw an old darkv in the orchard. I said to him:

76 The Connecticut Pomological Society

"Hello, Sam, come here! Have you heard anything about the
San Jose scale since you have been working here, or have you
seen it around?" He replied: "I don't know, boss. Dat name
am 'miliar round here, but I ha'n't done seen dat Sam Jones
on dis place, sure!"

I understand that you have not known of it very exten-
sively in Connecticut, and I hope you never will, but, at the

CL

Fig. I. — Appearance of San Jose scale on bark; a, infested twig, natural size;
h, bark as it appears under hand lens, showing scales in various stages of de-
velopment and young larvs. (After Howard and Marlatt in Bulletin j, new ser-
ies, Div. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr.)

same time, it is always a good thing to have your eyes open
and know what is about you. Nobody needs to fear harm
who gets ready for this thing. If you do not have the San
Jose scale now yow are very likely to have it soon if you are
not on your guard. You have got to meet this condition.
The question is. How are we going to meet it and what shall

Tenth Annual Meeting

77

we do to protect our orchards from the ravages of this little
insignificant pest? It is of course unnecessary for me to say
that this little pest is enormously destructive of the orchards
where it locates itself and is allowed to propagate undisturbed.
That being the case, let us examine and see what the little
fellow is. In the first place, I must tell you it is so small you
can scarcely see it with the naked eye, and it has to be

i iG. 2. — San Jose scale on twig and pear, with enlarged male and female
scales. (After Howard, Year-book, Dept. Agr. 1894.)

magnified several hundred times to see it to good advantage.
When you detect these little spots upon the tree, the scale of
course is not apparent. The insect is underneath. It is entirely
concealed and is shown in Fig. i. If you turn one of the
larger scales over you will find the female insect underneath,
as shown in Fig. 3. Upon close examination of the specimen
you will see how marvelously it is designed for the work of

78 The Connecticut Pomological Society

destruction. Its organs are all small and undeveloped except
those it uses in its destructive work, and in the propagation
of the species, namely, its mouth and reproductive organs.
The mouth is abnormally developed. That is the organ with
which she sucks the life-blood not only from our orchard
trees, but from many of our shrubs and ornamental plants.

Fig. 3.— San Jose scale; a. adult female, highly enlarged, ventral view
showing sucking tubes ; i, anal plate, still enlarged. (After Howard and Mar-
latt. Bulletin 3, new series, Div. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr.)

She inserts this lance-like beak, as seen in the illustration, into
the plant tissue, and with the aid of other organs covers her-
self with a covering of wax -like material made from a secre-
tion of the insect. She remains where she first inserts her
beak. In other words, after an insect of this character once
fastens itself to a tree or shrub it never moves from that
particular point. After it inserts its beak, then, by no possible

Tenth Annual Meeting

79

means can it be transferred from one plant to another. It is
only in the young stage that it can spread. The female scale
is eyeless, wingless and legless, and for that reason it cannot
transfer itself after it has once attached itself. All such
organs, if they exist, are undeveloped, and all subjected to the
development of the mouth, which is proportionately very large,
as shown by the lash -like appendage in Fig. 3.

Turning one of these smaller elongated, foot-shaped scales,
we shall find underneath the peculiar looking creature shown
in Fig. 4. It is the male insect. In this case it has well-

FlG. 4. — San Jose scale, adult male, greatly enlarged. (After Howard, circular
J, second series, Div. Ent., U. Div. Agr.)

developed legs, wings, eyes, and feelers such as we find in
most insects. At the same time we find all these organs
developed at the expense of the mouth. It has practically no
mouth at all, and, of course could not talk back if it wanted
to. On the other hand, the old lady has this organ well
developed, and uses it to good advantage. Owing to the
peculiar fact that it has no mouth, we can naturally expect
that it takes no food. When this insect reaches maturity it
appears usually at night, and in most instances only at night.
Having no mouth, of course, the male would have no use for
digestive organs, but from the fact that it appears at night we

8o The Connecticut Pomological Society

would naturally expect it would have a well -developed pair of
eyes. They are well developed, and nature has gone one step
further. Where his mouth should have been there is a second
pair of eyes. So he has four eyes instead of two. I throw in
these things incidentally, to give some idea of the peculiar and
interesting features of this wonderful insect from a scientific
point of view.

There is another point that is peculiarly interesting, and
that is, this creature is not produced from eggs. The young
are born alive. A surprising thing about them is the fact that
a pair of them, from early spring until late fall, may become
the father and mother of a progeny of over three billion
individuals. That is a surprising statement, but such is the
case. As a matter of fact, the first brood of young in the
locality of Hartford would probably appear from about the 7th
to the 15th of June, and within thirty daj's from the time the
first are born they are reproducing at the same rate. The
mother producing the first generation in a very short time
becomes a grandmother, a great-grandmother, even a great-
great -grandmother. With this condition of affairs it becomes
very important to examine the young insects. The young
insects have well -developed legs, and they appear pretty well
adapted to take care of themselves. (See Fig. 5.) The young
insect, 1 assure you, is an industrious chap, and gets right to
work as soon as possible, inserting that lance-like beak in the
tree. After it finds a suitable place to insert its beak, and
settles down, it begins to shed through the pores on its back
what looks like a mass of wax. The resemblance is more like
a minute mass of wax than an insect (as shown in Fig. 5, f).
They are about the size of the diameter of a pin. That
would approximate very closely to the size of one of these
insects, but, at the same time, what they lack in size they
make up in numbers. An individual insect upon a tree or
shrub would have no effect upon it at all, but when you com-
bine the force of the attack of a billion of these tiny creatures,
working from spring until fall, it is a very rare case that is able
to withstand it.

The hardiest fruit trees are not able to survive it. The
length of time necessary to kill the tree depends somewhat

Tenth Annual Meeting

8

upon the variety, but if the scales are numerous enough they
are bound to prevail in time. Now let us study this a few
moments. Coming out from these pores on the back we find
this white or grayish mass. As I have said, it somewhat re-
sembles the product of the purest white wax used in the arts
for making various things, but as a matter of fact it is the
product of the insect itself. We must not overlook that.
This wax, after a time or in a few days, collapses, or falls
over the back of the insect, and then what is known as the

Fig. 5. — Young larvje and developing scale: a. ventral view of larvic,
showing sucking beak with setea separated, with enlarged tarsal claw at right;
b, dorsal view of same, somewhat contracted, with the first waxy filaments ap-
pearing : c. dorsal and lateral views of same, still more contracted, illustrating
further development of wax secretion; d, later stage of same, dorsal and lateral
views, showing matting of wax secretions and first form of young scale — all
greatly enlarged, (After Howard and Marlatt. Bulletin 5. new series, Div. Ent,
U, S. Dept, .^gr. j

scale appears (Fig. 5, ^) and under the scale the insect itself
remains during the period of its existence. The scale is circular
in form, usually white at first, and turns them to a yellowish
cream color; later on becomes dark or black during the breed-
ing season, and then has a sort of creamy fawn color through-
out the season. Briefly, that is the life history of this notorious

82 The Connecticut Pomological Society

pest. All of these facts in connection with the life history- of
this little insect are most important to every fruit-grower of the
present day.

Methods for the control of this pest have been sought and

practiced from the very
beginning, or since its
discovery. We all
know that the applica-
tion of lime, sulphur
and salt which proved
satisfactory in Califor-
nia has not been so
successfully used in the
east. Furthermore, the
remedy which may be
applicable in one sec-
tion of the east is not
necessarily applicable in
another section, even in
the same state, so we
have to bear this point
in mind. In south
Georgia this last sum-
mer I found some enor-
mous orchards which
were abandoned largely
on account of the at-
tack of this insect.
The attack of the in-
sect soon produces a
remarkable deadening
efifect upon the trees.
Some of those orchards
down there have been
completely destroyed, and none of the original trees left. A
glance at Figures 6, 7 and 8 will give you some idea of the ruin
which follows the track of this pest. Passing a little further to
the north, we found a peach orchard of some 40,000 trees,
many of which were already dead. In that case we found the

Fig. 6. — Apple tree killed by scale.
By courtesy of New England Homesteati .

Tenth Annual Meeting

83

fi>

••♦^^>

entire orchard literally infested with this pest. The scale had
been in the orchard for six years. Gradually it worked its way
through the entire orchard, until to-day it is of no commercial
value whatever. The only proper way to destroy the pest in
such a case is to uproot
and burn every tree
within it. Keep other ;

plants and shrubs off
from such territory if
it is possible for you to
do so. In fact, under
no circumstances plant
young trees right back
in the same ground.
Experience has shown
that it is the best prac-
tice to pull up and burn
all the trees found in
such a condition.

1 am often asked
the question whether
or not nature will come
to our relief in the
reduction of this pest,
and give us the best
solution of this entire
problem. Nature may.
perhaps, come to our
relief, but, at the same
time, while the old
farmer or fruit-grower
is sitting around his
fireplace warming his
shins, if he thinks that
old Mother Nature is going to come and clean his orchard of
the San Jose scale, you can rest assured that that old fellow is
going to get left. We, to a certain extent, can and do rely upon
natural agencies in controlling certain conditions. That this is
true, has been demonstrated time and time again. But, at the

Fig. 7. — Infected thrpe-year-old pfnr tree
By courtesy of " \evj Englantl Homeneait.

84 The Connecticut Pomological Society

same time, there is an undue development and dissemination of
the insects throughout the United States; and not only this
country, but practically we might say the entire world. Here
is an insect which has become so thoroughly established that at
the present time it has become a factor so important that every

, f, M

y '. \\J

I ^!l< '^

Fig. 8. — Peach orchard dying from San Jose scale.
{Cut loaned by eourtesy of " New England Homestead."

phase of fruit-growing almost must be considered when we con-
sider this question. It may not only involve federal legislation,
but international legislation as well. Think for a moment what
this pest is costing in the way of quarantines of nursery stock.
A foreign quarantine has been established against us, and it is not
only keeping our nursery stock, but our fruit from some territor-
ies. If we come in at all with trees or fruit it must be subject

Tenth Annual Meeting

85

to certain rules and restrictions which have been laid down by
foreign governments to guard against the introduction of this
little pest. If we are going to eradicate it, we must not rely
upon natural means. It is a fact that there are a number of
parasites which feed upon this scale. It reminds me of the old
couplet :

"The little fleas, that do us tease,
Have other fleas to bite 'em,
And these in turn have other fleas,
And so on ad infinitum."

At the same time, we cannot apply that philosophy in this
case with any degree of satisfaction. While these little fellows

Fig. q. — ^True pnxuMe. Aphelinus Jiaspidis, Howard, of the San Jose scale.
(After Howard in Bulletin 5. new series, Div. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr.)

are scratching the backs of the San Jose scales, the latter are
going on just the same, sucking the life out of our trees.
One of these little insects (see Fig. 9) that prey upon the scale
penetrates the scale and deposits an egg underneath it. The
egg hatches out a worm, which feeds upon the scale and de-
stroys it. Still, while he is destroying one, the old mother
scale may have escaped and produced larvae that will develop
five or six hundred. So we have an unequal balance in this
particular case, at least, so far as natural enemies of the scale
are concerned. I have been studying this question in the south
carefully. In California, it is said that the San Jose district
has almost been cleaned of this scale. As a matter of fact, I

86 The Connecticut Pomological Society

have seen that section. You can scarcely find a scale in that
region to-day. .1 couldn't find it. I have some specimens
taken from the original region w^here it was first discovered.
While that little parasite is abundant there, and no doubt is a
factor in destroying the scale, there are other factors which
you must consider. 1 have been looking for this little fellow
in the east for the past five years, but up to last fall I had
only five or six specimens secured from districts outside of Cal-
ifornia. Last fall I found one location in Maryland, and 1
took some of the infested twigs from the trees back to my
laboratory. I found those trees were literally covered with the
parasite. In one instance I removed over 1,400 of these par-
asites (Fig. 9) from a few branches about the size of a lead-
pencil. That will give some idea of the concentration of
natural forces on these things occasionally. What did I do ?
Well, I had advised the growers to destroy every tree in that
orchard. My advice had been that so long as there was any
scale to burn every solitary tree. I had to go back on what
I had advised them to do the day previous. It is, of course,
our duty to conserve all these natural enemies of the scale,
and if we had cut down all those trees we would have burned
all those natural enemies. At the same time, by cutting the
trees and piling the brush in that orchard, there was no possible
danger of the scale spreading. It does not thrive on dead
trees, and, as the female does not move, there was no danger.
At the same time, such a course would afJord an opportunity
for these natural enemies to escape and concentrate their forces
on trees infested with the scale. So you can see we scientific
fellows don't know much, after all. We may tell you one day
in positive, unqualified language to do a certain thing — and
we do it in all sincerity because we believe it is for your good
— but, at the same time, we may telegraph you the next day
to do exactly the opposite. That is what we are here for: to
work out these things if we can, and give you the benefit of
them. So much, then, for these parasites, which are the nat-
ural enemies of the scale. We must consider them, but do not
lay back on your oars and think that you are going to float to the
opposite bank in ease. You are not going to make any money
in the orchard business without a fight to take care of it.

Tenth Annual Meeting

87

There are other factors that enter into this discussion.
Several species of lady heetles feed upon the scale, as seen in
Fig. 10. Many trees in nature have been practically freed
from the scale by a fungus, but experiments have shown that
up to the present time we cannot establish with any certainty
these fungous diseases in the northern states. We attempted
it in Maryland, along the Eastern Shore, but in all cases we

cc

FlG. 10. — The minute, black ladybug, Pentilia misella; a, beetle; b, larva;
f, pupa; d, blossom end Of pear, showing scales with larvs and pups of Pen-
tilia. with the former feeding upon them, and the pupae of Pentilia attached
within the calyx — all greatly enlarged. (After Howard and Marlatt, Bulletin
?, new series, Div. Ent., U. S. Dept. \zt.^

failed. We tried to establish it in Illinois, and even in far
northern Canada, and in the southern part of Canada, in the
fruit belt, but up to this time we have not had any beneficial
effect from it.

Now we come down to the real practical side of it. In
considering this question we have to take this fact into account,
and that is, what will do in Georgia will not do in Connecti-
cut ; and what may be applicable in Connecticut for the treat-
ment of one orchard mav not answer for another; or be

88 The Connecticut Pomological Society

applicable for one of the orchards which have been developed
on top of the Alleghany mountains, where there are some
places which have been planted with trees that you can almost
sit down by turning around, it is so steep. We must consider
that condition. We must study the scale in each of these
differing localities. We cannot sit down and be content with
studying the life history, but we must get out into the field
and observe it under dififerent and varying conditions. The
man who is going to be successful against this pest has got to
take his coat ofif and his shirt too, if necessary, and get out
and work. Get your coat ofif, therefore, and get out early in
the morning and study the conditions, and work out this
problem for yourself so far as you can, and we scientific men
will do all we can to help guide the work along effective lines.
Let us go up close to our friend Garfield, and see what
they have in Michigan. Fig. ii shows the system of enclos-
ing the tree in a big canvas tent and destroying the scale by
fumigation. At the same t:'me, what could you do with a big
canvas tent in an orchard where the trees are planted twenty
feet apart and overlap five feet, as is the case in Mr. Morrill's
orchard? This will give you an idea of the conditions we have
to meet every day. To go a step further, if you go up on
the Blue Ridge mountains you will find orchards on ground so
hilly and covered with rocks and stones, and so steep that you
couldn't even get in among the trees with a team or with any
such apparatus. Again, what would you do if you went up
on the Alleghany mountains and found an orchard so steep
that you could not get in with a wagon? Yet we have to con-
sider all these conditions in providing for efifective remedies
against this pest. Now let us consider an orchard like one of
Mr. Hale's in Georgia. Just as far as the eye can reach, the
trees stretch away in a straight row. If the scale should strike
into territory such as that, you must bear in mind, it would
be a pretty important question of dollars and cents to treat
that orchard of over 250,000 trees. On the Eastern Shore of
Maryland, one can find as fine orchards as ever grew. At
the same time one can walk all over that peninsula and not
find a stone big enough to mash a mosquito. Orchards like
these present one condition, and orchards like those in the

Tenth Annual Meeting

89

Blue Ridge and Alleghany regions, where the stones are so
thick a man could not get in with a horse, show still another.
If any of my friends are going to cultivate orchards in those
regions I would advise them to take on a big life insurance,
and a good sized accident policy. Then have two or three

Fig. II. — A thirty-foot sheet tent covering a sixteen-foot trc
taken November 6. 1897, by W. G. Johnson.

Photograph

big kites hitched to you for safety. Yet some of the hand-
somest fruit grown comes from trees in those regions. The
most of that ground has never been cultivated and seems to
be wonderfully adapted for fruit growing. You could not spray
unless you carried the solution and the pump on your back.
Much has been said about fumigation, and much has been

90 The Connecticut Pomological Society

done by our experiment stations in the fumigation of orchards
for the destruction of the scale, but when you have trees of very
large size it is a very tedious task to fumigate orchards of that
character. I know of an orchard of 5,000 Japanese plums in
jhe heart of the Alleghany mountains infested with scale. In
this connection I want to say that the trees came from one of
those nurserymen who are so positive that they never have had
the scale in their nursery. This man was willing to swear that
there had never been one on his place. At the same time he
unwittingly was guilty of establishing this scale in the heart of
a block of 100,000 trees through the sale of those 5,000 plum
trees (Fig. 12) The nurseryman in this case was not respon-
sible, as he would have taken his oath that he did not have the
scale on his place. I know him personally as a conscientious,
straightforward and reliable business man, but, at the same time,
lie was guilty of establishing this pest in that enormous plan-
tation where so much money was at stake. Had that nursery-
man taken ordinary precautions, he could perhaps have prevented
the establishment of the scale in that particular instance. That
means that he should have fumigated his stock independent of
its condition, and irrespective of his judgment as to the freedom
of his particular nursery from the scale. We all make mistakes
at times, but in a matter of that kind it is better to be on the
safe side. The man who is selling nursery stock nowadays, if
he is up to the modern business standard, will fumigate his stock
so as to protect his customers and himself.*

Many fumigating houses are being erected. They are com-
posed of a tight gas-chamber, in which the stock is placed and
exposed to the fumes of hydrocyanic acid gas. This gas, if
breathed, will destroy a human life almost instantly, as it is a
deadly poison. I have often talked to the farm hands which we
have in these houses in Maryland. In the south they have been
obliged to educate the negroes to take charge of these fumigat-
ing houses, and I assure you, they do the work very well. I
have tried to impress upon them the fact that it was a deadly
gas, that they should be careful and not go into the house until it
had been thoroughly aired, for if breathed the gas would kill

* A complete guide on the fumigation of orchards, nursery stock, greenhouses, mill
■■hips, cars and other enclosures has just heen published by Prof. Johnson. It can be
The Orange Judd Co., New York City.

s, elevators,
gotten from

. ♦5^^5S(.>&"»Ti'' "e^' »ii:-7-7T^J 'srwf fZ^f^f

3 -o

1 -s

92 The Connecticut Pomological Society

them sure. These houses have to be built very tight to prevent
the escape of the gas. I know a nurseryman who has a fumi-
gating house that he uses in the spring and fall for fumigating
purposes, and uses it through the winter in which to store
potatoes to keep them from freezing. These fumigating houses
are becoming more frequent in the nursery business, and I dare
say the time is coming, as the conditions are so rapidly chang-

Fic5. 13. A box tent in position covering a twelve foot tree. Photograph
taken November, 6. 1897. by W. G. Johnson.

ing, when every nurseryman who has any respect for himself or
his customers will be obliged to fumigate whether he has any
scale or not. He will have to do it to protect his own interests.
In some of the large orchards of the south they are experi-
menting with the tent outfit; that is, by the erection of a
large tent, completely enveloping the tree, and then fumigating
with the gas for the destruction of this pest as shown in Figs.
13 and 14. I know of one instance where an orchard of

Tenth Annual Meeting

93

10,000 trees was fumigated successfully. Up to this time this
method has not been tested very practically in the east. While
it had been used in California, and some of the other Pacific
states, but especially in California for this and for other species

Fig. 14. — Method of removing a tent. Photographed November 6. 1S97.
by \V. G. Johnson.

of this scale which infest the orange trees, it had not been
very generally used in other sections until comparatively recent-
ly. In California they find it necessary to fumigate in this
manner. By the use of enormous tents, they keep their or-
chards in bearing condition, and as a consequence, are shipping

94 The Connecticut Pomological Society

us lots of good oranges. In erecting these tents it is, of
course, necessary to make an estimation of the cubic contents
so as to get a tent the right size. The really only valuable
part of this system would be the height, and the tent being the
exact standard shape it is an easy matter to calculate the cubic
contents. Another form of tent is that having w^hat they call
an extension hood. In that a big tree 22 to 24 feet in height
could be fumigated vv^ithout difficulty. The sides are all drawn
down taut so that the covering is tight over the tree, and then
the gas is applied. When this form of apparatus was being
developed it was quite a question as to how we were going to
get these over the tops of the trees, but a system has been
perfected so that even with the enormous box ten feet square
at the base, and with the extension hood, we can put it over
a tree; raise it, and drop it over the tree in two minutes. It
has worked very well. That was not entirely satisfactory,
however, so I started on another line this year, making a box
tent which I could throw around. It is constructed in sections
that are hinged together, and all that is necessary is to slip it
around the tree and fasten it, and with the extension hood, pull
it over the tree at the top. That worked like a charm, and
was satisfactory in every respect. I do not recommend that
system, however, except in extreme cases where it is necessary
to get over each tree. It was this box system which was used
on that orchard of 5,000 plum trees up in the Alleghany
Mountains, and it is shown in Fig. 12. There are fourteen of
these boxes. This entire orchard of 5,000 trees, besides about
2,000 peach trees, were fumigated, and your esteemed Mr. Hale
had the opportunity of being in this orchard at the time. Of
course, while one tree is being fumigated preparations can be
going forward for fumigating another. In a very short time,
the whole operation can be performed and costs less than six
cents per tree.

This gives a general idea of the gas method. It is thor-
oughly satisfactory and thoroughly feasible in all orchards of
moderate size. For very large orchards I would advise the
utilization of some material other than gas. These materials
have been discussed from time to time, and some experiments
have been made with whale-oil soap, crude petroleum and

Tenth Annual Meeting 95

kerosene. Whale-oil soap, while it forms a good remedy when
applied at the rate of two pounds to the gallon, yet when it
is applied at that rate the peach buds will sufifer; so, in peach -
growing sections you must discard that method. Refined kero-
sene diluted with water gives very good results, but the time
of the year must be carefully considered, and not only the
time of the year, but the place where your orchard is located.
In some cases the effect of spraying with 25 per cent kero-
sene was not so good, but it was due not so much to the
proportion of the mixture of oil and water as to mechanical
defects in the spray pump. Many trees have been destroyed
by this imperfect dissemination of the oil and water. Spraying
with a 25 per cent solution of refined kerosene has been very
successfully done early. There is a climatic condition entering
into this problem. A moist, damp atmosphere is detrimental
in every case where you spray with a 25 per cent solution of
refined kerosene. So you must bear that in mind. Further-
more, there is a difference in locality, so far as the state of
the buds are concerned. These conditions are atmospheric,
locality, or geographic, and seasonable. You must consider all
of those points, — -atmospheric, geographic and seasonable. For
example, if you compare the buds from a mountain tree taken
on the same day as buds from a tree on the Maryland Eastern
Shore, on tide water, you will see a great difiference. It would
be at least two weeks before the buds of the same variety, or
of those two varieties , would be in the same condition. There
is a condition which you must consider carefully in spraying
every time. From the standpoint of location, after all, the
whole thing resolves itself to one problem, and that problem
is the man himself.

Put the right kind of a man back of these enterprises of
fruit-growing, and the San Jose scale, or anything else in that
line, cannot run him out of the business. He is there to stay.
When we find that we can control the San Jose scale with
such material as whale-oil soap, refined kerosene, gas and
crude petroleum, the future appears much brighter. It will
come back from time to time in all probability, but working
with the natural forces which nature has provided, and with
the artificial means for its destruction which science has

96 The Connecticut Pomological Society

devised, and with skill and persistence it can be kept under
control.

I am perfectly willing to answer any questions which you
may wish to ask, but before I come to that there is another
phase of the subject, and which may be asked me, which I
would like to discuss a little — How does this scale get from
tree to tree? That is a question which will require some little
time to answer, because there are various ways in which this
distribution takes place. One way, and perhaps the greatest
factor in the distribution of the pest, is the wind. To give
an illustration, I wouW state that in a badly infested orchard,
during the breeding season, you will find twigs and leaves, and
sometimes even the fruit, literally covered with this pest. At
that time the least little breeze will carry these little midgets
from tree to tree, and by actual test we have found that they
are sometimes carried eighteen feet. They are carried through
the atmosphere very much as particles of dust.

Another way is by means of birds. Visiting from tree to
tree they get these insects upon their feathers and feet, and
they carry them in their search for other insects. Another
important factor in the distribution arises from the insects
themselves. Other insects crawling about an infested tree
naturally get some of the little scales on them, and in flying
among the trees help the distribution in that way. Man him-
self, working among the trees, is apt to carry the pest from
infested trees to other trees upon his clothes. So you must
look out for that every time.

The greatest factor in the distribution of the San Jose scale
has been through infested nursery stock. Nurserymen as a class
are not the rascals that some people try to make them out.
They are as good as some fruit-growers. I have found more
rascals among fruit growers than in any other class of people I
ever knew. Of course, I don't suppose that is so in Connecti-
cut, but this summer 1 am going to get acquamted with some of
you and find out. But that is a fact, my friends; the nursery-
men are not wholly to blame for the distribution of this pest.
There have been some instances where nurserymen have put
out scale -infested stock, and done it wilfully, but I would black-
list such a man immediatelv if 1 knew who he was. At the

Tenth Annual Meeting 97

same time, there are other men, men who are thoroughly reli-
able, who have disseminated this pest throughout many orchards
unwittingly, and without the least desire to injure you or any-
body else. Some of them have not been aware that they had
the scale on their stock, and would not have sent out infested
stock to the injury of their customers for any consideration if
they had known it. Still, there is no question but that the
scale has been disseminated very largely by that means.

The crude petroleum question I have not touched upon to
any extent. That is still a mooted question. With crude
petroleum under certain conditions we have, under our experi-
ence up to the present time, a most promising material for the
destruction of this pest. If you attempt to use it, however, do
not use it full strength. Some of you may say, "Well, I will
use 100 per cent because then I will be sure to kill this pest."
That sort of philosophy is like that of the old darkey whom we
told to use a quarter of a pound of paris green in 25 pounds of
flour for killing worms on cabbages. The next time I saw him
I asked the old fellow how the mixture worked. He said: "The
stufif worked all right, boss. You said if I put on a quarter of a
pound it would kill him dead, but I wanted to kill him deader
and so I put on half a pound, and I killed every one of the
brutes and my cabbages too." That same principle can be
applied in the use of crude petroleum. If a 25 per cent solu-
tion will kill the scale dead, a lOO per cent solution will not kill
him any "deader." Crude petroleum gives promise of becoming
a very useful agent for spraying peaches, pears, apples and plums,
for the control of the San Jose scale. Spray with a 25 per cent
solution. Begin early in the spring, and spray up to the time
when you begin to see the petal, or opening of the buds, and
then stop. Don't spray after that time. Bear in mind the
atmospheric condition at all times, and avoid spraying on damp,
wet days.

Question: "Professor Johnson, will you tell us in a few
words what has been accomplished in Maryland through legisla-
tion to suppress the scale, and how the growers are satisfied
with the results?"

Professor Johnson: "Well, that is a problem in itself.

98 The Connecticut Pomological Society

When it comes to the question of legislation, I do not intend
to speak for Connecticut or any other state, but only for the
state in which I have been working for the last few years.
We have, as some of you know, tackled this problem there
from every standpoint, and we have been quite successful up
to the present time in the method of operation. We have
used gas, kerosene, whale-oil soap, crude petroleum and every-
thing else that has been recommended, including fire and
parasites, and we have had very good results. And it has all
been brought about by a simple method of legislation. With-
out a well-regulated law, and public sentiment back of us,
we have found it impossible to do anything. Do it effectively
and right where you have a problem of this kind to deal with.
The Maryland Legislature, two years ago, enacted a law which
I had a hand in drafting, which creates a distinct horticultural
department in the state government. That bill created the
office of state entomologist and state pathologist, gives these
men complete power and control of all the nurseries of the
state, and gives them the legal right to enter any public prop-
erty, and condemn, destroy or experiment upon anything from
an agricultural or horticultural point of view that in their
judgment should be taken in hand. That is the principle
upon which Maryland has been operating for two years, and
back of that law is public sentiment. Perfect harmony exists
between the fruit-raisers, nurserymen and floriculturists, and all
interests concerned. Where you have that harmony you have
no difficulty at all in enforcing the law. It is left in the
hands of the state officers to say whether, in their judgment,
a tree has a commercial value. If I should go into Mr. Hale's
plantation and find that he had some fungous disease or insect
on his trees, or some difficulty which was liable to prove of
great damage and detriment to Mr. Miles, just over the fence,
I would have the right to dictate to him what he should do,
and thereby obtain the protection of his neighbor. In other
words, if Mr. Hale refused to cut down and destroy the trees
or shrubs on his plantation in accordance with our directions
we would have that done upon his place, and he would have
to pay the costs. It would be done upon the ground that it
was for the protection of other interests, and he would have

Tenth Annual Meeting 99

to pay the costs in that case. The costs would be collected
exactly the same as you would collect taxes. We would say
to Mr. Hale, 'You pay this bill.' He would have to pay it.
That is all there is to it. In only one case have we been
obliged to enforce that requirement by the state. I am glad
to say that, as the result of that legislation, where two years
ago we had the scale existing in, you might say, 40 per cent
of certain orchards in a given region or section, that has been
reduced to a minimum of less than 2 per cent. That result
has not been due wholly to the effective work of the officers
in charge, but to the complete cooperation on the part of
the individuals and growers in whose interests this law was
enacted. There is a strong public sentiment in favor of it,
but at the same time there is this regulation back of this
sentiment to protect one man from the indiflference of his neigh-
bor. The nurserymen are fumigating their stock under
specific regulations in the same manner, and we are having no
difficulty whatever."

The President: "What is the cost of it to the state?"

Professor Johnson: "At the present time the state of
Maryland is making an annual appropriation of $8,000 to carry
on this work."

Question: "Do you find there that one spraying is suffi-
cient to exterminate the scale?"

Professor Johnson: "No, sir; not as a rule. That is a
point about which I neglected to speak. The scale once
established in an old orchard is there to stay, so you will be
obliged to spray once a year. In cases where the orchard is
not badly infested the spraying can be done in sections: that is,
spraying different portions of the orchard alternate years. That
is the principle on which it is carried on in California in the big
orchard districts. I have never known of a case of complete
extermination."

Question: "Professor, if we are going to spray with crude
oil what specific gravity should we buy, or is there any particular
kind of oil we should call for? I believe there are a good
many taken in by this so-called crude oil. Now is there any
way of getting at it so as to be sure to get the proper kind,
so it will not do any damage?"

loo The Connecticut Pomological Society

Professor Johnson: "The oil men use a test. It is an
instrument having a scale, and the oil should test on that scale
not less than 43 degrees. The higher \'^ou go the more expen-
sive it becomes, but it should not test less than 43 degrees. It
should range, I think, between 43 and 45 degrees. The oil
should not be thick. Some of the oils are yellow or brown,
and those should be avoided because they carry a very high
percentage of vaseline."

Mr. InniS: 'T would like to make a statement. At Bridge-
port we have the scale, and lots of it. Being interested in this
line and the owner of a particular place being a friend of mine,
I had occasion to make a microscopic study of the San Jose
scale in its native haunts. After a thorough examination I said
to this friend of mine, 'You cannot do more than kill the tree,
and I will tell you what to do. We will use clear kerosene.'
That tree was thoroughly drenched from the ground to its tips
in the early spring, in March I think it was, with pure kero-
sene. It was put on on a bright sunshiny, but a consider-
ably windy day, when the air was in motion and everything
favorable. That tree the past season bore a good crop of fruit,
and is in apparently a good healthy condition so far as I have
been able to discover; and I cannot find a living scale on it."

Professor Johnson: "That shows that pure kerosene un-
der those conditions is no more liable to injure the tree than a
25 or 30 per cent solution. I have heard of a good many cases
reported where 25 per cent used under unfavorable conditions
caused a good deal of damage. At the same time, if the
growers will be sufficiently careful about the weather when they
spray, and the condition of the trees, experience has shown that
25 per cent is a safe proportion. As I said before, you must
work out a good many of these problems for yourselves and not
be guided too much by what we fellows say. What may do for
Mr. Hale down in South Glastonbury may not do for the fellow
right over the fence. There may be a difference in conditions
existing in two orchards with only a rail fence between. I have
seen that on a single slope of the mountains in the south. We
are only throwing out topics for thought for the individual
growers to adjust, and to work out for themselves. The best
thing is for a man to work out his own case."

Tenth Annual Meeting loi

Question: "You spoke of the mechanical condition of the
pump as being responsible for the damage in some cases. Was
that on account of the mechanism of the pump?"

Professor Johnson: ''Oil and water are not of the same
specific gravity, and as soon as a man lets up on the handle of
the pump they tend to separate. If he is using a 25 per cent
solution, one-quarter is oil. Now if he lays on the handle
fifteen or twenty minutes that quarter of oil will be very apt to
come to the top, and the very first plunge he makes with the
pump handle he is going to throw almost pure oil. There are
pumps upon the market which are being satisfactorily worked.
They have done good work for us, and we are using them,
but, at the same time, they admit of great improvement yet."

Question: "I would like to inquire if down in Maryland
you go right into a citizen's garden and look to see if they have
the scale?"

Professor Johnson: 'T said that we had the right to do
that. In some instances, we have had to go in and pull up all
the currant and gooseberry bushes, and even the few little
shrubs that some people usually set out. We have been obliged
to do it."

Mr. Hoyt: "What time of the year do you usually make
your investigations?"

Professor Johnson: "Any time after the breeding season
opens. The breeding season is about from the ist to the 15th
of June, or from the middle of June say until it gets cold. I
have seen them breeding up to the igth of December as far
south as Washington, and further south you will find them
much later than that. It usually takes several severe frosts
, before they will stop breeding, and I should say up here in
this section you would be apt to find them from June to
November."

Mr. Innis: "I found them in Bridgeport breeding as late
as the 25th of November this last year."

Mr. Hoyt : "Any danger of carrying them in your clothes
from one place to another? "

Professor Johnson: "Yes, sir. We have one case on
record where they were carried five miles on the harness of a
horse."

I02 The Connecticut Pomological Society

Mr. Hoyt: ''I don't know but we better fumigate our
lecturer."

Professor Johnson: ''I don't think there will be any
danger where there is as much 'gas' as we have here."

Professor Johnson's very instructive address, which by the
aid of the stereopticon brought out this important subject most
clearly, was greatly appreciated. At the conclusion of the dis-
cussion President Merriman announced the following special
committee, to act during the meeting:

On the Exhibit of Fruits. — N. S. Piatt, New Haven;
Charles Black, Hightstown, N. J., and Prof. A. G. Gulley,
of Storrs.

On the Implement Exhibit. — J. C. Eddy, Simsbury; J. T.
Molumphy, Berlin, and J. Norris Barnes, of Yalesville.

At 5.30 the Society took a recess until the evening session.

EVENING SESSION — FIRST DAY.

Convention called to order at 7.40 P. M., President Merri-
man in the chair.

"The President: "Our first speaker this evening will be
Prof. W. E. Britton, of the New Haven Experiment Station,
who will present a paper upon ' State Legislation Against Fruit
Pests: The Situation in Connecticut.'"

STATE LEGISLATION AGAINST FRUIT PESTS: THE
situation in CONNECTICUT.

BY W. E. BRITTON.

On March 5, 1897, a convention assembled at Washington,
D. C "to consider and recommend the most appropriate
federal and state legislation for preventing the introduction or
diffusion of noxious insects and fungi in the United States."
The call for such a meeting was issued by the Ohio State
Horticultural Society, which passed a resolution to that effect
in February, 1896. The experiment stations and boards and
societies of agriculture and horticulture throughout the country
responded by sending delegates to the number of forty -six
from seventeen states and the District of Columbia. Papers

Tenth Annual Meeting 103

were read and discussed, and the work of the convention was
crystallized in a bill which was drawn up and introduced into
Congress, providing for a system of inspection to prevent the
introduction into this country of pests now recognized in
foreign lands and to prevent the dissemination of pests from
one part of the United States to another through interstate
commerce. Previous to this time a few states had enacted
laws for the protection of their own fruit interests, and it was
generally recognized that a national measure would be much
more satisfactory in its workings than separate legislation in
the different states. The bill, however, failed to pass, not
because there was any particular opposition to such a measure,
but because it was pushed aside to give time for the con-
sideration of other seemingly more important matters. And so
on to this day every Congress has been asked to pass a similar
law by the leading horticulturists and entomologists of this
country, and twice, if I mistake not, the Committee on
Agriculture has reported favorably on the bills, but the Spanish
war, our new possessions, the currency question and a hundred
other matters seemed of so much greater importance to our
national legislators that the time was not long enough to con-
sider and pass a measure which would unquestionably benefit
the great and growing fruit interests of the whole United
States. But if a national measure could not be procured, state
legislation must be enacted, for horticultural interests must be
protected ; and state legislatures passed laws one after another,
each different in scope and methods of execution. The cause
of all this attempted legislation, the direct impetus of the
whole movement, was the San Jose scale, which had been
brought into the east and distributed over nearly every state on
nursery stock. Incidentally, other pests were included in the law.
At the present time laws are in force in twenty-two differ-
ent states; and in four more bills have already been introduced
into the legislatures and are expected to pass soon. (Copies
of the laws are on file at the Experiment Station.) In another
state, legislation is contemplated, but the movement has not
yet taken form. I have prepared a list of states which have
enacted laws, also giving the provision for expenses, and the
official or board under which the work is carried out.

I04 The Connecticut Pomological Society

The following states have horticultural inspection laws :

Date of

Enactment

Board or Official Charged

Provisions for Defraying

StA 1 K.

or Latest
Revision.

WITH THE Work.

Expenses.

California . . .

1897

County Boards of Horti-

Per diem salaries and ne-

culture.

cessary expenses from
County funds.

Colorailo . .

1897

Professor of Entomology

All expenses borne by the

examines and licenses

owner.

county inspectors ap-

pointed by county com-

missioners.

Delaware . .

1897

Inspector appointed by

Special appropriation of

Governor.

$300 per annum.

Georgia

1897

State Entomologist under

Special appropriation of

the direction of the

$2,500 per annum,

State Board of Ento-

11,500 being for salary

mology.

of State Entomologist.

Idaho

1897

State Board of Horticul-

Special appropriation of

tural Inspection.

$10,500 per annum.

Illinois ...

1899

State Entomologist

Special appropriation of
$4,000 per annum.

Indiana . . ■

1899

State Entomologist

Special appropriation of
$1,000 per annum.

Iowa .

1898

State Entomologist

Kentucky . . .

1897

State Entomologist ....

Special appropriation of
$500 per annum.

Louisiana .

1897

Agricultural Experiment
Station.

Fines to pay expenses.

Maryland . .

1896

State Entomologist

Special appropriation of
$8,000 per annum.

Michigan

1897

State Board Agriculture

Necessary expenses paid
from state treasury.

Montana .

1899

State Board of Horticul-

Special appropriation of

ture.

$3,000 per annum.

New Jersey.

1898

State Entomologist

Speci&l appropriation of
$1,000 per annum.

New York. . .

1898

Commissioner of Agri-

Expenses from general

culture.

Agricultural Fund.

N. Carolina.

1897

Crop Pest Commission...

Special appropriation of
$500 per annum.

Ohio

1899

Agricultural Experiment

Special appropriation of

Station.

$7,500 per annum.

Oregon

1895

State Board of Horticul-

Expenses paid by the court

ture.

from County funds.

Pennsylvania

1899

Township Boards

Expenses paid by town or
city, and amount re-
covered from owner.

Utah

1894

Appointments made by

Expenses paid from Coun-

County Courts.

ty treasury.

Virginia

1898

Agricultural Experiment

Special appropriation of

Station.

$1,000 per annum.

Washington .

1897

Commissioner of Horti-

Special appropriation of

culture.

$1,500 per annum.

Tenth Annual Meeting 105

Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia
will probably pass laws this winter if they have not already
done so.

The other states which are now without horticultural pest
laws are :

Arkansas, Massachusetts, Nevada, Texas,

Connecticut, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Vermont,

Florida, Mississippi, North Dakota, Wisconsin,

Kansas, Missouri, Rhode Island, Wyoming.

Maine, Nebraska, South Dakota,

It is obvious froin the foregoing that a national measure
would be more satisfactory as regards uniformity, at least, than
the various state laws. Fourteen states have special appropria-
tions, varying from $300 per annum in Delaware to $10,500
a year in Idaho. In several states no special appropriation is
made, but the necessary expenses are paid out of the treasury
of the state or county. The smallest allowance would seem
to be in Louisiana, where the fines after paying fees and costs
of prosecution are supposed to cover the expenses.

The methods of carrying out the work are quite different.
In some states the law provides only for nursery inspection,
while in others orchards as well as nurseries are examined.

Seven states have state entomologists in charge of this in-
spection work. In some cases the men appointed already held
positions at the College or Experiment Station and receive no
increase in salary.

Delaware has a state inspector appointed by the Governor.

In three states the State Board of Horticulture, and in one
the State Board of Agriculture, are charged with carrying out
the provisions of the laws.

New York has a state entomologist, but the law places the
work of inspection under the direction of the commissioner of
agriculture.

The State Experiment Station is authorized to prosecute
the work in each of three different states.

North Carolina has a Crop Pest Commission for the pur-
pose, California has county boards of horticulture, while in
Colorado the county commissioners appoint inspectors who are
examined and licensed by the professor of entoinology in the

io6 The Connecticut Pomological Society

State Agricultural College, to make sure that they are com-
petent for the work.

Pennsylvania laws organize the work under township boards,
while in Utah the county courts make appointments and draw
upon the county treasury to pay expenses.

Connecticut has never legislated against the San Jose scale,
but early in 1893 the Assembly passed a bill creating a Peach
Yellows Commission, providing for the inspection of all peach
orchards of the state and obliging the owners to destroy the
diseased trees which the commission had condemned. The
law placed the matter largely under the control of the State
Board of Agriculture. The commission was appointed by the
Board, and the selection of deputies as well as the regulations
under which the work was prosecuted were subject to the
ratification and approval of the board.

The law, though not entirely satisfactory in all respects,
was probably one of the best laws ever enacted for the pur-
pose. It was repealed in 1897 by a legislature composed of
men who believed in economy and retrenchment, especially
along agricultural lines. During the four years that the Peach
Yellows Commission existed, 1,883,123 trees were examined
and 99,714 of them were condemned and presumably destroyed.
The total expense to the state for this work was about
$18,750, or less than one cent per tree. The proportion of
diseased trees as indicated by the number of trees condemned
was reduced from 10 per cent in 1893 to 2.8 per cent in 1896.
This reduction can fairly be placed to the credit of the legis-
lation and of the Peach Yellows Commission that executed
the laws. But it was difficult to obtain competent inspectors
in some districts and there was much prejudice against the
law on this account, and some pressure was brought to bear
upon the legislators for its repeal.

One of the best effects of the Peach Yellows Law was
that of educating the people of the state, many of whom were
unaware of the existence of such a disease as the "yellows."
The same is true of any legislation of like nature. Much in-
formation has been disseminated regarding the prevention and
spread of human diseases by the work of our boards of health
and sewerage commission. But there is even a greater reason

Tenth Annual Meeting 107

for enacting laws for the suppression of San Jose scale than
for that of peach "yellows." The former pest may attack any
kind of a tree, while the latter never occurs except on peach
and Japan plum trees.

Let us consider the situation in Connecticut. So many
states have passed laws requiring the inspection of nurseries
and that a certificate of inspection should accompany each
package or shipment, that our own nurserymen found it im-
possible to ship stock into other states without some sort of a
certificate on each package. In the absence of any legislation
they applied to the Experiment Station at New Haven, and
for four years we have been making inspections and giving
certificates. This inspection work has been extremely unsatis-
factory in all respects save one — it has answered the require-
ments of the laws in other states and enabled the nurserymen
to ship their stock out of Connecticut. It has done almost
nothing to prevent the spread of the scale within our borders.
At first the Station bore all the expense for these inspections,
but for the past two years we have asked the owners to pay the
traveling expenses of the inspector; the Station pays his salary.
Under these conditions no attempt could be made to inspect
orchards except in a few cases on request of the owners. Several
small nurseries were inspected three and four years ago and
found badly infested with the San Jose scale. A certificate
was, of course, refused, and a second inspection has never been
called for. We had no authority to cause the destruction or
treatment of the infested stock, though we strongly advised it,
and the owners promised to comply. We have no proof that
it ever was destroyed or even sprayed or fumigated, and there
was nothing in the world except the nurseryman's conscience
(and we hope he had one) to prevent the sale of the stock to
unsuspecting purchasers within the boundaries of Connecticut,
though he was debarred from shipping it into New York or
New Jersey.

In another case a nurseryman wanted his stock examined to
see whether or not it was infested with scale. No scale was
found, but his peach stock was growing in a bearing orchard
of peach trees badly infested with the "yellows." He had
obtained and planted pits from the south, where "yellows"

io8 The Connecticut Pomological Society

does not occur. Beneath and around the large trees the stock
had produced that characteristic sprout growth, showing that
within two years from the pit these young trees had not only
contracted the disease from the old trees, but that during this
time the malady had developed to such an extent that the
"yellows" growth had appeared. We had to give a certificate
saying that no San Jose scale had been found, but crossed out
the clause relating to other pests. In spite of the good advice
which this nurseryman received, there is every reason to believe
that the stock, instead of being destroyed, was worked off upon
the suflfering public.

It has been said that Connecticut may be the dumping-
ground for infested stock from other states, but the scale is
frequently brought into our state under certificates. Be that as
it may, the greatest need of Connecticut fruit-growers at present
is for protection from within instead of from without the bound-
ary lines of the state. Connecticut is already a badly infested
state. But we must not place all the blame upon the nursery-
men. There are cases where infested orchards are located near
nurseries and it is next to impossible for the nurseryman to send
out clean stock, and in spite of all he can do the source of
infection remains. Without doubt we shall soon be obliged to
withhold certificates altogether, because the infested areas are
fast spreading over the entire state. There are probably hun-
dreds of infested localities which we know nothing about. The
mere granting of a certificate to a nurseryman does not prevent
the spread of the scale. True, there are cases where a few
infested trees have been found in nurseries and the owners
destroyed them before the eyes of the inspector. But the
certificate benefits the nurseryman more than the buyer because
it enables him to do business in the states where inspection
laws exist.

It is impossible to inspect stock so thoroughly that you are
sure it is free from pests, but one thorough inspection of the
orchards and nurseries of the state would give much data about
the distribution and spread of the San Jose scale, that might
be of value in determining future action. The present system
is totally inadequate to the situation and must soon be
abandoned.

Tenth Annual Meeting 109

Any arrangement that does not provide for the suppression
of the scale in orchards and gardens or for the inspection of
imported nursery stock at the ports of entry is inadequate and
should not be considered. It is a man's misfortune to have
the scale brought on to his premises, but it is his fault if he
takes no measures to destroy it after he is aw^are of its presence.

There would be much opposition to the destruction of trees
by any official inspector, and it is not safe to leave the treat-
ment wholly to the option of the owner. Perhaps a treat-
ment, either by spraying or fumigation, under the direction of
the state official and at the owner's expense would give the
best satisfaction. If any orchardist or nurseryman should refuse
to comply with either the letter or spirit of the law, or the
advice of the inspector, I believe that a wide publication of the
fact would do quite as much to further our ends as a prosecu-
tion, though, of course, there should be a provision for the
vigorous prosecution of all offenders.

Unquestionably a national measure is what we need. A
bill is now before Congress, but it will doubtless share the same
fate as its predecessors: it is not expected to pass. The various
states which have enacted inspection laws are not repealing
them, as Connecticut has done. In many cases such laws
have been modified, amended or revised, but not repealed.
Each year the number of states requiring inspection work
grows larger.

Shall Connecticut again enact measures for the suppression
of pests? That is for you as fruit-growers and nurserymen to
determine. It is not the province of the Experiment Station
to take the initiative in this matter. If any legislation is
demanded, the demand must come from those who would be
most benefited by the measure and whose interests are suffer-
ing for the want of it.

If it is your will that inspection laws be enacted in this
commonwealth, the Experiment Station will lend you every
assistance in its power to best promote the horticultural inter-
ests of the state of Connecticut.

The President: "We are fortunate in having with us this
evening our genial friend, Mr. H. W. CoUingwood, of 'The

I lo The Connecticut Pomologlcal Society

Rural New-Yorker.' I know we shall all enjoy listening to
him in addition to our other speakers. 1 would like to call
upon him now."

Mr. Collingwood: "Mr. President: I think about the
meanest thing a man can do is to steal another man's talk.
I do not want to do that because I know that your program
is fully made out. Brother Hale and these other people are
just aching to get all the time they can to talk, and I am not
going to steal any man's time, and I am going to cut myself
off as soon as I can. I don't know much about the apple -
growing business, and perhaps not so much as the newspapers
pretend sometimes, but I do know this; that a meeting of
this kind is not unlike the making up of a paper. The
arrangement of the speaking and the general make-up is not
unlike a good newspaper. The ideal newspaper has not been
printed. If I could get up that I should feel just about right,
and I will tell you how I would do it. I would hire the very
best men I could in the country to discuss those things that
were of living interest in a practical way. I would give 99
per cent of that paper up to those men, and then I would
take the remaining i per cent, and I would try and get hold
of a man who knew nothing about it, and I would have that
man write the editorial page. Why? Because it is given to
some men to dig facts out of the soil, and out of the great
mines of information, and it is given to other men to rub those
facts in, and the man, generally, who digs the facts out is not
the best man to rub them in. Therefore, I say that while I
am not given to digging these facts relative to horticulture
out perhaps I can rub them in a little. I went up in Maine
awhile ago and attended the Pomological Society. 1 expected
to find a lot of bears roaming around the state, but I found
one of the best shows I ever saw. Their display of apples was
one of the finest I ever saw. I got to talking with a man
from one of their back counties about the exhibit of apples,
and he said this: ' My friend, wherever you find farmers that
raise a high-grade class of apples there you will find pros-
perity.' He says, 'I will prove that to you by telling you
what happened in our town. We have in our town a poor

Tenth Annual Meeting iii

farm ; and all the paupers and the poor people are taken to
this farm. They go and get them. A man with four children
notified the selectmen that he could not support his family, so
they went with the wagon to take that family; the four
children were bundled into the wagon, and the pauper himself
went on his bicycle. Now that means that when even the
paupers have the means to own and ride bicycles, that was
the greatest evidence of prosperity I ever saw.' I agreed with
him. I don't believe you can find that outside of New
England, and I don't believe you can find that outside of
that apple-growing district up in Maine.

''Now just one more rub. Mr. Garfield tells us that in
London he found the people eating California peaches. I won-
der where it was that the California peach picked up that won-
derful flavor they tell about. To my mind it is worse than the
Ben Davis apple. I can't understand why a man should want
to eat one a second time. I can imagine his eating one; just
one, or half a one, but I can't understand where there is a man
that should eat two. Where, and how it was that these Cali-
fornia peaches picked up that magnificent flavor we hear about
I don't know. I wish that he was here so that he could tell
us. I would like to know how that was done.

''Mr. Garfield said one more thing which was true. He
said that he dug up information, and that he would give it to
anybody he could, or anything, to broaden and deepen the
respect for our farms and their products. That is true. I have
two boys at home, and I have been trying for the last three
years to teach them to have respect for the common things on
the farm. My own example, apparently, was not strong, so I
gave them books, and I gave them Brother Hale's articles in
'The Rural New-Yorker,' but I didn't seem to make much
progress until I finally bought a thoroughbred Berkshire pig with
a pedigree several miles long, and with hams and shoulders
strong enough to bear the pedigree up. I don't know whether
it was the pedigree, or what it was, but the idea of handling
something which was better than they had ever seen before;
the idea of handling something which had blue blood in it, or
the idea of handling something which had a pedigree, — it all
seemed to appeal to them, — and from that day to this they have

112 The Connecticut Pomological Society

taken better care of my stock, and they have taken more pride in
their work, and they have taken better care of everything I have
on the farm simply from their association with that Berkshire
pig. That is true. 1 got a letter from a man in this state, and
that man told this story. He said : ' My neighbor bought a
horse, and he paid $125 for him. He claimed it would do
everything but talk. He kept it along and took good care of it,
and at the end of eight months he sold that horse for $750,
actual figures. He found a man who paid him $750; and that
man made $625 on that horse. Now, then,' he says, 'I am
ready to pay seventy -five cents for a book on horse -training that
will enable me to do the same thing. If you have got a book
which you will sell for seventy-five cents, or I might possibly
give a dollar, if you have got a book which will tell me how to
do that thing. I'll send you seventy-five cents anyway.' I
wrote that man that what his friend did when he bought that
horse for $125 and sold him for $750 was to take brains right
out of his head; he took part of himself, and wrought by his
own skill, and put it under the skin of that horse. That is
what he did. You can't learn how to do that out of a book
for seventy-five cents, or $75, or $750. That is a part of the
man. So it is, my friends; every man who sends away from his
farm a good peach, or a poor peach, a good apple, or a poor
apple, sends a part of himself right along in the basket with that
fruit every time. It takes brains to be successful in any line,
and you can't get away from it. Good or bad, high-priced or
cheap, every package that you send away from your farm con-
tains a part of yourself, and no human being can put on paper
so as to show you just how these things are done. You have
to associate with them yourself, and dig them out, and rub in
the facts you learn so as to make the most of them. The man
who is unwilling to do that, who is satisfied to grub along, will
soon find his own level. A man with no more pride than that
in his work is really to be pitied. What will become of him
I don't know, and 1 don't believe he does himself."

The President: "In Connecticut we believe in pedigreed
stock, and we have here in Connecticut some full-blooded,
Yankee pedigreed stock. And I think you will agree with
me when I announce the name of a sample of that stock,
J. H. Hale, who will now address you."

Tenth Annual Meeting 113

Mr. Hale: "Mr. President, and ladies and gentlemen:
I have been asked to speak a little while this evening upon
'Ten Years of Pomological Progress in Our State.' That
covers about the life history of this Society, and is of particular
interest to us, but as Brother CoUingwood says he has stolen
so much of my time I perhaps will not say so much, or all I
would have said if I had had more time.

"The increased development of interest in fruit culture in
Connecticut has unquestionably been greater in the last ten or
fifteen years than in all the fifty years that preceded, and espe-
cially in the development of finer appreciation of choice fruits,
and their care and cultivation. Taking them in their order,
the various fruits that we are interested in here in our own
state, — taking them in the order of their ripening, the straw-
berry would come first, but that perhaps has not shown the
advance that other fruits have, because in the early nineties,
when this Society was organized, we were on the high tide
of strawberry culture, and many new growers had just come
into the business, and from 1892 to 1895 there was a wonder-
ful increase in strawberry planting in our state, and with it a
steady lowering of profits. During those times the strawberry
found its way into more homes, and on more days of the week
than it ever had before, but with a steady lowering of the
profits. They touched about bottom in 1896 and 1897. Since
that time I think there has been much less planting of the
strawberry for commercial purposes. There has been more in
private gardens, but from 1896, 1897, and there on there has
been a constant decrease of strawberry planting, commercially
speaking, so that it is less to-day, or at least it is not any
greater to-day than it was in 1890, and not over half what it
was in 1895. The general tendency, of course, is upward,
and the rather increased prices which will come to us this
coming year will tend to stimulate the over-product which we
had in 1895 and 1896. That is a question which we will have
to consider, but those with a good field of strawberries have
an opportunity for better prices than they have had at any
time for six or eight years. The question of varieties has
already been touched upon here, but I think it is safe to say
that the popular varieties of ten years ago are practically out

114 The Connecticut Pomological Society

of the list now with the exception of the Crescent, which is
still well received, and grown by many; the Haverland also.
The popular ones of to-day were unknown ten years ago, and
probably the ones that are popular now will not be known in
ten years from now. The strawberry has a faculty for run-
ning out, and there are very few get past the ten -year limit.

''Now as to currants. Within the past ten years, and as
early as in the early part of the nineties, there was a greatly
increased planting. Up to that time a majority of our currants
came from without the state,- but many of our planters planted
extensively in the state from 1890 to 1895, and there was an
abundant production up to a few years ago. Up to two or
three years ago there was an abundant supply for the state,
and an abundance to ship out of the state; but of late the
preserve manufacturers have been putting on the market a fine
quality of goods made from this fruit in the way of jellies, etc.,
and now the general tendency is to do away with canning in
the home families, and in our cities, and the result is that it
has made a less market for currants, and there is less consump-
tion of currants in the market to-day than there was ten years
ago. As Brother Garfield said this afternoon, there is a read-
justment going on all the time. I know of some fields that
have been pulled up, yet those that care for them will succeed,
and are succeeding, in producing some fine fruit of this class.
The varieties you know just as well as I do. The only new
one of special note is the Wilder, put out by Mr. Willard, of
Geneva, N. Y. It is a full, large currant, produces large
bunches, but somewhat lighter in color than some of the other
varieties. It has a decided advantage, however, especially for
family use, in the fact that it remains on the bush for several
weeks after it is ripe. It is not so attractive in color, being of
a rather pale red color, not so brilliant as some of the others,
but on the whole a very good currant.

"Raspberries, especially the red raspberries, have had some-
what of a downfall in the last ten years. There are less of
them grown for commercial purposes in the state than there
were ten years ago. They have dropped 50 per cent in selling
price, and the volume of the demand has also dropped con-
siderably. That is particularly the case with their use for

Tenth Annual Meeting 115

canning purposes, and is due largely to the great in-rush of
southern fruit at that season of the year. Before that set in
they used to be one of our main fresh fruits from our native
grounds, but now, because of the rush of fruit from the
South, flooding all our markets, it has cut o£E a considerable
amount of demand for red raspberries. While many families
are appreciating them more and more, and are planting them
for private uses, the people at large are not doing that to any
great extent, and the result is it affects their production at
large. For the black raspberry in some markets there seems
to be an increased demand, and I think it is more appreciated
in the family and homes than it was. I certainly feel from my
own observation that it is being used for cooking more, and I
think, perhaps, more bushels of it are sold. We have cut
down the number of varieties in both the red and black, so
that there are only two or three known as standard. The
only new red raspberry in this period is the Loudon. It is
rather more hardy than the Cuthbert, more brilliant in color,
and more productive.

"In black raspberries we have had the Kansas from the
west, and the Cumberland from Pennsylvania. Both are of
decided importance, as they are a distinct advance in the vigor
of plant, in productiveness, and size of the berry. They are
both wonderfully strong growers.

"Blackberries have been even more affected by the incom-
ing of southern fruit, and are less grown than formerly. I
believe Brother Butler still grows them largely, but on the
whole they are less grown and with less profit than they were
ten years ago. The Lucretia dewberry, which is really a
blackberry, is being grown somewhat. It is a very early berry
of large size and delicious quality. The only new blackberry
is the Eldorado, which is a very hardy berry, of delicious
quality, and certainly worthy of being planted for family use,
but with the general drift away from buying blackberries at
the season of the year when we can ripen them in this climate
it is a question whether they will be commercially grown to
any great extent except by a few growers.

"I want to endorse all that my friend Garfield said about the
quality of fruit that is put upon the market, and about our

ii6 The Connecticut Pomological Society

growers encouraging people to know and understand about fine
fruit, to appreciate fine fruit, and thereby stimulating the de-
mand for it. The more people appreciate fine fruit, fruit of
high quality and flavor, the more it will stimulate the growers to
give it to them if they will pay the price. The more that can
be done the better it will be for both the public which buys
fruit, and the growers who have it to sell. Southern competi-
tion in all these fruits has come, and is with us to stay. The
development of through lines of railways, and the consolidation
of small local lines into great through lines, which enables them
to run fast freight trains under one management from a thousand
to fifteen hundred miles in the south to northern markets, and
the development of the refrigerator car, has made it possible to
lay down southern fruits in our northern markets in almost as
bright and fresh a condition as when they are picked. Such a
thing was impossible a few years ago, and that is one of the
things that has come upon us largely within the last decade
which we have got to face and meet. We are not afraid of the
competition of the Eastern Shore of Marjland and Delaware,
but with this new development in transportation facilities our
early strawberry season is seriously affected by the latter end of
their crop coming in just about as perfect and fresh from a point
five hundred miles away as our own berries will be picked within
a short distance of our local markets. As I say, those are con-
ditions which have come upon us very largely within the last ten
years. We have to meet those conditions, for they are here to
stay. We have to look out sharper, and watch more closely
in the future than in the past.

"The culture of the grape has been increased very greatly
during the last ten \^ears. The introduction of the Green
Mountain by our Brother Hoyt has brought to our state one of
the choicest of the early grapes that we have had, and his adver-
tising and pushing of that variety has stimulated the growing and
planting of that particular grape so that there has been a sub-
stantial increase, and we have more of that delicious fruit among
our families and homes than we ever had before. With the
Niagara, and the Concord, which covers about the list, there has
been an extended planting, not only of those varieties but of a
number of others. There has been a considerable planting of

Tenth Annual Meeting 117

grapes for wine-making by the foreigners who have come to
reside among us, notably the French and Italians, and they are
furnishing themselves and others with a substantial food product
out of our grapes. Those people use a great deal of wine with
their meals, and that has led to a demand from that quarter
for certain varieties to plant for wine-making. I want to say
to Brother Hoyt that those who have tried it tell me that
the Green Mountain grape is one of the best grapes for wine-
making that has ever been grown in the state of Connecti-
cut. It is on account of its early-ripening qualities and the
amount of sugar there is in it. Grape planting and culture
is an industry which is certainly on the increase among our
growers.

"Japanese plums were almost unknown to us ten years ago.
The Abundance, and the Burbank, and those older varieties
were known to us then, but practically our entire list was un-
known in this state ten years ago. There wasn't a commercial
orchard of Japanese plums in our state ten years ago, and there
was not, in all probability, five thousand trees on private grounds
in this state ten years ago. At the present time I presume
there are upwards of a hundred thousand, and there are probably
very few private grounds that have fruit trees on them at all but
have one or more of the Japanese plums. Their development
has furnished a new food supply to our masses throughout the
summer season of two or three months. We questioned four
or five years ago whether there would be any sale for them.
That has been settled. The people have only had to see
them and learn about them to buy them. Where plums of
good size, beauty and high quality have been put upon the
market there has been a steady increase of demand at prices
remunerative to the grower, and they are with us to stay as one
of our valuable commercial crops. The Abundance is one of the
best. The Burbank still holds its reputation as a plum of large
size and great beauty of shape. For canning, the Satsuma and
the October Purple are superb fruits. Those are some of the
most excellent plums covering the season from July to October.
The Red June is another variety which is one of the most reli-
able and is a valuable plum because it comes in so early, but like
most of the early varieties is subject to rot. They need the

ii8 The Connecticut Pomological Society

most severe thinning, and if they are thinned so as to bring them
up to size it adds ver}' much to their quality.

"Of peaches, there were less than a hundred thousand trees
in our orchards ten years ago, and practically all of them in the
hands of half a dozen growers. To-day, without any exact
figures, it is safe to say there are nearly three million trees in the
state, and not including those on private grounds. Connecticut
to-day is regarded as a greater producer of peaches than Dela-
ware. Delaware, twenty years ago was one of the greatest
peach -growing states in the Union, but to-day she is not even
on a par with Connecticut, for Connecticut is a greater peach -
growing state than Delaware. That is a development of the
last ten years very largely, and is one of the consequences of the
organization of this Society. The old standard varieties of ten
years ago are with us yet, and some of the new ones. Probably
the one that is being planted the most, and one that will give us
great quality, is the Elberta, and some of the newer ones which
were under discussion here to-day.

"In pears there has been no increase in planting commer-
cially. Some of the old varieties have been abandoned, and some
every much neglected as unprofitable. Probably the Bartlett is
paying as good a profit as any of our growers expect under
present conditions, with the exception that in a few sections of
the state where a few of some of the other varieties have been
grown at a profit. The only advance of importance in varieties
is the Worden-Seckel. I do not know how many have fruited
it. I know a few have. It is a tree of wonderful vigor, and
produces a pear fully twice as large as the ordinary well -grown
Seckel. Many who have tested them count them fully as good
in quality as the Seckel pear themselves. To have a pear which
is as good as the old Seckel but with twice the size is certainly a
wonderful advantage. If I had any land which was adapted to
pear culture at all, which I could spare, I would put out a
liberal orchard of Worden-Seckel, for I believe that there is a
chance that is worth considering.

"Cherries have been running down in our state not only
for the last ten years, but for the last twenty, so that now
there are no commercial orchards in our state, and practically
no good cherry trees for family supply. They have not seemed

Tenth Annual Meeting 119

to thrive, but I believe we should encourage their planting,
and I believe commercial orchards of large sour cherries would
find a ready sale. I believe that it is an industry that has
been neglected, and one that needs encouraging.

"The apple we have discussed here to-day. The old-time
neglect of the apple tree in our state has gone by. With the
advance of this Society, and with the aid of the discussions
which took place at our early meetings, there has come a
general cleaning up, and more care and attention paid to the
old apple trees that were of value and to the culture of new
orchards. There has been a general uplifting of the apple
industry throughout our state, and particularly within the last
five years. There has been considerable planting of com-
mercial orchards of young trees within the last five years.
Previous to the last five to eight years you could hardly find
an orchard under twenty-five years old. There is a general
appreciation and awakening to the fact that Connecticut can
be made the land of the big red apple, and it is the land of
the good red apple. Our people are waking up to it, and I
believe from the feeling that is in the air to-day, and from the
word that has gone out all along the line about the advan-
tages to be gained from apple culture in Connecticut, and
from general observation the country over, from the apple
awakening that is taking place in this state, we shall see some
wonderful results. I was talking with one of the most exten-
sive fruit handlers in the east, a man who has made a fortune
in handling apples, and who is still in the business, and that
man said to me in the presence of another large broker, ' I
have got through handling any apples that grow west of the
Hudson river. The only good apples grown in America are
grown east of the Hudson river.' And that is the gospel
truth. The only good apples grown in America are grown
east of the Hudson river.

"Now the question of varieties was discussed here this
forenoon, as it was with peaches, so I am not going into that.

"There has been a general advance in the last ten years.
The idea of better culture in our own apple orchards has
come to stay. The idea of growing green crops in our
orchards and plowing them under was not thought of ten years

I20 The Connecticut Pomological Society

ago. The idea of cover crops was an entirely new thought.
It may not have been an entirely new thought, but it has been
a new practice in our state within the past ten years. So far
as I know, there was not an acre of cow-peas or crimson
clover grown in this state for such purposes prior to this gen-
eral awakening which has come to our horticultural industries
in Connecticut within recent years. Now there are hundreds
of acres.

"We knew nothing about spraying ten years ago. I pre-
sume you will find by looking at our question lists that we
used five to eight years ago that the question was continually
being asked and continually being brought up, ' What shall I
do to prevent disease and scabbing on my fruit ? ' Some said
to put copperas around the tree, and others said to tie a string
around, but we did not know that through spraying with the
Bordeaux mixture we could smooth up our fruit and make it
as beautiful as the smiling face of my friend here. He was not
sprayed with Bordeaux mixture, though; he was sprayed with
brains. That is the difference. That is another great develop-
ment that has come within the last ten years that has been of
great, yes, almost incalculable, value to the fruit industry.

"We had not thought of grading or labeling our fruit
scarcely ten years ago. I believe there was one firm; so far as
I know that was the only firm in America that graded and
labeled its fruit ten years ago. Now we realize that we cannot
sell our products at the best profit unless we grade our fruit,
and many of us label it and guarantee its quality and grade.
It is not because we have grown any more honest, although I
think we have held our own in that respect, and I am not
bragging any on that score, but we are doing these things
because we have learned that our profits lay there. We are
handling our fruit and our products better not because we are
more honest but because it is literally and actually more profit-
able to do it that way. The peach -basket crate was practi-
cally unknown to us ten years ago, and see how its use has
extended. It is used now for plums and other small fruits.
Apple boxes had not been dreamed of ten years ago. Now
all progressive growers are studying the question of apple
boxes, the right material that they ought to be made of, and

Tenth Annual Meeting 121

where the}' can get it, and if they are not already packing their
apples into them they are planning to do so.

"The peach yellows, as my friend, the Professor, touched
upon awhile ago, we had just begun to think about, and peach
yellows legislation, but within ten years we have not only talked
about it a great deal, but we got to work and put through a
peach yellows law. It was enacted, and put in practice, and
found to be a mighty good thing, but it was repealed. Why?
Just because there are so many farmers who won't think for
themselves. When you want to get any good legislation for
this Society, or for the Experiment Station, or for anything
that pertains to agriculture or horticulture, in Heaven's name
keep the farmers out of the legislature. I am a farmer, and I
have been there myself, and I know how it is.

"We are having more competition now than ever before.
We are going to have more in every direction. We are going
to compete more closely and more sharply among ourselves in
the future, as we have increased the prices of our high-grade
products, and there is going to be sharper competition in the
marketing of those high-grade products. As to some of our
other products the prices have lowered from 25 to 75 per cent,
and while the prices are going lower the standard which will
be demanded of us is being placed higher and higher. I am
glad of it, not because it gives some people a chance to run
others out, but, gentlemen, the demands of the times are such
that in order to produce high -class productions we must use
more skill, and better tools, and higher class labor, and that is
going to be for the benefit of us all who stay in the business
under such conditions. With better tillage we are less and less
called upon to furnish plant -food from outside, and upon the
whole things are bright. There is a better opportunity for the
owner of Connecticut land to-day to make a living out of it than
there was ten years ago, and that opportunity has come largely
through the work of this Society. There has come a develop-
ing of ideas, and a general broadening out which has been of
great benefit to us all. Our opportunities are increased but
there is more demanded of us. You can't get along with
less. There is more work to be done. We have got to act
in every particular more with our brains, and more with our

122 The Connecticut Pomological Society

muscles. I read in one paper the other day of a minister being
called upon to go to preach to another society at a great advance
in salary, and the neighbors heard of it. The minister's boy
was playing with a neighbor's boy, and the neighbor's boy said
to him, 'Is your Pa going away? What's he going to do? Is
he going to accept that call to go to the other church? ' And
the little fellow says, ' 1 don't know what Pa is going to do.
He's praying over it, but I notice that Ma is packing up. Ma
says she is going to get that done.' That is what we have
got to do. It's all right to pray, but nevertheless, we must
begin and pack up all along the line, and get a move on us
from start to finish. And if we do that I believe that the next
ten years will see just as great an advance, but it means more
brains and less hard work." [Applause.]

Mr. Ives: "I remember when our late pomologist, Mr.
Augur, was alive, he told me that he didn't know just what
was the best thing for black rot. He said that you might
just as well cut down the trees. It shows that progress has
been made in ten years."

A Member: "I could not help but think when Mr. Hale
referred to that Peach Yellows Commission. Ten years ago
there were people in this state who did not know there was
such a thing as the peach yellows."

Mr. Hinman: "I know something of that peach yellows
legislation. Not of the peach yellows itself, but of the peach
yellows legislation. After various bills had been submitted I
read the bill which was passed. It proved a wonderfully good
bill. It was repealed. It was repealed because it cost. Now
there may be farmers here, and a good many farmers, but I
want to say to you right here that that bill was repealed
because it cost, and that was the only reason. I don't know
just what the militia of the state of Connecticut costs the
state, but somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000, for the
protection of the state from mobs. You go and examine the
headquarters of the city companies and see ! They call them
arsenals and armories, but they are the finest club rooms in the
state, and the state is paying a big sum of money every year
to keep those places up, and the only reason that the peach
yellows law was repealed was because there wasn't any money

Tenth Annual Meeting 123

left, and the suppression of the peach yellows cost money.
That is all there was to it.

"Now 1 happened to grow some very nice Northern Spy
apples. They were grown on land that had not been plowed
in I don't know how many years. I don't know when the
trees were set out. I presume they were grafted, but I don't
know when. They never were sprayed; and that ground was
mowed year after year, and reduced in fertility, but it was
somehow enriched naturally, just as we all admit now that
land can be, and I think I grew as good Northern Spy apples
on that land as were grown in Connecticut, and it was done
without spraying, without plowing, and without any sort of
artificial regulation, still they were there. It shows what can
be accomplished if you let nature alone occasionally.

"Mr. Hale spoke about cherries. I don't know whether
you can make a market for Connecticut cherries or not, but
I know that the Connecticut hills will grow cherries, and they
will grow most excellent cherries, but like a great many other
fruit, they are short-lived, and so far as I know, they are only
good for immediate consumption. I don't know of any place
where you can grow fruit like the California cherries that can
be carried three thousand miles and still be good and fresh,
but I can grow cherries on these Connecticut hills that I
would a good deal rather have to eat, and I don't know why
we can't make a market for them."

At this point the hall was darkened and Prof. W. G. John-
son delivered a very interesting lecture upon "Experiences and
Scenes in the Most Remarkable Peach Orchards of America,"
illustrated with a large number of slides. Professor Johnson
took his audience on a most enjoyable trip through the extensive
orchards in the mountains of western Maryland and Virginia
and by means of lantern slides reproduced the work and methods
of those successful mountain fruit-growers.

The lecture was supplemented with views of the Georgia

peach orchards of Ex -President Hale at Fort Valley.

[As the many views cannot be reproduced here and since the text of the
lecture would not be clear without them we reluctantly omit it. — Editor.]

Mr. Farnham of New Haven: "After Professor Britton's
remarks in regard to legislation on the San Jose scale, I think it

124 The Connecticut Pomological Society

would be well for this Society to think it over, and then prepare
some sort of a bill and present it to our present Legislature.
After what Brother Hale has said I think perhaps we would not
get much support from the farmers, but I think this a little
different from the peach yellows. I think that this, applying to
persons owning property, ornamental trees as well as nursery
stock, I think that if we show to these people that their roses
and ornamental shrubbery is going to be destroyed, and even our
forest trees harmed, as Professor Johnson suggested, it would
make an impression upon our Legislature so that we might
make some arrangement to have a suitable law passed for our
protection."

The President: "I think that is a very wise suggestion.
We are now to have a talk by a representative of the Horticul-
tural Division of the Pan-American Exposition, Mr. William
Scott, Buffalo."

Mr. Scott: "Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: Your
program announces that there will be a representative of the
Pan-American Horticultural Division to address you. It was
the intention to have Professor Van Deman, who is connected
with the Agricultural Department at Washington, here to speak
to you, as he is the special representative of the Pan-American
Exposition for the purpose of collecting exhibits. In his absence
Professor Taylor, who is an expert pomologist, intended to be
here, but he was unable to come, and at the last moment
they sent for me.

"Now I do profess to be a floriculturist but not a pomolo-
gist, so you will see that I am here in quite a different status
from either of the others whom I have referred to. I am not
aware how much you know of this very great undertaking
which has been started at Buffalo, and nearly carried through
to completion. When I say 'completion,' it is practically com-
pleted, for all of the buildings are under cover, and it is assured
that the Pan-American will be opened to the Public on the
ist of May. It is an undertaking which will cost upwards of
ten millions of dollars. The buildings and the general plans
are upon a different line from what they were at the World's
Fair at Chicago, and I have been told repeatedly, even by
Chicago men, and you know Chicago men do not like to

Tenth Annual Meeting 125

admit that they are beaten, — but I have been told bj' Chicago
men that we have beaten the World's Fair. The Manufactur-
ing and Liberal Arts building covers about five acres, and
Machinery Hall covers about five acres. The Temple of
Music which, architecturallly, is one of the finest structures
ever built for that particular purpose in the world, covers
about an acre. There are many other buildings, and things
that I might say to you about it, but time does not permit.
Horticulture has received the place of honor. It is situated
just west of the United States building, and in front of each
wing is what are known as the 'Fountain Gardens,' 500 feet
long, in which there is to be a wonderful display of lilies.
Another feature will be very striking to you. You will remem-
ber at the World's Fair every building was white, and the
architects objected to any color being on the ground any
dififerent, and with the exception of a few beds in front of
the Horticultural Building the grounds were destitute of any
color, except, of course, as given by the different landscape
features of the Worlds Fair. Here it is entirely different.
The coloring of the buildings is one of the most beautiful
features of the whole scheme. The Horticultural building is
one of the grandest that was ever built to receive the exhibits
of that noble industry, and particularly pomology. From the
two northwest and southwest corners of the main Horticultural
Hall are two wings, each covering a little more than an acre,
and having 24,000 feet of floor space. These wings are to be
used as conservatories, and they will be held specially for flower
shows. In their different seasons there will be special shows
of carnations, dahlias, etc., as they come along in their season.
There are also about twenty-five acres laid out near the
Horticultural Hall which will be entirely devoted to horti-
cultural exhibits. It may not be worth your while to go to
see the special displays of fruit, or the special displays of the
curious things of horticulture, but it will be worth two
thousand miles of travel to see the Pan-American in its
whole beauty."

Mr. Scott read from a list giving the amount of floor space
that different states of the Union, and different countries had
made application for in the horticultural section, and Professor

126 The Connecticut Pomological Society

GuUey announced that Connecticut had made apphcation for
400 feet.

The secretary called attention to the usual custom of the
Society in appointing a Committee on Nominations for the
annual election of officers. On motion it was voted that the
chair appoint a committee to select names of officers to be voted
for at to-morrow's election.

President Merriman named as the committee: Prof. W. E.
Britton, E. M. Ives, N. H. Sherwood, Orrin Gilbert, and A. C.
Sternberg.

At ten o'clock, after one of the pleasantest and best at-
tended evening meetings in the history of the Society, an
adjournment was taken until the following day.

SECOND DAY, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7
MORNING SESSION

The second day of the meeting opened with an increased
attendance, the main hall as well as the adjoining rooms being
filled to overflowing.

President Merriman called to order at 9.45, and as the first
business of the morning presented the contents of the question
box for discussion.

"How can peach trees 5 years old, which are of a worthless
variety, be budded profitably, or so as to be of valuable worth?
Can you cut them off, and would you cut ofi from the sprout

up

?"

Mr. Hale: "Unquestionably they can, yes, sir. I should
never think of pulling them up. Some time in March, or after
the cold weather is over, and before the growth begins I would
shear them back very closely indeed. Say we start with the
three or four main branches, and a foot or two further up I
would cut those secondary branches back to within one or two
buds of the main branch. I would perhaps leave one of the
central branches to grow, but a little later I would cut the cen-
tral one out. I think if one would cut last year's wood of the
kind they wanted it would be better."

Tenth Annual Meeting 127

Question: "Which is the best up-to-date book on fruit
culture, and what is the cost?"

Mr. Hale: "The 'Cyclopedia of Horticulture,' when it
comes out. Two volumes are already out, and there are two
more to be finished between now and July. That will be the
best fruit book in America. Of course, the reports of the pro-
ceedings of the Connecticut Pomological Society are not to be
sneezed at either."

A Member: "Who is the authorof that Cyclopedia ?"

Mr. Hale: "Professor Bailey."

Question: "Which is the best all-round apple, — the Bald-
win or Sutton Beauty ?"

The President: "We discussed that before. The Bald-
win, of course."

The Secretary: "I think the gentleman from Vernon
who asked that question about Fruit books wanted to know
whether or not it would be possible for members of our Society,
on orders for such books, to get a reduction ?"

Mr. Butler: "In regard to the question of a reduction on
that new book on fruit culture I would say, as it is only half
published, the only way it would be possible to make a reduc-
tion would be for some man representing some of the members
of the Society to get up a subscription, and then withdraw his
commission."

Question: "Which are the six best peaches to plant for
commercial orchards in order to cover the season ?"

Mr. Hale: "It depends upon the man, depends upon the
location and it depends upon the kind of a farm you have got.
There are no six best varieties for all purposes. It depends
upon the market you are going to supply, for one thing. Some
markets want 75 to 80 per cent of w^hite fruit and only 25 per
cent of yellow, and there are other markets that want the
reverse. And some markets will take about three times as much
yellow fruit as they will white. I don't know as there is any
best about it. You have to plant for the conditions which you
have to meet."

Question: "Is it safe to set peach trees on land from
which trees affected with the yellows have been removed ?"

Mr. Hale: "For Connecticut, I say, no sir. My experi-

128 The Connecticut Pomological Society

ence in Connecticut does not make me want to put health}' trees
where those affected with the yellows have been taken out."

A Member: "I did it last spring on land where I had re-
moved all the trees that were affected."

Professor Gulley: "I don't believe in Mr. Hale's theor}-.
We have them right in the spot where we pulled sick trees out."

Mr. Collingwood: "I would like to ask what Mr. Hale's
experience has been?"

Mr. Hale: "Some eight or nine years ago we had a field
of nearly an acre that was badly infested with the yellows.
The trees were eight or nine years old. While they were not
all infested with the yellows, and a considerable over half of
them were thrifty, I pulled up the whole field. After the fruit
crop was off in September 1 plowed the ground, and early in
December the same field was cross-plowed. I was in Georgia
during December and January, but came home, and I looked at
it, and I said ' I guess we can plow that field again.' It was
plowed the third time in January. In the spring it was plowed
and harrowed or bushed, and as it was right in a spot that I
wanted to utilize, and as Professor Gulley's doctrine had been
preached by some people, I thought I would try it. I brought
from the south a lot of peach trees which were grown there, and
which were supposed to be healthy, and we took two thousand
of them and planted them on new land, and we took enough to
set this small block of about two hundred trees, and set it out
again. They grew well, but by the middle of August there was
plain evidence that something was the matter, and by October
the sprout was plainly to be seen, and a gentleman who came to
visit us, who was an expert in such matters, pronounced it a
plain case of the yellows. The trees we set on the new land
have never shown it yet. That convinced me, from that experi-
ment, so that I do not want to plant any more on ground where
the trees on it have had the yellows."

Professor M. B. Waite: "I have seen peach trees in pre-
cisely the way that Mr. Hale describes, but the trouble was
something else, not the yellows. The only absolutely positive
proof of the yellows is premature spotted fruit."

Mr. Hale: "Now, gentlemen, don't you believe him. If
you do you will get into trouble."

Tenth Annual Meeting 129

Professor Waite: "I will give you what my experience
is, and why we accept as negative evidence only cases of this
sort where there are other symptoms than the premature spotted
fruits. In other words, you may have the sprout, and the
yellow -colored foliage, but all those symptoms are symptoms
which may be caused by other influences than the yellows, and
the premature spotted fruit is the only symptom that can be
absolutely relied upon. Therefore, we cannot accept any other
symptoms as absolutely conclusive."

Mr. Hale: "You say that these systems are brought about
by some other cause. Did you ever see what we know as the
* pennyroyal sprout,' a sprout growth which is one of the
evidences of the yellows? Did you ever see that on a tree that
hadn't also colored its fruit prematurely?"

Professor Waite: "Yes, sir; in a number of instances."

Mr. Hale: "Where?"

Professor Waite: "I suppose I have seen a thousand
cases of that sort in Michigan this last summer."

Mr. Hale: "And it was not the yellows?"

Professor Waite: "It was not the yellows. It was a
trouble which is often caused by lice. You must remember
that the peach yellows, unfortunately, is one of those diseases
that we know only by symptoms. We do not know its cause.
The only clue we have is indicated by a certain set of symptoms,
and of those symptoms I am perfectly sure there is one that is
absolutely reliable. Those symptoms that Mr. Hale mentions
are good symptoms, but they are not conclusive. Premature
fruit itself is not a conclusive proof. You can have premature
fruit without having the yellows, but the fruit is not spotted.
There are different kinds of premature fruit, and you have
to know the difference. A great many trees two years ago
were very premature, and although the fruit was from three
days to a week or ten days ahead of time it was not the
yellows."

Mr. Hale: "Well, you can tell it, but I don't believe it."

The President: "I was satisfied when the gentleman
spoke that it was not in Connecticut that he saw those trees or
those symptoms. I never saw those sprouts but that the tree
would develop the yellows. I never saw the pennyroyal sprouts,

130 The Connecticut Pomological Society

where the tree gave the general symptoms that Mr. Hale
speaks of but it would develop the yellows."

Professor Waite: "There is a very common character-
istic yellow sprout that grows rapidly in the nursery. It grows
only in a certain season. When a little rainy spell comes in
September to start them into growth, and the top being checked
by this disease so that they cannot keep on pushing, there will
be anywhere from one to three or four, and in some cases a
dozen of those peculiar little sprouts right around. Haven't
you all seen that?"

The President: "I have, but I mean pennyroyal sprouts."

Mr. Holmes: "I don't believe the gentleman can convince
any one present that in Connecticut those pennyroyal sprouts
are not conclusive of yellows. I had occasion to examine from
fifty to eighty thousand trees last summer, and I had especial
reference to that question, whether it would do to plant trees
on land where others had died with the yellows, and I never yet
saw a healthy orchard of trees raised upon such land. There
may be an exception, but in all my experience I have never seen
it. This last summer I examined over eighty thousand trees. A
great many of them set on land where other trees have been
affected, and I always found if an old orchard had the yellows
the young trees would die just as quickly as the old ones. What
happened in Michigan I don't know, but I am sure that the
gentleman is preaching heresy here to Connecticut fruit-
growers."

Question: "Is there any encouragement to plant com-
mercial vineyards in Connecticut, and if so, of what variety?"

Mr. Hale: "The growing number of citizens of foreign
residence or birth living in our cities and villages who have
always used the juice of the grape as one of their staple food
supplies has created a great demand for grapes for wine -making.
The supply has been inadequate here, and they now buy in
large quantities, and at cheaper rates in New York, Ohio and
Pennsylvania. These grapes come in bulk, either in bushel
boxes, or some such shape. Car-loads of them are coming into
our state, and they are being purchased at prices ranging from
$25 to $40 a ton. There is a large market for grapes in that
way. If we can grow finer bunches of grapes, so as to meet

Tenth Annual Meeting 131

the competition of our brother growers in other states, there is
no doubt a good business awaiting us in that Hne. I beHeve
that we have acres of land that grapes like the Niagara and the
Concord can be grown on at moderate cost, and I beHeve that
they will find such a ready market at home that it will make
them profitable grapes to be grown for that purpose. I think it
is a good business opening for us."

The President: "I would say that I had three or four
acres of grapes this last year, and practically supplied the New
Britain market with grapes. They all pronounced them the
best in the market. There was a car-load of western grapes
came in there, but they had to send them out because they
could not sell them."

Mr. Hale: "Were they sold at a fair profit to yourself?"

The President: "Yes."

Mr. a. Bernhard: "Mr. Hale is right when he states
that in late years grape-growing has experienced much change,
so that you will find a ready market for the kind he speaks
about. I think it is to our advantage though, instead of planting
our common varieties like the Concord and the Niagara, and
others like them, to start in with varieties which would make
better juice, and obtain a higher price on the market. In New
York state they have varieties which run up to $60 and even
$100 a ton, and they have one that they get as much as $175 a
ton for. If we can grow some of those varieties our grapes will
bring us in a good deal more money."

The President: "We will close this discussion now, and
will have a lantern slide exhibition and lecture by Prof. M. B.
Waite, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, on
"Some Diseases of Orchard Fruits."

SOME DISEASES OF ORCHARD FRUITS

PROFESSOR M. B. WAITE

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:

The first trouble I will call your attention to is the peach
yellows again. This tree in the photograph is a Delaware
peach tree, and has one of the first symptoms of the yellows
that appear, — this pushing sprout. It shows very little in the

132 The Connecticut Pomological Society

photograph, but the other slides will show it better, and also
give you an idea of the more definite stages of the yellows.
These sprouts are one of the first symptoms to appear, and
while we cannot always rely upon the sprouts as a perfectly
satisfactory symptom, or as a conclusive symptom rather, they
are a strong indication of that disease, especially if accompanied
by other symptoms later. The little discussion that we had a
few moments ago perhaps needs some qualification. What I
referred to, and what I should have said, perhaps, to be more
definite, was that just a little of the growth is not necessarily
conclusive. The first tendency of it must not be taken for the
5'ellows. I wish to say this in order to make the subject clear;
the probabilities are very strong, when you find those sprouts,
that the tree is diseased, but I claim that the symptom is not
absolutely reliable for experimental purposes, and you must be
very careful. I would insist upon seeing the premature spotted
fruit before being absolutely certain, but in ordinary practical
work these sprouts should always be good ground for condemn-
ing the tree, as they are good evidence that the tree is diseased.

This slide represents a Michigan peach tree with the first
symptoms of the yellows. It is a tree I photographed last sum-
mer, and while it looks perfectly normal and healthy it had a
large proportion of premature fruit, and, of course, that is a
condition in which the tree should be condemned and pulled
out. No tree should be allowed to get into that stage.

Now, the peach yellows is a peculiar disease. It is one of
those diseases of which we do not know the cause, but of which
the remedy is well known, and better known than is the case
with a great many plant diseases. That is a phenomenal con-
dition of affairs. No investigator has ever been able to make
out the parasite which causes the peach yellows. It behaves
exactly like a contagious disease, and there seems to be but little
doubt that it will be found out some time to be that kind of a
disease. So far as orchard work is concerned, it is an easy
disease to fight. It is the same method that is used in fighting
the smallpox, with just this difference. We cannot burn up a
man with the smallpox when we catch him, but we can a peach
tree, and stop the contagion.

The peach has another very peculiar disease, the peach

Tenth Annual Meeting 133

rust. The peach rust, in the south, takes the place of the
peach yellows. Fortunately for the southern peach -grower, the
rust has never shown a tendency to spread and wipe out the
peach orchards in the manner that the yellows has in the north.
It is almost a curiosity in the great commercial peach orchards of
Georgia. We have to hunt for it before we can find a satisfac-
tory subject to photograph. It is more apt to be found in some
tree along the roadside, but it does in one single season what
the yellows take two or three, or even five years to do. It kills
the tree at once.

The peach is also affected by another curious disease called
the 'little peach.' It is a disease which, up to the present time,
is very little known outside of the state of Michigan, but there,
in a few localities, it has shown a very destructive tendency. I
will go over with it so that you may get acquainted with it ; so
that if it should appear here you may recognize it. The most
striking feature of the disease is the small size of the fruit. A
tree in a well -cultivated and a well-cared-for orchard may be
noticed to have fruit that is from one- to two-thirds normal size,
and as the fruit comes on it is belated in ripening all the way
from a day or two to a week. In some cases it is a month
behind time. The fruit of such a tree is not a healthy fruit.
The fruit is small in size, and entirely abnormal in that respect
when compared to a healthy peach from an unaffected tree.
The foliage is small, as well as the fruit. This disease has had a
very destructive effect upon the orchards in the state of Michi-
gan. At present it seems to be confined to a certain diseased
area. It appeared two years or more ago, and the next year
had spread to larger trees, as you see by the photograph. The
season these photographs were taken it had spread still further
through the tops. This picture shows another orchard in
Michigan in which the ' little peach ' is at work. By casual
observation you can see on the branches the character and
growth of the disease.

Now I want to give you a little idea of the way we went at
this disease for investigation purposes. Of course, in this state,
it being an entirely unknown disease, we made up our minds
that we must study the disease from the tips of the leaves to the
end of the roots; study it from one end to the other. This

134 The Connecticut Pomological Society

photograph will show you. I am afraid the little peach is going
to spread, and prove destructive.

The brown rot: this disease is caused by a fungus. It is a
disease which was very destructive during the past season. The
Georgia peach -growers had a very bad, rainy spell of weather
during the very period when the peaches were ripening, and it
caused immense destruction. As the season advanced north-
ward the Michigan peaches began to rot, and they were afiected
in the same way. They had rain and rain right through the
ripening season, and the result was that it affected them
seriously, and whole varieties went for nothing. This last year,
in far the greater part of the area of the Michigan peach belt,
the crop was a total failure. In many cases I saw growers feed-
ing green fruit in order to avoid the loss occasioned by the
fungus running from the fruit into the trees. This fungus dis-
ease is probably preventable by spraying. It is difficult to do
so, however. Several years ago the Delaware Station conducted
some experiments in which they demonstrated the success of
spraying, but the chief difficulty is in applying it.

Another very curious trouble in the peach orchard has been
the cause of winter-kill. Here is a photograph of a tree all
broken down while weighted with fruit because of having a
defective heart.

Now, going from the peach to other fruits, I have here a
portrait of the pear blight. That is an actual photograph. The
photograph was made from a microscopic enlargement, and then
the slide was made from that. The pear blight is an old
customer, and a subject that 1 hardly like to say much about, as
there has been so much said and written on that subject, but, at
the same time, many of you are interested in the matter. This
photograph represents a twig showing the progress of the disease.
The disease has run down here and stopped at this point. If,
at the close of the season, in October and November, the
disease is still active, such cases survive the winter to start
another year. The great point is to get rid of these hold-over
cases. If we can corner it there, and prevent it doing work in
the fall and early spring, we can entirely eliminate it from the
orchard. In the spring, when the sap flows readily, the hold-
over blight increases in activity, and the gum exuded runs down

Tenth Annual Meeting 135

the bark, where it comes in contact with various insects who
become infected by the gummy substance, and they carry that
infection in that way. In the center of the blossom there is a
Httle disk in which the egg is carried. The germs multiply and
spread into the blossom, and so on into the fruit, and down into
the tree. Most people are afraid to cut a pear tree when it is
afflicted with the blight, and if the trees are treated properly
perhaps they are justified, as this next slide will show you a
photograph of a tree with the top almost ruined, and yet it
recovered. The recuperative powers of pear trees are great. In
the treatment of pear blight there are several other things which
can be done besides cutting down the tree, but these things all
relate to orchard management, and it can all be summed up by
saying that pear trees, which are in a tarry condition, can best
resist, and any other method which will tend to starve the trees
will notably reduce the blight. That is an unfortunate thing,
and I do not, as a general thing, believe in it, but oftentimes
pear trees can be saved by some such treatment. To illustrate,
when the disease had started on a tree in a pot, the pot was
dried out. Another pot was watered daily in the usual way,
and, of course, the blight kept on growing and killed the tree,
but on the other tree the blight was checked at the very point
where it was when the water was withheld.

Both the apple and the pear have what is called the apple
and the pear scab. I imagine those diseases have been con-
siderably talked about here also. The picture on the screen will
show you the typical appearance of the badly diseased fruit.
The scab, as you all know, is preventable by spraying. The
best time to spray for the scab is the only question, and, of
course, that is worth considering at the present time, but I do
not consider it necessary for me to go into details. It is more a
question of how and when to spray. Both the pear and apple
scab should be sprayed for when the clusters are opening out,
but when the individual flower-buds are closed, — perhaps about
May I.

One of the worst diseases of the apple along this southern
area of cultivation is the bitter rot. That is a disease which
does not occur, or at least, if it occurs in Connecticut it does
not do any serious damage. The bitter rot was by far the

136 The Connecticut Pomological Society

most serious disease in Missouri, parts of Kansas, southern
Illinois and Canada this past season. It is caused by a fungus.
It is a fungus that does most of its work in the summer^
although it does occur earlier in the season. It is a difficult
disease to spray. It is encouraged by dry, hot weather rather
than by cold, moist weather as the scab is. The bitter rot is
caused by a fungus very similar to the black -rot fungus. The
bitter rot is on that same general type. The black rot, of
course, as is generally known, is one of the easiest diseases to
prevent by spraying.

Through New York and New England many of our fine
old apple trees become affected with a disease on the body
and main limbs looking something like the pear blight, but it
is not the pear blight. A little white fungus appears. It is
one of the higher fungi. It very quickly appears, and it was
supposed to be the cause of the disease, but it is now thought
probably to be more like the bitter rot of the apple.

Apple canker occurs in some of its forms in the nursery.
Nearly all that type of diseases can be prevented by winter
spraying. Very likely it would be a wise thing, anyway. In
order to show the wonderful efifect of spraying upon some of
these diseases it is only necessary to show you the views of
some trees that were sprayed for the pear-leaf blight. Trees
which had only been sprayed twice retained their foliage, while
those which have no such care sometimes lose their foliage by
the middle of July. The pear-leaf blight forms one of the
best means of illustration of the effect of spraying, as it shows
one of the finest examples of the prevention of injury where
the spraying is well done. It is one of the most effective
remedies in use for the treatment of fungous diseases, and, by
the way, I want to say that we look to Connecticut for some
of the best experiments which have been carried on in the
treatment of these troubles. I was going to say a few words
about the theory of spraying, but I am afraid that is one of
the things which is so familiar to you in Connecticut that it
has become stale. It is a thing which I suppose has been
drummed into you so much that it has become a "chestnut,"
but, at the risk of boring you perhaps, I can show you some
views of different forms or types of spraying apparatus. The

Tenth Annual Meeting 137

barrel sprayer, such as you see in the photograph, is perhaps
more used and better known than any other which can be
used for spraying. This particular apparatus is perhaps defec-
tive, however, in that it has no extension rod on the end of
the hose. That is a valuable appliance, and makes the appa-
ratus more effective. A very interesting form of apparatus is
that for use from a wagon. The apparatus is so arranged
that the man simply drives the horse along by the rows of
trees, and the spraying apparatus shoots the solution into the
trees as he passes along. In cases where there are very large
orchards to be sprayed that form is perhaps useful, but it
results in a very hasty spraying. It is better than nothing,
however. A more finished form of apparatus, and one which
is used to spray four rows of peaches, strawberries, or what-
ever is necessary to employ it on, consists of the ordinary barrel
form with four lines of hose mounted in the wagon, and con-
nected with gas-pipe connections, two stretching out on one
side and two on the other, so that, by driving along, four rows
can be showered at the same time. The principal cost of
the operation of such apparatus is in the labor. For such an
apparatus as that the labor costs probably two or three times
as much as in the simpler forms, but probably the work is
accomplished much quicker. If anything can be done
to cheapen the cost of the labor it would be a very good
apparatus.

One of the best, and one of the most efficient forms of
apparatus for use on large orchard trees that I have seen,
consists of an apparatus which enables you to reach into the
tops of the big apple and other trees. On the sides of the
tank is built up a platform raised some five or six feet above
the ground, so that the man who is operating the spraying
nozzle stands some ten feet over the ground, and, with a
good long arm or ten foot extension, he can reach right out
into the tops, and throw the spray to good advantage.

The President: "How do you spray for black -rot on

grapes

? "

Professor Waite : "If the vineyard has not been sprayed
before it is usually best to spray before the buds flower. Some

138 The Connecticut Pomological Society

spray when they are in bud, and just after they are in blossom.
Whether that is best is a question which has been discussed a
good deal. As a matter of fact, it is hardly going to make
much difiference whether it is just before or just after, but
after that it is put on at intervals of ten days. The black rot
is not always easy to prevent. It is sometimes aflfected by the
weather. About five sprayings, at intervals of ten days or two
weeks when the vines are in blossom, is usually very helpful.
The grape is not hurt by the normal Bordeaux."

A Member: ''Do you have any trouble in making the
Bordeaux adhere ? "

Professor Waite: "There should not be any trouble
with the right kind of spraying. If any of you do have any
trouble with pear leaves, for example, I will give you a sim-
ple remedy for that trouble. Use a high pressure pump, make
the solution thin, and go through the orchard very rapidly,
just giving it the finest kind of spray. Let it dry, and then
go back and spray over it again. Where the particles have
failed to go the first time it will stick the second time.
When you wish to make a really good job of it, try double
spraying."

Secretary Miles: "Has anything been found superior to
Bordeaux mixture for spraying ? "

Professor Waite: "In a general way, I should say not.
The efficiency of the Bordeaux mixture, however, depends on
a number of different factors, — on the copper compound that
is in it, and it also depends on the cementing power of the
gypsum which remains in the solution as a residual product
of the decomposition. When you mix copper hydrate with
lime the soda which is in the lime makes lime sulphate. Sul-
phate of lime is different. Now, a part of that remains in
the solution, and the mixture is a saturated solution of gypsum.
Now when we spray that on the trees, that saturated solution
of gypsum becomes a cement which fixes the Bordeaux on
the leaf, becomes insoluble in water, and this sticking power
of the Bordeaux depends on the cementing action of the
gypsum solution."

Mr. Ives : " In your observation, where Bordeaux was
applied very thoroughly to apple trees, did it rust the fruit

Tenth Annual Meeting 139

to some extent, or cause irritation of the surface of the
fruit ? "

Professor Waite : "That depends on the Bordeaux.
Proper Bordeaux will not do that."

Mr. Ives: "Do you use four pounds, or six?"

Professor Waite : "Four pounds is all right."

Mr. Ives: "I have observed in my use that it does rust
some, and 1 have been w^ondering whether the Bordeaux was
all right. It was the very finest whitewash lime, very fine, and
apparently all right."

Mr. Rogers: "I would like to ask the Professor a ques-
tion that may be right on that line. I saw something this
last fall which may help that a little. I never saw it before.
The leaves of the trees had a bluish look. They were appar-
ently healthy trees with bluish -looking leaves."

Mr. Hale: "That is a mite that causes that. That has
nothing to do with this."

Mr. Ives: "The trees may not have been sprayed with
Bordeaux perhaps, and something appeared which caused that
bluish tint."

The President: "Dr. W. C. Sturgis, of the Connecticut
Experiment Station, will now give us a lecture upon the subject
of 'Spraying the Peach.'"

Dr. Sturgis: "Mr. President: Before reading the short
paper which I have on the subject of spraying peach trees, I
want to say one word about apparatus for spraying. 1 cannot
help thinking, after seeing Professor Waite's pictures, that we
are still ahead in practical spraying apparatus. I never have seen
anything, which, for simplicity and adaptability, can beat some
apparatus which I have seen right in this state. It consists of a
barrel mounted, and the mount of the pump, to which is con-
nected a lot, perhaps thirty feet long, of half-inch hose. That
is connected with a piece of gas-pipe, nine feet long, set with
nozzles every three feet. One man drives the pump, and an-
other carries this pipe at right angles to the course of the wagon
in his hand. The man pumps, and these four nozzles deliver
the spray perfectly upon the rows of trees. The system for
regulating the flow through the nozzles enables the man to allow
for any irregularity that opens in the rows. If the row bends

140 The Connecticut Pomological Society

over to the right or left he can simply carry the pipe over. So
far as simplicity and effectiveness are concerned, I do not believe
anything can beat that simple outfit."

Mr. Ives: "We use five nozzles instead of four."
Dr. SturgiS: "This is fitted w^ith a thirty-foot length of
hose, and is very convenient and handy in that respect, because
if the operator wishes to go ahead a little faster he can do so.
He does not have to vv^ait for a few^ moments while the cart is
coming up, but he can go right on spraying, as he has the
apparatus with him. That is not possible with the fixed pipe."

THE SPRAYING OF PEACH TREES

BY DR. W. C. STURGIS, Mycologist, Connecticut Experiment Station, New Haven

It will not be advisable for me to attempt to give in detail a
full account of this subject, first, because the main feature of
this session is a lecture upon some diseases of fruit trees, and
secondly because the experiments concerning the results of
which I have been asked to speak briefly, are described fully in
the Experiment Station Report for the past season.

What led to a careful series of experiments on spraying
peach trees was the general and well-founded reluctance on the
part of Connecticut peach -growers to submit their trees to the
action of a fungicide which had proved destructive to foliage.
Whatever were the facts regarding this matter observed else-
where, it had become a settled conviction that, for some
unexplained reason, peaches could not be sprayed with safety in
this state, at least, with Bordeaux mixture.

In order to give this matter a thorough test, a number of
trees, comprising several varieties, were selected in two large
peach orchards and, beginning early in the season, they were
sprayed with Bordeaux mixture, in which the quantity of the
respective ingredients varied from one to five pounds of copper
sulphate, and from two to five pounds of lime, in fifty gallons of
water; with a Bordeaux mixture made with soda in place of
lime, with the ammonia solution of copper carbonate, and with
potassium sulphide in solution (i lb. to 50 gals.). Late in the
season two forms of copper acetate in solution were tried. In
all, eight different fungicides, made and applied in the most

Tenth Annual Meeting 141

careful manner possible, were tested on each of seven different
varieties of peach trees, and later tvv^o additional solutions were
tested on one variety. Spraying was begun in one of the
orchards on April 26; in the other on May 23. Two weeks
later the trees were examined, and, according to the condition
of the foliage, were again sprayed with the same fungicide or
with a more diluted form of the same. The trees were ex-
amined again a week or ten days later, and the condition of
both foliage and fruit was very carefully noted.

In brief, the effect of all the stronger fungicides; viz.,
Bordeaux mixture in many degrees of dilution, down to, but not
including, one containing only two pounds of copper sulphate
and double the quantity of lime; the soda-bordeaux mixture,
and the ammonia solution of copper carbonate, all caused such
serious injury that their further use could not be contemplated.
The injurious effects were seen in the so-called "shot-hole"
appearance of the leaves, in a general yellowing of the older
leaves, and in a copious falling of the foliage amounting in some
cases to fully 50 per cent of the total. More serious still was a
peculiar effect upon the fruit. In every case, increasingly so
with the stronger fungicides, the bulk of the fruit withered and
fell to the ground while still about the size of a small marble. So
pronounced was this that upon some of the trees, notably those
treated with the ammonia solution of carbonate, the average
number of peaches per tree amounted to only twenty-three,
although a full crop had set. The average yield of the trees
sprayed with Bordeaux 5-5-50 was 6, while those sprayed with
the soda-bordeaux did not mature a single fruit. These figures
are to be compared with the average yield from the unsprayed
trees, amounting to 211 peaches per tree. This is a fact which
I have not seen noted in discussions regarding the effect of
fungicides upon peach trees. It was also observed that the
individual trees showed a very varying susceptibility to injury, the
foliage of one tree, for example, suffering very little from even a
strong fungicide while its neighbor of the same variety could not
stand one of half the strength. Of all the strong fungicides,
the ammonia solution of copper carbonate did the least injury to
the foliage. Yet it was on these trees that the fruit was so
largely destroyed, a fact which indicates that it was the fungicide

142 The Connecticut Pomological Society

itself and not the loss of foliage, which was responsible for the
blighting of the fruit.

The 2-4-50 Bordeaux mixture stands on the border line
between the safe and the dangerous fungicides. Only in excep-
tional cases, owing apparently to some inherent weakness in
individual trees, did it cause injury comparable in degree with
that caused by any of the stronger mixtures. On the other
hand, it did injure the foliage to some extent on every tree to
which it was applied. Nevertheless, inasmuch as it did not
induce very serious dropping of the foliage, and left the fruit
practically uninjured, there is some probability that good results
may, on the whole, attend its use, especially during the early
part of the season.

With the use of Bordeaux mixture reduced to a 1-2-50
formula, it became apparent that the danger point had been
passed. No injury to either the foliage or the fruit followed two
thorough applications of it. The same was true of the potassium
sulphide solution. This was used continuously throughout the
season and caused hardly a trace of injury.

Peculiar results attended the use of copper acetate late in the
season. This solution had been very highly recommended as a
spray for peach trees by the Delaware Experiment Station, and
no bad results were anticipated. The salt was purchased at a
local drug store, dissolved in the proportion of 8 ounces to 45
gallons of water, and applied to several Early Rivers trees on
July 18. On July 31 the orchard was visited in order to repeat
the treatment, when, greatly to my surprise, the ground beneath
the sprayed trees was found to be covered with yellow and
spotted leaves; from 10 to 20 per cent appeared to have fallen.
The fruit showed no injury, but it was, at that time, well ad-
vanced toward maturity. Of course the treatment was not
repeated, but the salt used was at once subjected to chemical
analysis. It proved to be, not the normal acetate of copper,
but the sub-acetate, commonly known as verdigris. It then
occurred to me that the Delaware people had probably used the
normal acetate, and I at once wrote to them for information.
Receiving no reply, I purchased other lots of so-called normal
copper acetate both in New Haven and New York. In all
cases they proved to be verdigris. I was finally driven to pre-

Tenth Annual Meeting 143

pare the normal salt myself from copper sulphate and lead
acetate. On July 31 a solution of this salt, in the same pro-
portion as the verdigris, was applied to a number of Early River
trees immediately adjoining the others. No injury whatever
resulted from this treatment.

To sum up the results obtained, the fungicides which pro-
duced uniform and pernicious effects upon both the foliage and
the fruit, were Bordeaux mixture 5-5-50 and 3-3-50, the soda-
bordeaux, the ammoniacal solution of copper carbonate, and the
sub-acetate of copper or verdigris. Bordeaux mixture, 2-4.-50,
was on the border line, inclining to dangerous. The safe
fungicides were Bordeaux. 1-2-50; normal copper acetate (8
oz. to 50 gals.), and potassium sulphide (i lb. to 50 gals.).

Turning now to the relative efficiency of these safe fungicides
in preventing the spot and mould of the fruit, it must be con-
fessed that the results were far from encouraging, especially
considering the fact that the season was distinctly favorable to
the production of sound and fair fruit, and that the spraying
was more thoroughly done than would generally be feasible
in ordinary orchard practice.

The unsprayed trees gave an average of 37 per cent of per-
fect fruit ; six applications of potassium sulphide gave 56 per
cent; four applications of the same gave 49 per cent; one late
application of verdigris (sub-acetate of copper) gave about 50
per cent ; one late application of verdigris and one of normal
copper acetate gave 29 per cent ; one late application of normal
copper acetate gave 47 per cent.

The best results were obtained with six applications of
potassium sulphide, whereby the yield of perfect fruit was in-
creased by 19 per cent over that of the unsprayed trees. It is
quite possible that had the normal copper acetate been used
throughout the season, its beneficial effects would have been
more marked, since even the single late application increased the
yield of perfect fruit by 10 per cent.

In conclusion, I feel justified, by these experiments, in
recommending for the spraying of peach orchards, the following
practice. Before the buds expand, spray thoroughly with Bor-
deaux mixture, 5-5-50. After the petals fall and until the fruit
ripens, use potassium sulphide (i lb. to 50 gals.), or this treat-

144 The Connecticut Pomological Society

ment may safely be deferred until the fruit is half grown. Experi-
ment judiciously with Bordeaux, 2-4-50. Do not be frightened
by slight injury to the foliage. A thrifty peach tree can lose at
least 10 per cent of its leaves without suffering any ill effects,
and with positive benefits to the fruit in the way of high color
and comparative freedom from fungous attacks.

The President: "The next will be a paper on ' Grape -
growing and Wine-making in Connecticut ' by Mr. Albert Bern-
hard, of Meriden."

GRAPE-GROWING AND WINE-MAKING IN CONNECTICUT

BY ALBERT BERNHARD, MERIDEN

In speaking about grapes and wine-making at our annual
meeting in February, last year, it was in a summary way: to-
day I shall enter more into details about this new industry.

The samples exhibited to-day are: Claret, 1900 and 1895;
port, 1900; Sauternes, 1900. The first two are made from
Early Victor, Concord and Worden ; the last from Delaware, the
little red grape, all grown by Charles I. Allen, of Terryville,
Conn. •

The vintage of 1900 has been a rather remarkable one; the
rarity of rain during the growing and maturing seasons has
somewhat impaired the quantity, but not improved the quality
decidedly. On the ''must scale," an instrument to ascertain the
amount of saccharine (sugar) in the grapes, the average attained
in Connecticut is about sixty-five degrees, or less, — last Octo-
ber it came up to sixty-seven and sixty-nine for Concords, and
seventy to seventy-two for Delawares.

This "must scale" (CEchsle's) gives the percentage of alcohol
the future wine will contain when fermentation is completed ;
that is, that these wines will have respectively from seven and
one -half to nine degrees of alcohol, which is a right average for
wines having the requisite keeping qualities. Wines below that
percentage are liable to accidents and deterioration.

It would be better, as stated before, to plant more of the
newer kinds, containing a higher amount of sugar, which would

Tenth Annual Meeting 145

yield a higher degree of alcohol and make the wine much
better, giving it stronger keeping qualities and bouquet, also
higher price on the market. Green Mountain, of Stephen
Hoyt's Sons, of New Canaan (Conn.) has shown as much as
seventy -four degrees on said "must scale," and is a good
"Sauternes" grape.

Should I know the real amount, in gallons, of wines made in
our state, you would not believe it, but I can safely state that in
Meriden and its immediate neighborhood there are thousands
made every year, not sweet wines, but regular "clarets." We
have a large class of "sons from sunny Italy" who have brought
to their adopted country the same habits of thrift and economy,
buying up the land on the well-exposed slopes of "West Peak,"
and planting same with the strong-growing Concords and
Wordens, Niagaras and Diamonds, and turning into wines their
crops. Some of them have in their cellars from ten to twenty
barrels of the wholesome beverage, which they dispose of during
the year.

I do not speak here of the regular vineyards planted in several
parts of the state where the fruit is turned entirely into wine,
either red or white, yielding thousands of gallons every vintage
and finding a ready market from season to season, hardly leaving
any old wines on hand.

Now, as to quality, I would say it is good; but with bettei
care, better grapes and a proper knowledge of fermentation, we
could produce a far higher quality. We want high -class wines!
Others cannot, will not, or do not make. We can, will and do
make them.

"Higher and better" ought to be our aim if we wish and
expect to impress the connoisseurs with "Connecticut -grown
wines."

There are dozens of ways to produce pure and wholesome
wines, but probably only one way which is absolutely the best
way. This is: high quality and perfectly ripe grapes; the
stemming process; the crushing and a good and well-regulated
fermentation in closed fermenting vats; but above all absolute
and thorough cleanliness in the operations, lest the young wine
gets defective. Fermentation on the husks for "clarets" not
lasting over five or six days, and forty-eight hours for "port,"

146 The Connecticut Pomological Society

with a reasonable addition of the best granulated sugar, dissolved
in hot water, and poured into the fermenting vat.

White wine, or "Sauternes," is made of white grapes crushed
and pressed, and fermentation takes place in the barrels.

These young wines need a racking ofif in December; that is,
a change of barrels, taking only the clear wine. A racking of?
is required again in March, then in June, and October, for the
first year. After the first year they will need racking off only
twice a year, remembering always the strictest cleanliness, to
avoid bad germs altering the wine.

The "orchard king," J. H. Hale, owes his successes to
striving to improve the quality of his fruit, not only once, but
always. Let us do the same in this line of viti and viniculture.
How can we expect to attract the attention of consumers if
our products are not superior, in some particulars at least, to
others made in other parts of this great country of ours ?

Our New England fruit has a better taste than southern
or western grown. It is the same with our perfectly ripened
and aged wines. On my European trip, last September, when
in Paris, some 1895 claret was mistaken for French "Burgundy"
or "Macon." The bouquet and aroma were identical. Our
Society knows only of progress and improvements; let us then
apply these principles in our vineyards, striving for quality, and
not only for quantity.

Would it not be to our mutual advantage to grow the best
grapes, so, instead of contenting ourselves with $35 per ton
for Concord, Worden, or the like, we could get $60, $80 or
$100, or perhaps more ? These prices are paid currently in New
York city arid state for choice varieties yielding a superior juice.

On my return trip I made the acquaintance on the steamer
of Mr. Charles Masson, vice-president of one of the oldest
wine companies in America, the Pleasant Valley Wine Company,
in Rheims, N. Y. Besides over one hundred acres of vine-
yards owned by this company, they buy every vintage hundreds
of tons from growers. During the long conversations on viti
and viniculture, he named, besides the old, the newer varieties
of grapes, not generally cultivated in Connecticut, which are
successfully raised in New York state, around Lake Keuka.
They are as follows :

Tenth Annual Meeting 147

Black. — Marion, Montefiore, Wilder, Bacchus, Eumelan,
Norwood, Early Victor.

White. — Elvira, Bell. Diamond, Rommel, Green Mountain.

Red. — Brilliant, Delaware.

The above are table somewhat, but more especially wine
grapes. The Eumelan makes such a blend for champagne pur-
poses that over $100 per ton is paid. There has been great
trouble with some of the above vines. They did not bear
well, having reflex stamens, and in this way being imperfectly
fertilized.

Some people ask, "What is the utility of our State Experi-
ment Stations throughout the land ? " They work and do
good work, practical work for the farmer and fruit-grower.

In one of the bulletins for 1900 of the New York State
Experiment Station at Geneva, we have the remedy for this
imperfect fertilization which has shortened so many crops of
the delicious Brighton, Wyoming, Eumelan, Montefiore, Nor-
wood, Wilder, Woodruff and Marion.

After several years of study, the Geneva station has been
able to prepare a regular table or list of strongly self -fertile
and imperfectly self-fertile vines, which 1 copy here, so as to
enable our brother fruit-growers intending planting the above
to know what varieties to plant to assure a regular yearly crop.
The blooming seasons are divided into three classes; viz., Very
Early, Medium Early and Midseason.

BLOOMING TIME

Strongly Self-fertile Imperfectly Self-fertile

Very Early. — Clinton. Very Early. — Marion.

Medium Early. — Bell, Elvira. Medium Early. — Woodruff,

Noah.
Midseason. — Green Mountain, Midseason. — Brighton, Monte-

Diamond, Rommel, Niagara, Dela- fiore, Eumelan, Wyoming, Norwood,
ware. Concord, Moore's Early, Early Wilder.
Victor, Brilliant.

Care should be taken to plant the vines according to the
blooming season, so as to enable the natural agencies, the insects
and the wind, to do their work properly. I may say here that
it is an error to plant large tracts of vineyards with only one

148 The Connecticut Pomological Society

variety. It has been found in France and Austria that at
blooming time the natural agencies are unable to pollenize at
the same time, acres and acres of the same variety, and that
large areas have fruit v^^hich does not set well. On the other
hand, if several varieties, not blooming at the same time, should
fill the vineyard, the pollenizing process would progress more
evenly and be done thoroughly. This, as you all know, is very
important, and has to be reckoned with. Plant, then, your
strong, self-fertilizing Concord in one row, and the Brighton
next to it, etc.

We have still to fight some of the cryptogamic diseases of the
vine, but now there comes a new enemy of the grape. •

In Bulletin 184 for November, 1900, issued by the Cornell
University Experiment Station, Professor Slingerland gives a
complete history of this pest, the Fidia viticida, or grape root-
worm, attacking the foliage when in the beetle state and the
roots when in the grub form. It did some damage in New
York vineyards. Some have appeared in our Meriden vineyards,
but did little harm. We will have to be on the lookout for this
coming season.

On the "Coe farm," in Meriden, in the Allen avenue. vine-
yard, a trial has been started in renovating old vines by cleft -
grafting, inserting two cions of new varieties on the old stock.
This work began in the middle of May, 1900, and the strong
growth of over two hundred grafts of the newer kinds has sur-
passed my expectations.

Some strong growers like Elvira, Brighton, Bell, Gold Coin
and Marion have attained twelve and fifteen feet, and the wood
has ripened perfectly. We now await the coming season, and
upon the bearing of these grafted vines will depend the com-
pletion of the five acres left of old vines.

In regard to the coming "Pan-American Exposition" in
Buffalo, besides our natural products, we ought to exhibit some
samples of our wines. It would be something new, and cer-
tainly if any superiority resides in our wines, they will be appre-
ciated and gain the widest publicity. That is what is needed.
There is no state in this mighty Union which can show a more
fitting emblem of viticulture than the coat-of-arms of Connecti-
cut. In yonder capitol you see the strong and stocky grape-

Tenth Annual Meeting 149

vine with the large clusters, symbol of our state, at every
w^indow^. Let this be an incentive to renewed efforts in this
new venture of horticulture.

We are, in the United States, behind our brethren in
South America in wine production. Their product in 1899 was
17s, 000, 000 gallons, and ours was only 35,000,000. But
California wines find their way to Europe, and the demand
increases.

I will say a few words about the art of wine-drinking in
France and the Continent. Claret is generally taken diluted
with one-half water, which makes a healthful drink; at the end
of a meal some of it is taken pure.

Never take claret in starting your repast without diluting
with water, and do not imitate a young man from New York,
who, on his return trip from Europe, sat next to me at table.
On the French line they have claret and Sauternes, of which
you help yourself at pleasure. He drank, to begin his dinner,
one or two full glasses of Sauternes, and a little later one glass
of claret. But soon after, I noticed his uneasiness, and finally
he had to leave the table, being taken sick. This illustrates the
abuse of wine. If this young man had diluted the wine, it
would have benefited him. We must learn yet how to drink
wines.

There is a little story about Bacchus, who, when only a boy,
on a journey he made to Naxos in Greece, fell asleep. When
he awoke he remarked a peculiar plant which had grown by his
side. It pleased him so much that he took it up to bring it
home. On the way he observed that the plant was growing
rapidly, and to protect it against the sun's heat he inserted it in
the hollow of a bird's bone which he found on the road. The
plant, still outgrowing the temporal protection, he picked up a
lion's bone, into which he inserted the bird's bone; but the
plant still grew, and finally, to bring it safely to Naxos, he had
to resort to a still larger bone, and it was that of an ass.

On reaching Naxos, the plant had grown so strongly that it
was impossible to extricate it from these bones, so he decided to
plant it as it was. In time it bore fruit, which, when pressed,
made such a divine beverage that when men drank of it they
sang like birds; if they drank more they grew strong as lions,

150 The Connecticut Pomological Society

and with still more they brayed like asses. This is the origin of
wine-making in Greek mythology.

I will say a few words of the hasty trip I took to the Paris
Exposition and to Alsace last August, and in regard to the
grapes and wine-making. Our stay was limited, and this
accounts for the hasty survey I had.

We witnessed a beautiful floral procession, where hundreds
of artistically arranged chariots, with floral and fruit decorations,
made a tour of the Exhibition grounds, witnessed by thousands
and thousands of people.

The "City of Wines," situated in the old Machinery Hall,
was something unique. It represented the most celebrated
wine-producing regions of sunny France, with an exact archi-
tectural construction of each region, in which the products and
viticultural instruments were on view. It was a decided success.
There, with the lofty medieval architecture of the Bordeaux and
Cognac region, you would admire the more massive military
constructions of the fifteenth century you meet in Burgundy.
The champagne region was also well represented, etc.

But the crowning fete was the "vintage procession," in
which all the wine-producing countries of Europe took part. It
was a costly affair, as it surpassed in gorgeousness anything
attempted before. Besides the foreign chariots and emblems of
the wine industry, the French had every region represented, and
they have many. But most conspicuous was an immense
"bower," made by the Arbois region in Burgundy. It repre-
sented an immense cluster of grapes of all varieties and color,
and was carried on poles by four men clad in medieval dress.
This vintage fete closed the series of processions given at the
Exposition in honor of agriculture and horticulture.

I was invited on September 2, by the "Wine and Grape-
Growers' Association" at Colmar (Alsace), to attend their busi-
ness meeting. The president and secretary remarked on the
non-success of the individual exhibitors in getting high awards
for their wines at the Exposition. They thought it lay in
neglecting the strict rules of cleanliness. After some discussion
on this topic, I asked the president, through my brother, to be
allowed to say a few words.

The president thanked me for the remarks I made regarding

Tenth Annual Meeting 151

wine-making in America, adding that he was pleased to hear
something new. I spoke as a member of the Connecticut
Pomological Society, and I wore the badge of that Society at
the gathering.

After recess, we went in a body to the Oberlin Experiment
Station, situated about two miles out in the country. To my
surprise I found a lot of about twenty acres entirely given up to
the testing of every variety of vines from all the world. They
were divided up in rows, with vines for the purposes of market,
table and wine, all properly labeled as to name, origin, donator
and sugar percentage on the "must scale." All our cultivated
varieties of North America, as well as those of Asia and Europe,
were growing lu.xuriantly.

Mr. Charles Oberlin, of Beblenheim, the director of the
Station, gave me some very valuable information. His work
embraces a life-time, as he proudly stated that ever since he was
twenty — he is now over seventy — he has been working towards
improving the wine grapes of Alsace, being the originator of
several early grapes.

I would give you more information on this subject, but I
have taken too much of your time already, and will have to
close. Let us hope that the interest in viticulture will take a
strong hold in our state; we have all the requisites to make it
a success.

Following this interesting paper, Mr. William H. Skillman,
of Rocky Hill, New Jersey, a well-known plum-grower in that
state, was introduced and spoke on "The Methods of a Suc-
cessful Plum -grower."

THE METHODS OF A SUCCESSFUL PLUM-GROWER

Mr. President:

Allow me to thank you, and this Society through you, for
the pleasure and honor conferred upon me by asking me to
address you. 1 am sorry, however, that you did not get a
better man. When Secretary Miles asked me to come to
Connecticut I consented reluctantly, not because I did not
want to come, but because 1 realized that I would not be

152 The Connecticut Pomological Society

able to give you as much as you had a right to expect.
When a person comes from another state to talk about any-
thing we all think he is some big gun in the business, or has
some right to do it, because otherwise he would not come so
far from home. In this case you will be disappointed, but as
Mr. Miles simply asked me to give my practical experience
and knowledge of the plum business, that is what I propose
to do. When I get to talking I sometimes talk too much,
and as he tells me I have about three-quarters of an hour, if
I talk more than that I hope you will call me down.

Now, friends, we have, as you all know, three strains of
plums that we can grow with more or less success. Those
are the natives, the European, and the Japanese. The former
two I have had little experience with, and with the other very
fair success. I can manage to grow the former two. I can't
manage the black rot. The rot is something that is ahead of
me, and destroys the profit on European and native plum cul-
ture for me. Now, I wish to say right here that I am going
to give my experience over in Jersey, one hundred and fifty
miles away, and what is true there under certain conditions
may not be true here, but there are certain points, like culti-
vation, etc., which, in a general way, are true in every locality,
in my opinion, except in Texas. There they have a way of
their own. But, as you all know, the culture of fruit, for
the most part, is a local matter, or, as Hancock said about
the tariff, "it's a local issue." We might as well tell the
truth about it. That is so about fruit more than most any
other one thing, but the way to be adopted to be successful
in plum culture, that is, in regard to certain points, is pretty
much the same all over. All you have to do is to be guided
by the local circumstances, and that is just the reason that
what may be all right here under certain circumstances will
not be all right there. Now, then, the plums I have fruited
of the European varieties include the French gage. Imperial,
Lombard, Germantown, and three or four other varieties. I
have grown them to some extent, but never enough to pay
me, on account of the rot. You may have that here. If
you do, I wish you would tell me what to do for it. We
have it terribly. I went to some of these fellows, the profes-

Tenth Annual Meeting 153

sors, that offer to tell us just what to do with these troubles
we have, and I said to them, "What must I do for this?"
If any of them paid me any attention at all they always said,
"Use Bordeaux mixture." Well, I tried it on some Lom-
bards. I sprayed them once, and it didn't do any good. I
sprayed them twice, and they kept on rotting. Then I tried
it the third time, so strong that it burned the leaves a little,
but still they went on rotting. Then I tried it the fourth
time, but it had no effect, and I had to give it up. I can't
grow the European or native plums; that is, I can't grow
enough of them to pay me. I can grow more of the Quack -
enboss and Lombard, but even those do not come in paying
quantities, and I would not advise you to plant them if the
rot strikes you here as it does us in Jersey. Well, what are
we to do about it ? Are we to go without plums ? Oh, no.
Here comes the "little Jap" to take the place of those that
don't seem to do well in this climate. We can grow the
Japanese plum all right. We can grow lots of them, and
that is what we are doing. If it wasn't for the Japanese
plums we would be out of the business. Now I guess the
best way for me to do is to go over the list of varieties. Of
varieties, I think by this time there are thirty or forty. I
will take them up in the order in which they ripen for me.
First, I will name the Willard. That is a plum that is nice-
looking, and large enough when properly grown, but it is poor
in quality, and I would not advise any of you planting it.
Still, I am not so sure you might not get something out of it
on account of its being so early. It is almost as early as any
other plum. Still, if you want a good, salable plum I would
not plant it.

The next in order of ripening is the Georgeson. That is a
yellow plum. Yellow is an unpopular color for any plum for
market. It is my experience that they do not want a yellow
plum. And besides being a yellow plum, they don't want this
because it is poor in quality. It is golden yellow and very pretty
to look at. I sent some of them into the city last year and they
sold for something like 50 or 60 cents a basket, and they thought
I ought to be prosecuted for damages for sending that pllim to
market.

154 The Connecticut Pomological Society

The next is the Ogon. That is a yellow plum, too. It has
that objection. It is a very pretty plum to look at, but that
don't help to sell it much because it is poor quality and don't
grow very well.

I would next name the Red Nagate. You can see from its
name it is a red plum. It is pretty fair, but not so good as some
others I will name. On account of its being pretty early it will
sell, and bring more money, in my opinion, than any of the
Japanese plums I can try. I have great faith in that plum. I
have 1,700 of them planted, and I don't know if somebody
don't stop me but I shall plant some more. It is a good seller,
and it will grow large enough if you grow it properly. It hasn't
a very rich color. The time you pick it has a good deal to do
with the color. Sometimes you can get a better color by leaving
it on the tree awhile.

The Abundance is a fair plum, but it is so soft and juicy I
am not planting it any more. Its color is a little ofi for market.

Now I will name the Burbank. Here is a plum that in my
opinion is one of the most wonderful varieties yet. I want that
plum for canning, but I don't think my wife cans them. She
likes something else. It is like the man who kissed the lady of
color. There is no accounting for tastes. But that plum is
one of the best of the whole lot. If you take care of it and
thin it out properly it will bear for you every year, but otherwise
it will bear every other year. You have probably heard it said
that it was a good keeping plum, but it rots the worst for me.
It doesn't rot badly. That is, it does not rot so as to destroy
the crop. I was surprised over in the New Jersey Horticultural
Society by hearing a man there say that Japanese plums rotted
so badly. He meant generally, of all varieties, according to
his statement. That isn't so. I live in New Jersey, about
five miles north of Princeton, and the Burbank is the only one
that has ever rotted with me.

The next is what I call the Chabot. That is a plum that
for some reason has not come to the front. It is one of the best
in everyway that you have a mind to look at it. It seems to me
that it is a plum that will come to the front after awhile.
Its qualities must bring it there. It is a good plum, has a good
color and is a handsome plum to look at. Fine in quality in

Tenth Annual Meeting 155

every way, and in my opinion that plum is bound to come to the
front some day, and you will hear more of it than you do now.

The next is the Orient. That is very similar to the one I
have just named. It is a good plum, and it ought to be better
known.

Then I will name that fraud of frauds called the Simons.
That is a fraud clean through. It is no good for anything at
all. If you have anything in the fruit line that is bad in your
neighborhood, multiply it by a hundred and you have the
Simons.

The next I will name is the Normand. There we have
something that is later in the yellow line. It is a greenish yel-
low. It is a fair-sized plum, and about the best of all the yellow
plums. It is good in quality, and if any of you want a good
plum for canning, or to eat, it will not do any harm to plant a
tree or two of Golden Normand. It is all right for such purpose
for home use, but the color is against it for a market plum.

The next is the Juicy. It is well named. It is an enormous
bearer, every year and all the time, but don't plant it, as it is
nothing more or less than a plaything.

Now I will name the best of all this line of plums, namely
the Wickson. That is a tree that grows broad. I believe there
is some Simons blood in it. I hope there is not, as it is a good
plum. It is one of the Burbank productions and is a good plum.
I have thirty-four trees in bearing. When it fruited last year the
trees were loaded, and out of the lot I had a basket and a half, I
guess. It is a rampant grower. It grows up like an old-
fashioned poplar. It is a pretty fair plum, but it has one
peculiarity; I have noticed it both years. You pick one plum
and it will be very free, and perhaps the very next plum you pick
off will cling closer than a brother. It is contrary to the laws of
nature, and yet it is a fact.

The last will be the Satsuma. That is a plum that rots
some, but is the best of them all as a canner. It is the full
Japan blood, dark crimson -red. It is very palatable. I rather
like it to eat myself, but when it comes to canning that is a
plum that will please the female portion of the household, — it is
the best canner in my opinion of them all. I have a good deal
of confidence in that plum. Some of the fruit men think it is a

156 The Connecticut Pomological Society

shy bearer, but you can't tell about that. They may be shy
to-day, and just as like as not two years from to-day they will
be covered with buds. Some think that of the Wickson, but
the Wickson is not going to be a shy bearer in my opinion. I
recommend that for this reason; not only for home use, but
many of you have local markets where it will sell all right. It is
not a good seller in the open market, though. It is a fair-
looking plum, and large enough, and if you grow it for j'our
local market, and let the people get used to it, and know what
that plum is, there is an opportunity for you. So" much for the
variety part of the subject.

I want to allude to the other part of the question, to
the selection of the tree, etc. First, I allude to the size of the
tree. I want a one-year-old tree thrifty and small. That is my
favorite. That is what I try to get. That will apply to
peaches. It will apply to much of the other fruit. Brother
Hale thinks he has learned better than that, and he is advocat-
ing a big tree now. I have had a good bit of experience, and
give me the small tree. By the way, I am not a plum specialist
as he is a peach specialist. Just to illustrate what a little tree
will do: I wanted six hundred trees. I went to a nurseryman,
and I said: "What have you got?" "Well," he said, "I have
about four hundred of all sizes, from very small to big ones."
"Well," I said, "I'll take them." I did, and I planted them
right together, the little and the big ones right in together.
That orchard is standing to-day, and the little trees when they
were three years old had caught the big ones, and to-day those
little trees are ahead of them. Now there are several points
gained by doing that. In the first place, with the little tree, you
first get it for less money. Eh, Brother Hale? Isn't that the
milk in the cocoanut? Brother Hale is looking for that dollar
the same as I am, and we want to get it quick, but I can see
the other side of it. I am not such a fool that I am going to set
trees that I am losing on in the end after I have learned the
lesson two or three .times. So my opinion is that you better plant
a small tree. You save money on the start. Another thing is,
by planting a small tree you can keep it under better control,
and it will make you a better tree, and be a better looking tree,
and come to a bearing age just as quick. I will take a little

Tenth Annual Meeting 157

tree in preference to the larger one everj^ time. When I send
in my money orders to the nurserymen for an order of trees I
say to them, "Give me a 252- to 3 -foot tree, and if you do not
have them, give me something smaller." That is the way I
send my orders. If you don't specify what size you want the
nurserymen will be apt to send you larger trees. That is a trick
the nurserymen have. They want to get rid of their big stock
every time. • I have had a lot of experience with nurserymen,
and there are some of then that are infernal rascals, but there
are a lot more of them that are as white as the driven snow.
Some of them are not so bad as they are made out. If 3'ou
make a nurseryman give you what you want, and know what
you want yourself, you won't have so much trouble.

Now, then, I want to tell you about this man over in
Texas that has been writing about trees. He told us a few
years ago that when we planted the young trees we must cut
the roots of all the trees, and then take a stick and make a
hole in the ground and put the tree in. I swallowed it. I
planted a little block of a thousand peach trees that way. I
didn't say anything, but I thought. I would see what there
was in it. He said it didn't hurt to cut them ofi, so I cut
them off up to two or three inches from the stem. I thought
I was going to wake up the neighborhood on how to prune
the roots of peach trees. That fall, when I counted the dead
trees, I had a trifle over eight hundred dead ones in the block.
The other two hundred looked as though they wanted to die,
and I thought I would let them. I took them out. Now
this fellow is out with another idea. He says that you must
not only do that, but you must tamp the ground hard. He
says, to take a piece of timber and ram the ground hard. You
must cut the roots off the tree, and put the tree in the hole,
and ram your ground, and then he says that you mustn't go
to cultivating only a few feet out in the center, and just clip
ofi the ground up around the trees. Well, probably you gen-
tlemen won't do that. I hope you won't. I have had enough
of his ideas.

Now, gentlemen, in regard to cultivation. I believe in
cultivating. Commence as early in the spring as the ground
is ready, and cultivate right along to the first of August. That

158 The Connecticut Pomological Society

is my opinion. I think you should do it. My favorite way
when I am using soil that is a little tight is to plow it until
I get it just exactly as I want it. Plow your ground in the
spring as soon as you can work it, and then go in with a
short cut-away harrow, and you will find it will do good work.
If you can do that every week it will pay you to do it, but
whatever you do after you once get started to cultivate go on
cultivating. After the first going over, when the ground is
mellowed up, put on the harrow. A short cut-away harrow
after that will stir up the most dirt and kill the most weeds,
but, no matter what you use, cultivate your trees, and go
right on cultivating. It will help you out all through, and
especially in case of a drought. Of course, we will have a
drought once in a while, when even that will not do us any
good. We had one last year. But generally speaking, cul-
tivation will help you through any drought, and that is the
thing to do.

Now, in regard to trimming your plum trees. Of course,
you want to head and shape your trees. Cut them back pretty
well, and keep the tree well trimmed up and cut off. Some
plum trees will grow away out in this shape, and you have to
keep them cut back. They are rampant growers. But you
want to remember this: for the first two or three years don't
cut out those little shoots inside the tree. Leave those on.
It is just the same with a peach tree. You want to leave
those on because those are what will bring you the first fruit.
If you cut them out you will not get nearly as good results
from the tree. After you have had that then you can cut
those of?, because then you have your fruit higher up on
the branch. You try that, and you will find it is worth
remembering.

Again, when it comes to fertilizers, most anything that is a
good fertilizer is good for fruit trees, but there is one thing
if I can get it that I prefer, and that is good stable or barn-
yard manure. Mr. Hale has told us two or three times that
he would prosecute a man that would put it on his orchard.
I have used mine in my peach and plum orchards, and it does
them good. I know it does. Perhaps something else may do
better, but I know that does them good. Perhaps your soil

Tenth Annual Meeting 159

is so here in Connecticut that you do not need anything of
that kind, but if your soil is light put it on. Perhaps you will
not need it for the first two or three years. Perhaps your
trees are growing well enough, but after you have had a crop
or two, in my opinion, it will not hurt your trees a bit. I
have heard men say that they doubted the wisdom of it, but
in my experience it is a good thing to give the ground a good
casting over. Of course, you can overdo the matter. I don't
say to do it every year. If the trees look thrifty and are doing
well, let them rest a year. Skip a year and don't put it on.

Another thing, if you have got some bright crimson clover in
your orchard to turn under it is a good thing. If you can carry
it through that is a marvelous crop for it. I had a twelve-year-
old peach orchard, and I plowed under a crop of crimson clover
with splendid results. If you cannot get that, plant cow-peas.
These scientific fellows tell us that that crop is not a perfect
fertilizer. I do not suppose it is from their standpoint, but I
simply know, gentlemen, it gets there, and that is all I care
about it.

Then in regard to thinning the fruit. That is a matter that
we must wake up to. What we did on my place this last
summer in that line was the best three weeks' work in the whole
year. We do not thin enough. I take off from four to five
hundred sometimes. On one tree I took off about twice that
and I know I left more than that on. The result was that I
had a pretty fair crop of good -sized Iruit, and I believe I would
have had a still better result if I had taken off half as many
more. A neighbor of mine that has an orchard right across the
way didn't thin so much. I shipped all of mine, and he didn't
ship more than one basket out of five possibly. The Japan
plums want thinning still more than the other kinds. Apples
need it, and pears want it. We have to get there. As Mr.
Hale says, the best is what the market wants, and that is what
we have to grow. There is no use in allowing your trees to
produce a lot of small unmarketable fruit if you can help it, and
you can help it a lot by proper thinning. Now in regard to
thinning the plums, I can't afford to spend the time to get up
and pick them ofi. I get up in the tree at the proper stage in
the size of the fruit and give it a little shake. With a little

i6o The Connecticut Pomological Society

practice you can get off a lot of them pretty evenly over the
tree. I don't suppose that is the proper w^ay to do, and it is not
my ideal vi^ay of doing it, but it does get off a lot of the fruit,
and 1 think it pays better. If you knovv^ of any better way, and
I hope you do, I wish somebody would inform me their way of
doing it, but until I know of something better I am going to
shake my Japanese plums because it is a benefit to me to do it.

Now comes the size of the package. I have tried various
things to ship in. I have tried a ten -pound crate basket plaited
over the top with a board cover. I do not like that because the
package does not show how much fruit there is in it. The
basket don't show the quantity of fruit very well. I have
dropped that. I have tried berry crates, and quart baskets, and
strawberry and raspberry crates. I have tried those, and I am
not sure but I may try them again. I have also tried a carrier.
Most of my plums I have shipped in peach baskets. The
ordinary sized half-bushel basket, and everything considered, cost
of transportation, and cost of package, so far, with the exception
of an experiment I tried with berry baskets, they have turned me
more clear money in the peach baskets. It does not seem to
me, though, that that was the right way. I don't know what
is the best thing, and I wish I did. A commission man told me
that he could send me raspberry crates for 15 cents a crate, and
as they come as returned crates I can get them delivered at my
station for that. Perhaps you can do the same way.

When it comes to grading and putting up your fruit for
market, there is a chance for you to use good judgment to please
your trade. Last year I had a good run of plums, and they ran
very fairly uniform in size. I picked the plums off and put them
right in the baskets, put the covers on, and let them go. I was
in somewhat of a hurry, and that is the way I did. Other folks
will not tell you to do that, but I am here to tell you my experi-
ence. Most of them will tell you to grade your fruit generally,
Japan plums, and everything else; that it will sell better in the
market. They tell you to put your fruit up nicely. But I am
telling you, gentlemen, I believe a good many fruit-growers are
dishonest about that very thing. They grade their fruit, and
put their good ones on top, and the poor ones somewhere else.
Some folks will put up fruit that way and then put the shipping

Tenth Annual Meeting i6i

numbers of somebody else with a fair reputation on the
packages, and then tell folks where they can be found. Buyers
that are stuck that way once are not going to be stuck again on
your packages or mine, and they are not going back to buy to-
morrow morning unless they can buy at their own price. Put
your fruit up nicely. I say do it because it is right, and because
it is honest. You will feel better for it. It is the proper thing
to do. They say honesty is the best policy, but if we cannot
be honest only for policy's sake it is a very doubtful kind of
honesty. But that saying is true, nevertheless. It will pay to
be honest. But if you cannot be honest in any other way, and
be honest and do right for right's sake, then be honest for
policy's sake. It will pay you to do so.

The President: "There is one report that we have not
yet had, that of our Committee on Legislation, of which Mr. J.
R. Barnes, of West Cheshire, is chairman. We will hear that
report now.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION

Mr. President and Members:

The Committee on Business and Legislation beg leave to
report, that in their opinion, an efifort should be made to secure
from the state an increased appropriation for the use of this
Society. We would suggest that the Legislature be asked to
appropriate the sum of $i,ooo a year for the coming two years.
Your Committee would recommend also that a law be en-
acted looking to the control of orchard pests, and that a com-
mittee be appointed by this Society to draft a suitable bill to
be presented to the present Legislature.

Respectfully submitted,

J. R. Barnes,

J. B. Noble,

A. R. Wadsworth.

Motion made and seconded that the report ot the committee
be accepted and the recommendation adopceu.

i62 The Connecticut Pomological Society

Mr. Hinman: "I think general legislation of that character
will not accomplish much, and I am pretty doubtful about the
last part of that report. I presume every one in the hall knows
the result of the Massachusetts law as to this particular disease.
It seems to me, to go before our General Assembly now, when
Connecticut is doing what it does for this Society, and for the
Dairymen's Association, and the Board of Agriculture, — to go
and ask them for an appropriation on a matter that we are none
of us absolutely certain about would be a mistake. It seems to
me that the state is already doing in the way of appropriating for
this and that a great deal for us, and that we had better as
farmers, and pomologists, and as dairymen and general farmers,
go a little slow. We want to ask for less, and then we shall be
in a condition later on to tell other people who are asking for
thousands and thousands where we get hundreds to ask less
from Connecticut, and then, when we know, and have made
up our minds what we want, we will be in a much better posi-
tion to get it. That is the way it seems to me. I simply make
that suggestion because I believe that as farmers we can take
care of this matter when we find out what it is, and because we
might get turned down even if we ask for but little. Even if
we got a thousand dollars it would amount to absolutely noth-
ing. It would not eradicate any disease. It would simply put a
thousand dollars into somebody's pocket. I do not believe it is
a good plan."

Mr. Barnes: "Mr. Hinman has an incorrect idea of that.
That thousand -dollar appropriation was not intended for the use
of any commission to control any insect pest, but simply for the
use of the Society in paying necessary expenses. There is no
special insect or disease mentioned in that report that we want
the money for specially, but it is for the general expenses of the
Society."

Mr. Hale: "There are two recommendations of the com-
mittee, and it is the last one that Mr. Hinman objects to, but
it appears he is a little mistaken."

Mr. Hinman: "I don't know whether I am or not yet. I
think before we pass that we better know just exactly what that
second part means."

Mr. Hale: "I am in full sympathy with any work in legis-

Tenth Annual Meeting 163

lation that can be procured in the state of Connecticut that will
help to hold in check this scale or any other pest, but after the
experience we had with the peach j'ellows law, and knowing the
sentiment of the average country member over on the hill, I
should want to be pretty chary about doing anything that would
lead up to anything of that kind again. To go up there now
and ask for another law, I don't care how skilfully drafted that
law may be, might mean defeat, and with that defeat it might
mean the defeat of the appropriation that we need to carry on
the work of this Society. Now we all recognize the danger of
this scale, and its presence here, probably in every township in
this state, and it is probably going to work a good deal of havoc,
and if we can pass such a law no doubt it would be wise, but I
doubt if we can do it. Therefore, under the circumstances,
would it not be better for this Society to simply go on record as
giving out a note of warning of what we believe the danger is
and say that we would like to have the state take the matter
up?"

The President: "It seems to me that is just what is con-
templated in this recommendation that is olifered."

Mr. Hinman: 'T move that that report be amended by
striking out the latter part. I think the first part asking for an
appropriation is well enough."

Amendment seconded.

Secretary Miles: "As I understand it, that simply means
that we shall accept the report of the Committee without
adopting their recommendation."

Upon being put to vote by the Chair the amendment was
passed, and the original motion as amended also.

The President: "The report of the committee is accepted
as amended."

The noon hour having arrived, a recess was declared until
1.30 P. M.

164 The Connecticut Pomological Society

AFTERNOON SESSION — SECOND DAY

The Society reassembled at 1.45 P. M., President Merriman
in the chair.

The President: "We have a few questions left and I will
present them for your consideration now. ' What proportion
of plant -food used by a matured peach tree in an orchard is
absorbed from the air, and what proportion from the subsoil ?'"

Dr. E. H. Jenkins: "What the proportion is I do not
think any mortal can tell. A tree gets it wherever it can find
it. If it finds it in the soil it will go very deeply into the
subsoil to obtain what it needs, but as to what the proportion
is, I cannot tell."

Question: "South Carolina Rock. What is its value as
an orchard fertilizer ? "

Dr. Jenkins: "That is another of those questions that
cannot be answered very well. The South Carolina is not
generally available, and I do not think I should recommend it
to any one to use. Bone is much more readily available, and
is very good, as has been proven in this state in numberless
instances."

Mr. Platt: "Doctor, does that apply to the South Caro-
lina Rock after it has been cut with acid, or to the crude
Rock ? "

Dr. Jenkins: '"After it has been cut it is more readily
available, and it has been used to very good effect. The dis-
solved South Carolina is very good, but the crude rock is
extremely slow."

The President: "Does it not revert to rock again after
awhile?"

Dr. Jenkins: "No. That without treatment has reverted
so far as it can. It is very insoluble, and stays insoluble."

Question: "What is the value of the Windsor Cherry to
the commercial grower ? "

Mr. N. S. Platt: "I have trees growing but have not
had them fruit enough to know. The trees are very healthy,
and the cherries are large, with good, solid flesh. It is a very
good cherry, I think, but what it will do for a commercial
grower I do not know."

Tenth Annual Meeting 165

Question: "For an orchard to produce winter apples,
what soil is most desirable ? "

The President: "I should say good, heavy plain loam.
Not a sandy soil, but that which is inclined to be heavy. That
will produce apples of better keeping qualities, and the trees
will be more hardy."

Question: "Of what value is corrosive sublimate wash in
combating the peach borer ? "

The President: "As no one seems to be ready with an
answer, we will continue that question until another meeting."

Question: "In our rush to set Japan plums have we not
overlooked many of the Americana sorts which are superior in
quality, hardiness and longevity ? "

Mr. Skillman, of New Jersey: "In my case I have not
overlooked the European and native varieties, but I propose to
overlook them hereafter. I have no use for anything except
the Japan plum, especially because the others rot so, and I can-
not get any money out of them. I cannot catch any of the
almighty dollars by using the European or native plums."

Question: "What shall we do for aphis on Japan plums ?"

Mr. Skillman: "I don't know. I do not have it, and
never saw it. The Japan varieties are particularly free from
most all insects and diseases, that is, in my locality. That has
been my experience since I have been growing them."

Mr. Rogers: "I have had some experience with the black
pith in young orchard trees. The wood was white, and so far
as 1 could see all right, but the pith was black. They tell me
it is caused by a frozen tree."

Mr. Skillman: "I have had a sad experience with this
trouble and have found it on peaches, pears and apples. I have
lost a great many trees by it. You could not give me a tree
that had a black pith. My advice is, don't set out such trees."

Question: "Is there any danger of the fruit business
being overdone ? "

Mr. Skillman: "Forty years ago I heard that the peach
business was going to be overdone. People said the market
would be glutted, and they said latter on that Brother Hale
and I were fools for going into it. The poor fruit busi-
ness has always been overdone. You raise good fruit, and

i66 The Connecticut Pomological Society

if you do you need not be afraid about there being a market
for it."

A Member: "Mr. Skillman, tell us how you set out your
Japanese plum trees so as to get a profit out of them ? "

Mr. Skillman: "I will do it. You take Japanese plums
and plant them fifteen feet apart. That is far enough. I
have got them fifteen, fourteen and sixteen. You plant them
fifteen feet apart each way, and you get over two hundred to
the acre. You will have a few bad trees and a few that will
break down from one cause or another. When the trees
commence to bear well they ought to give you a peach
basket of plums per tree. If they do not do that there is
something wrong with the grower. When they are four or
five years old they should give you two baskets, and if they
do not do that there is something wrong with the grower.
Now with 200 trees to the acre, when they are only yielding
one basket, if you are getting fifty cents for them, there is a
hundred dollars, and if they don't net you but twenty-five
cents there is $50 to the acre, and when you are only getting
one basket to a tree. As your trees get older, of course you are
getting more. If you are getting 400 baskets, as you ought to,
that is $200. Now, gentlemen, I think you will agree with me
that that is as good as an acre of wheat. That has been my
experience. I do not expect to get rich in growing fruit. 1
believe in growing good fruit, and if you grow good fruit I know
from my experience that you won't have to go out into the
world with fear and trembling to know how you are going to get
along. You hear some people tell about the good old times, but
I tell you there never were such times in the fruit business as
we have right now. There never were such good prospects for
success. I am optimistic in my views, I know. If I am not
I try to be, and this great, broad-minded, liberal-minded Hale
of yours feels the same way."

The President: ''Our program at this point calls for a
report from the Committee on Nominations."

Prof. W. E. Britton: "Mr. President, and members of
the Society: Your committee begs leave to present the fol-
lowing nominations for officers of this Society for the coming
year: For president, N. S. Piatt, of New Haven; vice-presi-

Tenth Annual Meeting 167

dent, J. C. Eddy, of Simsbury ; secretary, H. C. C. Miles, of
Milford ; treasurer, R. A. Moore, of Kensington; and one
vice-president from each county."

The President: "You have heard the report. What
action will you take upon it ? "

Motion duly made and seconded that the report be accepted.

The President: "The motion is made and seconded
that this report be accepted and adopted. Any remarks ?
As many as are in favor of this motion will signify it by
raising their hands. Contrary minds the same. The motion
is carried, the report accepted and the nominations adopted."

At this point the secretary called the attention of the
meeting to the requirement of the by-laws, that all officers
shall be elected by ballot.

On motion of Mr. Fenn, and duly seconded, it was voted
that the secretary be authorized to cast the ballot of the
Society for the list of officers as submitted by the committee.
The following were then declared elected: President, N. S.
Piatt; vice-president, J. C. Eddy; secretary, H. C. C. Miles;
treasurer, R. A. Moore; county vice-presidents : Hartford — A. C.
Sternberg, West Hartford; New Haven — E. M. Ives, Meriden;
Fairfield — A. C. Innis, Stratford; Litchfield — B. C. Patterson.
Torrington ; Middlesex — C. E. Lyman, Middlefield; New
London — Clifton Peck, Yantic ; Windham — H. B. Buell,
Eastford; Tolland — Prof. A. G. Gulley, Storrs.

President Merriman then introduced Mrs. Harvey Jewell,
of Cromwell, who read a very interesting paper entitled
"Suggestions on Fruit Canning and Preserving."

SUGGESTIONS ON FRUIT CANNING AND PRESERVING

I think the members of this Society will sustain me when
I say that fruit in some form should appear upon our tables
every day in the year and be used freely by all the family, espe-
cially the children.

The question naturally arises, how can this be done during
the winter seasons economically, and at the same time give a

i68 The Connecticut Pomological Society

variety to our families ? Apples, oranges and bananas are ob-
tainable at nearly all times ; but by careful forethought and
energy during the summer months, when fruit is abundant,
this list can be greatly increased by providing a store of canned
fruits, which should be ample in quantity and of the best pos-
sible quality.

Many housekeepers, for various reasons, yearly lose more or
less of their products and fail to realize the highest results of
their hard labor in the hot kitchen, and so become somewhat
discouraged. It is the object of this paper to help any such,
if I can, by offering a few suggestions, which the writer con-
siders essential to success and practices each year in her own
home.

Select sound and not overripe fresh fruit. Plums, peaches
and pears, especially, are, I think, much better in flavor and
consistency if canned while quite hard, before they are ready
for eating out of hand. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries
and currants are much finer flavored and better keepers if
canned early in their respective seasons. Be careful not to
overcook these fruits.

Be sure that the cans are absolutely clean and use new
rubbers each year, and if the tops become bent by being care-
lessly opened, procure new ones. Carefully prepare the fruit,
and if cooked in kettles, do only one or two cans at a time.
Make a syrup; when boiling, drop in the fruit, cook lightly to
preserve flavor; meanwhile have the cans and tops warm and
so placed as to avoid direct drafts while filling and cooling;
have the fruit boiling hot, lift and place neatly and carefully in
jars, remove all air spaces by running the handle of a spoon or
blade of a silver knife carefully down and around the sides of
the jars, being careful not to break the fruit; fill to overflow-
ing and screw on tops immediately and tighten as the contents
cool.

Ingenuity should be used, and our pears, plums and peaches
should be prepared in numerous ways, to insure variety. For
instance, pears when cooked alone are considered insipid, but
with a few slices of ginger root or a few drops of ginger extract
or slices of lemon added are very nice ; baked and canned they
make a delicious winter dessert with cream and cake; chipped,

Tenth Annual Meeting 169

with ginger and lemon added, a delicious preserve is made, or
combined with quince they are equally good ; also spiced and
made into a sweet pickle they serve as an appetizer.

For strawberries, I prefer firm, solid, highly colored berries
with deep red flesh. These look well in the cans, and retain
both form and flavor.

Raspberries should always be cooked in the jars; in fact, each
year I am cooking more this way, and consider it the ideal
method. The only objection is the quantity of syrup required,
by reason of the shrinking of the fruit, but the product is far
superior in flavor and texture. The past season the writer put
up several hundred cans by this method, and not one can so far
has failed to keep perfectly. Many housekeepers consider this
a long, tedious method, but I do it easily in this way. If doing
peaches, I am able to keep two girls busy paring and filling the
jars with the uncooked fruit. I cook nine and ten jars at a time
by using an ordinary wash-boiler. I have a wooden rack which
I put in the bottom of the boiler, and place the cans upon this in
such a manner that the cans do not touch each other. Fill the
cans half full of cold water, and as the peaches are pared drop
into the water to avoid discoloration. When the jars are full,
turn off the water and fill nearly to the neck of the jar with a
good syrup, which has been previously prepared, place on the
rack in the boiler and fill the boiler nearly to the top of the cans
with warm water, and bring to a boil; after cooking a short time
from two to four more peaches may be added to each can. As
soon as the air is expelled from the fruit, remove the jars from
the water, put on the rubbers and seal immediately.

The secret of jelly-making is fresh and not overripe fruit.
Never allow the fruit or juice to come in contact with metal, as
it gives a harsh flavor. After the jelly has cooled, have ready
melted paraffine, turn a thin layer over the top of each tumbler
and put on the covers; this excludes all air and keeps the con-
tents from molding over the top. When the fruit is opened
the paraffine can be carefully removed and washed for use the
following season if desired. For jelly use one pound of sugar to
a quart of juice, for preserves three pounds of sugar to four of
fruit, and in canning use no more sugar than is needed to bring
out flavor and make the fruit palatable. Carelessness and hap-

lyo The Connecticut Pomological Society

hazard methods will never insure success, but the details must be
carefully followed if we would attain success in this department
of domestic science, and thereby give to our families a healthful
diet, and so aid in bringing happiness to the home circle.

Questions have been asked in relation to the profit in a
commercial way. It is my opinion that more is to hoped for by
working for first-class retail custom by supplying private families
who cannot prepare their own, than by trying to supply the trade.
From my own experience I judge that the demand for canned
goods in glass, even from the best groceries, is small; a better
market, however, may be hoped for in the line of preserves and
jellies.

The Secretary: 'T am sure, Mr. President, that the
officers of this Society who prepared the program for this
meeting do not need to ofier any apology for placing upon it
a lady speaker, which, as you all know, is somewhat of an
innovation. I really had to work pretty hard to persuade
Mrs. Jewell to come before us and give us this paper. She
thought it was hardly the thing for her to do, and she
thought she could not do it acceptably, but I am sure you
will agree with me that the wisdom of our choice has been
shown to be all right. Mrs. Jewell has had a great deal of
practical experience, and I wish that we might spend a few
moments in discussing her paper, and if anybody wishes to
ask any questions I am sure she can give us a great deal of
valuable information in this line."

Mr. Ives: "Is it a fallacy that beet sugar will not keep fruit?
I do not see where the keeping qualities come in play except
for preserving. Is there any difference in sugars, that is, as
to the different sources from which they come as to that ? "

Mrs. Jewell: "I do not know as to that. I always use
granulated sugar in my canning. I never intend to use more
than is necessary to keep up the flavor. I think it is
injurious to health to put in too much."

Mrs. Miles: "I would like to ask this lady how she
cans plums. I noticed in Middletown that her plums are
very fine, both in looks and taste. It is a very hard thing to
do, and I wish she would give us an account of it."

Tenth Annual Meeting 171

Mrs. Jewell: "I would say in regard to the canning of
plums that I use the Burbank plum for canning or for pre-
serving. In canning the Burbank plums I put the plums in
jars filled with syrup, which is filled in around the plums,
and then place them in water. I am careful to put in as
many plums as I can, and see that the can is closed tightly.
In this way the plum will retain more of its natural flavor."

A Member: "I would like to ask if she has tried to can
fruit without sugar? I have been told that more of the
natural flavor can be retained in that way."

Mrs. Jewell: "In reply, I would say that I have not
practiced that myself. I have a friend who has tried it on
raspberries, and she tells me that it gives a very natural
flavor. She mashes them thoroughly, and then lets them
stand for several hours, and then simply cans them."

Mr. Wooding: "I want to answer that question, or
rather two questions, for the gentlem.an asked first about beet
sugar spoiling fruit. I do not believe there is a lady or gen-
tleman in this hall that can tell the difference. I have been
in the grocery business for the last five years, have handled
both kinds, and I cannot tell the difference yet. I do not
believe there is any one of you who can. In regard to the
question of putting up fruit without sugar, my wife has practiced
that for the last twenty years. We never put up with sugar.
It is all without sugar, and we claim it is better put up with-
out sugar. It gives more of the flavor of the fruit. We have
always done it that way, and have always had good success."

A Lady: "I would like to inquire if that is a new pro-
cess,— canning fruit without sugar? What is the process?"

Mr. Wooding: "We merely put our fruit in a fruit jar
and cook it there. Fill up the jar about two -thirds full of
water, cook it as long as we think riecessary, and then take
out the cans and fill them up with hot water to overflowing,
then let them stand a little, and seal them up and put them
away. There is not much process to it. We never have
canned plums that way as much as some other fruits, but
currants, raspberries and strawberries are what we use mostly,
because, I suppose, that is what I raise mostly. But, in fact,
we can everything that way."

172 The Connecticut Pomological Society

Mr. InniS: "I would like to say that is something that
we have practiced in our home with entire success. In
regard to canning other fruit without sugar, my wife just
brings it to a boil, 212°, then puts it in the cans and seals
them up as you would ordinarily. In preparing it for the
table she simply removes it from the can, puts it into a
skillet and brings it to a boil, and then by adding the sugar
you have almost the natural flavor of the fruit of the vine
or tree."

President Merriman: "Fellow members, I am very happy
to announce to you that you have chosen this day a new
president, who will care for your interests during the season
which is before us. With Mr. Piatt's ability, and his great
courtesy, I have no doubt he will serve you more acceptably
than the president who is about to retire. I will call on the
newly elected president to appear before you and preside over
the remainder of the meeting."

Mr. Platt: "I thank you for the honor, my friends, and
our president for his courtesy. I have needed no introduction
to you after having been before you so many times, and as you
will no doubt hear enough from me in the fulfilment of the
duties that ought to come to your president, I will ask to be
excused from presiding over the meeting for the remainder of
the day, and ask President Merriman to resume the chair. I
have some duties yet to perform in selecting committees for
the year, and I would ask you to excuse me for the time being."

(President Merriman resumes the chair.)

Mr. Hale: "This morning, at the close of the morning
session, we struck from the report of the Committee on Legis-
lation their recommendation as to the appointment of a com-
mittee for drafting and presenting before the present Legis-
lature a bill in relation to controlling the San Jose scale and
other insects and injurious pests. I made a suggestion at the
time that we ought, at least, to go on record concerning this
important matter in some way, and I have a resolution which
I would like to offer at this time, which, it seems to me,
covers the ground."

"Whereas. That dreaded pest, the San Jose scale, has
obtained a foothold all over our state, both in city and country,

Tenth Annual Meeting 173

and not only are fruit trees, but our roses, ornamental shrubs,
and some of our best varieties of shade trees in danger of de-
struction from this pest, unless prompt action and repressive
measures be undertaken ; and

"Whereas, Other states have had for several years past
efficient laws v^'hich have prevented in a large measure the
spread of this insect ; be it

^^ Resolved, That it is the judgment of the Connecticut
Pomological Society that Connecticut ought, by proper legis-
lation, make an earnest attempt to save our trees and shrubs;
and while we feel disinclined to demand any legislation for
our own and others' protection, yet we would sound this
note of warning and refer the matter to the Committee on
Agriculture of the present General Assembly."

Mr. Innis : "I know Brother Hale is a very modest man,
and so much so that the ladies all love him, but it seems to
me in that resolution he has not gone far enough. I believe
if we want a thing, and it is worth wanting, it is worth
asking for. Why not ask this General Assembly to take
measures to suppress this pest, and not make it in the way
of a suggestion to them ? They are not coming here
to ask what we want. If we go to them, and tell them
what we w^ant and need, I believe we are pretty sure to
get it. Now as an amendment to that resolution, I would
offer this:

^^ Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed by the
chair to draft a suitable bill relating to the suppression of the
San Jose scale and other insect pests in Connecticut, to be
presented to the General Assembly at once."

Mr. Hale: "That comes right back to the matter we
fought down this morning, and 1 certainly hope that this
Society will not attempt anything of that kind. I believe in
making haste, and making it just as fast as you can, but you
sometimes can get along faster by going a little slowly. I have
no idea what we shall get from this present General Assembly,
even though we might get some law relating to the San Jose
scale, that we shall get what we want, or what we ought to
have. We need more destruction of plants and trees in the
cities and country towns in order to arouse the people to the

174 The Connecticut Pomological Society

dangers of this disease, or this pest. I think we shall get a
stronger and better law if we turn this matter over with just
a note of warning to the present General Assembly, and let
them consider it as they see fit, and we shall be further on
five years from now than we will be with a special bill from
ourselves. Let us ask for one thousand dollars for the work of
this Society, and let the whole state become roused up on the
subject of the San Jose scale, and when that comes there will be
a demand for action by the Legislature that cannot be resisted,
and in which we can join."

The President: "It is the opinion of the chair that the
longer it is delayed the more it will cost. A thousand dollars might
do as much execution to-day as five thousand would next year."

Mr. Sternberg: "The amendment, I believe, is in order.
There is no harm in presenting a bill, but this Society ought to
be assumed to father it. We have been talking about the peach
yellows law, and it has been said that we should not attempt
this because that was a failure, but the circumstances in con-
nection with that law were entirely different from the circum-
stances in connection with this pest. I believe it is our duty
to father this movement. Every man of us ought to jump in
and back it up. I, for one, am ready to do so. Whatever
bill the committee may report can be modified or changed before
the Agricultural Committee. I hope that Brother Hale will
not oppose it for that very reason ; that he can amend the bill
after it is submitted to the committee in any way he thinks
proper. I think we owe it to the Society, and we owe it to
the interests of the state at large to present a matter of so much
importance before the General Assembly for relief. I think
this Society is the proper body to take that action, and it is
composed of the very men who have the right, and the
authority, and who ought to take the responsibility of bring-
ing this matter to the. attention of the General Assembly. I
hope the amendment will pass."

Mr. Farnham: "I fully agree with Mr. Sternberg. I did
not have the privilege of being connected with the peach
yellows trouble, but I think all of us are going to have the
privilege of being connected with this San Jose scale trouble,
as well as other things of that kind, whether we want to or

Tenth Annual Meeting 175

not. I think it is well known, as has been stated, that this
San Jose scale pest is infesting all the towns of the state, and
in the cities like Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport the rose
bushes, and flowers, and the ornamental shrubs are more or
less covered. I moved a tree of the shrub order for a wealthy
person in New Haven a year ago, and it was simply covered
with the scale, and it lived but a short time. I told the gar-
dener at the place that there was no use, but he did not know
what it was. I know its prevalence all over the state, and I
think I can go to places where roses and different ornamental
shrubs are sold in this state and find it. I think it is being
widely distributed from such points, and unless we can get
some legislation, or some power that will back up our present
experiment station men in making examinations, or get some-
thing to defray their expenses, it will be like calling the doctor
when the patient is in the last stages of pneumonia. Whatever
we do now will go just so far towards eradicating it. I think
it is doubtful if it is possible to even eradicate it now, but I
think it will be a much harder matter to do it five years from
now, as Mr. Hale speaks about."

Mr. Hale: "All that my good brother on the left has
said may be true, and all that Brother Sternberg says is true,
but it is not the whole case. We want to consider not the
interest of this Society, but the interest of the state of Con-
necticut. We do not want to give the General Assembly the
idea that this is a notion of a particular Society, but we want
them to understand that all the other agricultural interests,
and all the owners of land and trees and shrubs are equally
interested with us. If we sound this note of warning, and
then leave the matter to the Committee on Agriculture of
the General Assembly, it seems to me that is all we should do.
They have the power to originate any bill they see fit. The
bills will finally come to them anyway, and instead of this
Society originating a special bill, and fathering it all through,
why not turn the matter over to the committee who acts for
all the agricultural interests of the state and let them prepare
a bill for themselves after all interests have been consulted.
Then you will have the whole allied agricultural interests of
the state united in support of the bill."

176 The Connecticut Pomological Society

Mr. Hoyt : "I believe if this Society goes before the
Legislature with a just and wise bill, and a bill which we
know will accomplish the object, that thej' will grant us the
law, but do not let us be over-zealous in trying to be wise.
This is a matter of tremendous magnitude, but it has to be
well considered. It is an easy thing to make a law, but it is
another thing to make a law that does the work. We want
a law that will do the work and do it effectually. Now, then,
just look at this matter a moment. Do we know how we
are going to do this business, and can we present to our Leg-
islature a bill which will prevail ? Has this matter been
studied up enough ? Have we discussed among ourselves a
plan whereby this thing can be eradicated ? I do not think
we have. I think if we try to force the passage of a law now,
with that state of affairs among ourselves, it will be premature.
I do not think it is wise to do it."

Mr. Innis: "I want to say right here that I have no
object whatever in trying to force anything through this body.
I believe, with Brother Hoyt, that it is well for us to be
careful how we go ahead, but in making this amendment I
made it for a specific object. This morning, when that part
of the recommendations of the committee was struck out, it
was done without proper discussion. This amendment has
brought out just such a discussion as we need on this floor,
and if the amendment is voted down at this time I shall have
no hard feelings. I believe it is wise for us to be careful how
we ask for any bill pertaining to our interests, and, as Brother
Hale has well said, if the Agricultural Committee of the Gen-
eral Assembly sees fit to put in a bill of that kind and push
it through, it takes the responsibility off our shoulders and
gives us an opportunity to stand back and help with those
who are going to profit by it. This bill, should it be pre-
sented, not only affects the fruit-growers of the state of Con-
necticut, but does to a very considerable extent, as much as
the fruit-growers, the general horticultural interests of the
whole state. In the city of Bridgeport it will be but a few
years before the whole east side will be so generally infested
that chey will be willing to join with other interests in some
plan to suppress this pest. Very many of the ornamental trees

Tenth Annual Meeting 177

and shrubs are infested with it, and those of you who are
familiar with that part of the city know that its great beauty
is in its shrubbery."

A Member: "Some years ago, as has been said here,
there was a law enacted for the suppression of the peach
yellows. I, for one, was in favor of it, and I was very much
disappointed in the work which was accomplished. Now, I
believe, in this case, there is such' a thing as making too much
haste. I believe at this time we are not going to gain much
by pressing the matter. I believe much is going to be gained
by waiting a little until the matter is well considered and we
know just what we want, and by not being too hasty. I am
in favor of a little more time."

Mr. Butler: "It seems to me that the life of this Society
does not depend upon the further propagation and encourage-
ment of the San Jose scale, but, at the same time, I do not
believe that this Society should now turn and run because
they have been over at the capitol once before and had a law
passed that was repealed. We have our right to petition the
same as we have always had, and if some of us had applied
to our business the principles which Brother Hale suggests it
would be very proper to follow now, we would have given up
years ago. I have always had a theory that when we knew a
thing was right it was a good plan to stick to it. I do not
believe there is a member of this Society but what believes
it is right for this Society to do all it can for the suppression
of this scale, but I do not think that the suppression depends
entirely upon a state law. We might, as members of this
Society, agree not to buy any stock that had not been fumi-
gated, or which in some way was proved to our satisfaction
to have no scale upon it. Furthermore, we are all of us
surrounded with neighbors, some of whom very likely never
heard what it was, and who do not know it when they see it.
They can bring it in and propagate it for us. There is just
where the difficulty comes in. We must have some protection.
If this Society stands back and says, "Well, we will let it run,
and take care of ourselves when we get it through other fellows
because they are ignorant," we are cutting a stick for our
own backs. If they are propagating the scale for us we are

178 The Connecticut Pomological Society

going to have more than our full share of it. We must have
some protection through the law to compel such people who
are ignorant of the pest and its effects to take care of it. I
hope and trust that this Society will not stand back because
they have been beaten back on the peach yellows business.
This is of much more importance than the peach yellows,
because the peach yellows cannot be propagated so rapidly,
and will not be distributed, but wherever this pest is it will
be distributed. I hope that the amendment offered by Mr.
Innis will be passed, and a bill will be presented, and that
this Society will not stand back, but will go ahead and make
the fight even if it is beaten down."

Mr. Ives: "1 think this Society ought to be the promoter
of all such good work. I think this is the source from which
all bills of that kind should emanate. We come here and
represent the interests of fruit-growing. If we do not suc-
ceed this time we can try again, and keep at it until we do
succeed."

Mr. Nettleton: "As the law is now, our nurserymen
do not have to give any guarantee with their stock, and if
you buy anything you do not know what you are getting in
this line. If we send out of the state, on stock from other
states we get a certificate, and we know something about the
condition of the stock. There is no use in calling out
'Fire!' when the building is burned up. We want to yell
when the building begins to burn."

Mr. Wadsworth: "Whatever action you take, or what-
ever measure you adopt, it seems to me that the proper
course is for this Society to point out the peril and ask for
the proper legislative remedy. Then you can come before
the General Assembly and back up j'our statements without
risking the reputation of your Society in any respect. I
should judge from what I have heard here that it would be
a matter of considerable care and study to prepare a proper
bill. You do not seem to be agreed among yourselves as to
what is necessary, but it is clear that the agricultural interests
of the state are involved, and it seems to me the object can
best be attained by adopting the course suggested by Mr.
Hale, and without putting the reputation of any Society at

Tenth Annual Meeting 179

stake, or by putting your interests at stake by going up with
a bill and asking for a specific appropriation to carry it out.
It seems to me that is going a little too far. I think the
resolution presented by Mr. Hale covers the whole point.
That resolution points out the existence of a certain peril to
jour interests, and you ask for a remedy, and then you leave
it to individual efifort to work out the result. I believe it
would be best to leave it that way."

On putting the matter to vote the amendment was lost,
and the original resolution, with the exception of the last
clause, which, on the suggestion of Mr. T. S. Gold, was
stricken out by consent of Mr. Hale, was passed.

The President: "I was hoping that some one would
bring forward a resolution that Professor Britton be requested
to appear before the Agricultural Committee of the General
Assembly and explain this pest to them, and to take some
samples with him so as to show it up in its true light."

Professor Britton: "Some time ago I was asked by
parties in California to present a resolution here in Connec-
ticit endorsing a national bill which is now before Congress.
Even if it should fall through it seems to me it would do no
harm for us to go on record as recommending it, so 1 will
read this resolution which he sent me, except that I will put
in the name of this Society :

Whereas, "Many foreign countries have passed laws against
the importation of fruit and nursery stock, which laws were
passed for the purpose of protecting their horticultural interests
and the introduction of insect enemies and plant diseases; and

Whereas, "The United States is at present entirely un-
protected in this respect, though from the character of our
foreign commerce and the magnitude of our fruit industry, we
are in more danger from this source than any of the nations
that have legislated on this subject; and

Whereas, "There is now before Congress a bill which
was introduced by Mr. Wadsworth, of New York, and is
entitled H. R. No. 96, which bill provides against the further
introduction and dissemination of insect pests and plant dis-
eases ; and

Whereas, "The passage of this bill would be of very great

i8o The Connecticut Pomological Society

benefit to the horticulturists and farmers of this state and of
the entire United States; therefore be it

Resolved, "By the Connecticut Pomological Society at its
tenth annual meeting, at Hartford, February 6 and 7, 1901,
that . we respectfully but urgently request Congress to enact
said H. R. No. 96 at the earliest possible moment, thereby
freeing our fruit-growers and farmers from the further intro-
duction of insect pests, and preventing the distribution through
interstate commerce of those already established ; and it is further

Resolved, "That the secretary of this Society immediately
forward copies of these resolutions to each of our senators
and representatives in Congress and to the honorable president
of the Senate and the honorable speaker of the House of
Representatives. "

The President: "You hear the resolution. Are there any
remarks?''

Mr. Hoyt : "I would like to know what we are fighting
for. Whether as a pomological society or as an individual, I do
not like to do things blindly. 1 do not know anything about it,
and it may be something that we should regret."

Professor Britton: "In my paper last night I explained
about this. It was a bill drawn up as the result of a conference
in Washington. Mr. Hale was a member, and several other
Connecticut men, and men representing the Board of Agricul-
ture and different societies, and this bill which is now before
Congress was the outcome of that convention. It has been
amended many times to suit the nurserymen of the United
States and different dealers in plants, as well as the orchardists
themselves. I am sorry I have not a copy of the bill in its
amended form, but from what I know of it I do not think there
will be any harm in this Society endorsing it, because it is the
work of men who have had much more experience in this line
than any of us here."

The resolution, upon being put upon its passage by the
chair, was adopted.

A Member: "1 hope when this matter of our state law, if
there is one prepared, comes up for hearing before the com-
mittee every member will appear who can. Every man who is
interested in this matter I think ought to spend a day or more.

Tenth Annual Meeting i8i

if necessary, and go up before the committee and have the sub-
ject investigated from top to bottom."

The President: "I wish somebody would make a motion
that Professor Britton be requested to appear before that com-
mittee."

Secretary Miles: "Wouldn't it be as well to leave the
matter in 'the hands of our Committee on Legislation? I think
they would have the power to call on Professor Britton or any
one else who was necessary."

The President: ''That might be better."

Secretary Miles: 'T move then that the matter be left in
the hands of our Legislation Committee, and that they be in-
structed to issue due notice when the hearing is assigned so as
to have Professor Britton there and everybody else that is
interested."

Motion seconded and passed.

A Member: "I would suggest, in order to further this
national legislation, if possible, as some doubt has been expressed
as to whether we can get that bill through, that every member
of this Society, and every person who is interested in agriculture
in this state, whether a member of this Society or not, write
personal letters to our representatives and senators in Congress
urging the passage of this bill."

The President: ''You hear the recommendation. I trust
you will act accordingly."

Professor Britton: 'T understand that this Society is go-
ing to ask for an increase in its annual appropriation. I would
move, sir, that that matter also be placed in the hands of our
Committee on Legislation."

Motion seconded and passed.

The President: 'Tf there is no further business to bring
forward at this time we will listen to a paper by Professor GuUey
on ' Recent Observations in the Apple Orchard.' "

i82 The Connecticut Pomological Society

RECENT OBSERVATIONS IN THE APPLE ORCHARD

By I'ROF. A. G. GULLEY. Connecticut Agricultural ColleEe

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:

This chart that you see here has very little to do with what
I am going to talk about. It is sort of a side issue. I am going
to talk about some of the things we have observed during the
past year. I am going to talk about a few lessons that we have
learned from our apple orchards during the past year, and make
a little efJort to draw out your ideas as well as give some of my
own. Those of you who were over at Middletown know that
I spoke there about our failure in spraying. We had at the
college this last year a total failure in killing some of these apple
pests. The materials that we had worked all right except on
that. Just why, I have not been able to determine myself, and
I have nothing to say about it except that I suppose the work
was done the same as usual. The spraying was done the same
as it was on other trees, where it worked all right, and yet we
had far more wormy apples than we have had at any time within
the last four years. I am not able to account for it except to
say that the season undoubtedly gave us a later edition of the
codling moth. Why we should have it, and nobody else, I do
not know. I know that the reports show that the spraying for
insects was pretty generally good, but it was not so with us, and
the only reason I can give for it is that we had a later edition of
that insect. I know from this fact that we found any quantity
of apples with that worm. At the time of thinning we were
very careful to remove everything that showed it. A great
many apples showed the effects of it only in the eye of the apple.
Now, then, where does that leave us ? It leaves us with this
fact : that spraying would not have helped us if our theory is
true. The eye of the apple had closed. The egg of the insect
was laid there undoubtedly, and the worm crawled in so that
spraying would not help us. So, instead of having a standard
right along, we learn that we must expect a bad year in this
respect once in a while. In scabbing our spraying was success-
ful. I speak of that because in one or two cases where we did
not work the top properly we had it. All my lower fruit was all

Tenth Annual Meeting 183

right, but the upper fruit in those cases was quite scabby, show-
ing the difference in the amount of work that was done.

I want to say a word or two about thinning the fruit. I
have a notion to say something about the cost of thinning. We
have no doubt about it, for with us, as with most everything else
in that h'ne, we went through all sorts of different trees with the
spray pump, and for thinning the fruit to increase its size. The
big blow in September destroyed what record we had that
would amount to anything, but we did, however, thin, and
made some data to see what it cost. Working upon the Bald-
wins, because I took that kind for a sample, I found that it cost
us, allowing fifteen cents per hour, or $1.50 a day, on some
trees about thirty cents. We could thin some trees for about
thirty cents. Some of our trees, upon which there were four or
five barrels, were thinned at a cost for hand labor, picking
carefully, at seventy-five cents. That was the highest; some at
sixty cents, some at fifty cents, and so on down to about thirty
cents, or about two hours" work on a middle-sized tree. That
was satisfactory, but right here I want to ask a question. How
many people know how many apples there are in a bushel? Is
there any gentleman here who can tell how many Baldwin
apples there are in a bushel, or in a barrel of apples?

A Member: "One hundred and seventy-five."
A Member: "I should say about a hundred."
The President: "It depends whether you get them for
first quality or second quality."

A Member: "One hundred and ten to one hundred and
twenty."

Professor Gulley: "I am asking how many apples in a
bushel of Baldwins. Good, fair apples, according to the stand-
ard fixed by the apple buyers of the United States at 2/^ inches.
That is the first growth that I am talking about. I am going
to tell you how many I found. First, I got through thinning
on different trees. I have some figures; three trees, each one
by itself. I had another thinning of fruit, but the record mixed
up in such a way that I was not able to carry it out. The
first one took about two hours to thin, and from that tree we
took about 600 apples, and I expect we left 1,200 on that tree,

184 The Connecticut Pomological Society

but when we picked them there were 1.450. We had a barrel
with 335 apples. That is 112 to the bushel or thereabouts.
Those were good, big apples, bigger than any of you fellows put
in except in your first grade apples. They ran better. They
were certainly an extra grade of apples, as they came of? that
tree. It wasn't with the idea of throwing out anything that
had a spot on it. It was just for first grade apples. Then we
had half a bushel of seconds, in which there were just 60.
Those were thrown out for two reasons; they were a little off.
Then we had 27 apples for the third grade which were good
for nothing. That only measured up four quarts. So that on
that tree we had ii2 extra sized apples.

"Now coming to the second tree, this stood in a row
where it was difficult to get the apples picked off. It stood in
the row in a way where it was difficult to get at it well. We
worked on this tree about four hours. When we came to
harvest the apples after that wind — it was after that hard blow
we had — we had about three barrels on that tree. We had
two barrels of first grade, a bushel of second grade, and half a
bushel of third grade. Now looking at the size of those, it is
just about 135 to the bushel. Those are just about what you
men would put in j^our first grade apples. There is where you
want to figure. The seconds were not particularly small.
There is a bushel made up of 145. And then there was half a
bushel that ran still smaller.

"Lastly we came to No. 3, which was the biggest of the lot,
and we picked on that a little over four barrels of apples. I think
it amounted to pretty near four, but not quite. Now just look
at the size of those. There you have pretty near 500 to the
barrel, or an average of 490. Our seconds run down to over
200 to the bushel, and the third were not anywhere. Now I
should have liked to go over those apples again, and graded
them up to the first tree. I should not have had half a bushel
that was graded to the first tree. If I had had time to have
graded them like the second, I should have had one about like
this run from No. 1 to No. 3. Now the point is, the increased
size from the thinning was more than enough to pay the cost.
We do not know what the effect is altogether. The result
from that one was not altogether satisfactory, but we do know

Tenth Annual Meeting 185

that the thinning increases the size of the apples without any
doubt.

"Now just two or three more points. In our commercial
orchard that we planted I struck another idea that is coming
out this fall, and which I shall act on hereafter, and that is
this: why not grow our apple orchards on the plan I have
laid out ? What is the use of our buying trees two or three
years old and then fooling with them all summer, and then
begin to get some results ? Why not grow the trees and put
them into the orchard ? I wanted some Ben Davis. In our
nursery I had been very careless about the Ben Davis. But
I wanted some, and in running over stock I happened to run
into those that I showed you, four years old when I bought
them. We had grown them three years. It occurred to me
at that time to use them. I went into them in a pretty
thorough manner, and cut out the tops pretty thoroughly.
This spring when I set that orchard there were twenty of
them. They made a good big cartload for one horse;. I
thought if I could get those Ben Davis there in a row, and
I thought if they lived through the summer, I should be per-
fectly satisfied. I did not ask them to do any growing. I
had some three-year-old trees, and I had some four-year-olds,
and I had these that were practically new trees, and I am
blessed if they didn't make a better growth than the others.
If a few of them had died I should not have been surprised.
The point I want to make is this: why can't we buy our
nursery stock two, three or four years old, and plant it in
rows and keep it there ? I believe that is a practical idea.
The point is this, however: you must get them on your own
land. You cannot afford to ship those trees twenty rods off
from your farm. You can make more money by taking them
just as you can get them, but you can't afford to go very far
away for them. Their moving won't cost such a lot. I
believe that those will come into bearing in a short time, and
you will be a good deal the gainer by it. They will be just
what a man wants.

"Last year I think I talked a little to the Society about
some of the nice cions on stock we have started there. I
have a red Canada apple growing. I have it growing on

1 86 The Connecticut Pomological Society

some Jersey stock, and I am going to see whether it is any
different or not. I am going to try the same thing over
again next year, using some of our early-bearing stock. I
spoke about this to the Society last year, and intimated some-
thing of what may be expected from the influence of the
cion on stock by the combination. I don't know but you
can make a sour apple sweet. I believe there is something
interesting and valuable going to develop out of this line of
work. More than we have seen yet. I tried something last
spring. I took a little bit of a cion; only a bit, and root-
grafted and top -grafted. Stuck them right in. I tried six of
them. My root grafts did not seem to make a success.
They would grow together all right, but they never started
to bud. I did get one at the top to grow.

"There is another point that comes in, in the matter or
order of planting, and that is as to whether we are going
wide enough in our varieties. I trust we are doing as much
as we can. I believe that we can get varieties, and if we
will give it a little more thorough examination we will find
that we can grow them.

"I find that some business men have got an idea that we
must cultivate our apple orchards as we do our crops, and
somebody has let out the idea that that was why his apples
were larger. The first part of that, of course, is wrong, but
the last part of it is true. I don't believe we ever did or
should, but as a matter of fact, if there was more cultivation
the apples would be of a higher quality. I don't think it is
necessary to cultivate the same as for crops though.

"Now as to crops to put in the orchard. Our success
with cow-peas was wonderful. We grew a tremendous crop
of cow-peas."

Question: "When did you plant them?"

Professor Gulley: "They were planted within a day or
so after the 7th to the loth of the month, — a little earlier than
the loth. About the 7th of June, to be exact in the time.'^

Question: "Did you cultivate them any?"

Professor Gulley: "Yes, we worked them with a culti-
vating machine and by drilling. In our orchards there is one
thing more that must be done in this state to have easy work.

Tenth Annual Meeting 187

and that is to get rid of these seedlings that stick up all over the
country in the hedge -rows. There are the biggest lot of these
wild trees allowed to grow here, more than there is all over the
country. The western man does not know anything about it.
I believe to-day that it would more than pay all farmers to turn
to and help clear out all such trees. It would be a protection
to himself and to his neighbors to get rid of such trees if he has
any on his place. A good many of these diseases get their start
on these trees that nobody takes any care of. It would help to
check diseases on trees that are doing well, because they are apt
to spread from such trees. I don't believe in fooling with
them."

A Member: ''I have been much interested in what Pro-
fessor GuUey has said, but I had a little experience of my own
this last season that I would like to ask him to explain. I had
but a few Baldwin apples, but right near me a neighbor had
some that were very much better in size, quality and keeping
qualities than those in my own orchard, which had been well
fertilized and cared for. I found that some of my neighbors
who had never beaten me before had better Baldwins in every
respect. I would like to know why that was."

Professor Gulley: ''Well, sometimes right in the same
orchard we will have a few trees that will bear better than
others. It is very hard to tell always whether the trees are
under the same conditions. It has been pretty well demon-
strated that the matter of cultivation and care is going to help
fruit generally, just the same as spraying is generally, but there is
no doubt once in awhile we will have an off year when there
will be a skip."

Mr. Hale: "I would like to say that we still have our
friend Garfield, of Michigan, with us, and he is interested in all
these subjects, and I propose, Mr. President, that we call him
out here on the floor for fifteen or twenty minutes. He knows
a good deal that we want to get out of him before he leaves."

(Mr. Garfield being called for, came forward, and was re-
ceived with applause.)

Mr. Garfield: "I suppose, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen,
that you have called on me to say something complimentary to
you down here. An old Scotchman heard a man quoting

i88 The Connecticut Pomological Society

scripture. Some one asked him how he liked it. 'Oh,' he
said, 'it's very much h'ke Scotland, except that Scotland has
it more condensed.' Now that is about the way it is here.
You have things more condensed than we do out in Michigan,
but 1 like your kind of talk here, and I believe you are just
about as good people as we are. You seem to be on the whole
' our kind of people,' and you want to talk about things in just
about the same kind of a way; that is to say, most of you are
optimistic. Most of you have the corners of your mouths
turned up. That is the way we ought all to go. It means that
most of you are going to get the best there is out of this old
world before you leave it. Anyway, we do not know of any
better world than this old world at present, and we know lots
of good things about this old world, and we are finding out
more all the time, and we do not want to get out of it any
too soon.

"Now I believe in these pomological meetings. I believe
in getting together and talking over the situation. I believe
in putting the dark side away, and talking and thinking about
those things which are bright, and beautiful, and attractive,
and which will tend to make us lively and contented in this
world, and which will make us love our homes and love our
fellows. If I had to ask the Legislature to do something
about the San Jose scale I would not say very much to the
members, but I would just show them the pictures of the
destruction it is capable of, and then let them do the think-
ing. Now that just calls to my mind another matter. I am
all trees. I am all forestry, and I am going to ask the Leg-
islature to do a great lot in Michigan. I am going to try to
have them do one of the greatest things they have ever done,
and that is, to enact a distinctive forestry policy for the state,
and the thing we are going to do in order to get them to
enact it is to show them pictures. We want them to see
those millions of acres of land in pictures so they will see the
desolation that has come through the denuding of those lands
of the trees, and from them we believe they will see the
necessity of enacting a distinct forestry policy for the state,
out of which will come on these millions of acres of land a
heritage for the people one hundred times greater than the

Tenth Annual Meeting 189

heritage of those forests which came down to us. Now I
want to say just this word. We believe that is a great thing
to accompHsh. We are in dead earnest about it. We are
going to bring all the force we can bring to bear upon our
Legislature, and we are going to take the subject forward as
we have never taken any other subject forward in this direction,
and we are going to do it because we believe the future
prosperity of a great section of our state depends upon it.
Now I just want to say this: if you are going into a fight
against the San Jose scale, and it is necessary for you to
obtain some legislation in order to carry that on successfully^
go into it in the same spirit and I believe you will win.

"I thank you for your extreme courtesy since I have been
here, and I wish you would all come up to Michigan and
see how I look when I am at home." (Applause.)

Another veteran horticulturist present, Mr. Charles Black,
of Hightstown, N. J., was introduced and spoke briefly.
Several vases of fine seedling carnations, presented to the
Society by Mr. Black, graced the president's desk.

The President: "We will now have a paper by Mr.
Ethelbert Bliss, of Wilbraham, Mass."

Mr. Bliss: "Mr. President, and members of the Society:
It gives me great pleasure to come to this meeting. I have
not come before this meeting to tell you any great story of
how we grow peaches up in Massachusetts, or how we culti-
vate them, but I came here, as I did two years ago, to learn.
I wish more of our Massachusetts fruit-growers would take
the time to go to such meetings. They would learn very much,
and it would be money and time well spent."

ORCHARD CULTURE, BEST TOOLS AND METHODS

I have wondered why your secretary should ask me to come
before this Society to give a talk on orchard culture. 1

I realize only too well that I am among fruit men of large
experience, who have given years of careful study in the different
lines of fruit culture. Some of you have very extensive orchards
and have spent valuable time in their cultivation, looking after

190 The Connecticut Pomological Society

them with the greatest care. You have made a special study of
every detail from beginning to end, — the location, soil, size of
trees you judge most profitable, pruning, when and how,
varieties, plants, plant-food, and the tools that will do the most
uniform and best work in your soil.

Now, in view of all these facts it seems out of place for me
to come before this meeting presuming to interest or give you
anything new in the line of orchard culture. I shall simply
attempt to give you my experience along this line.

When quite young I had a special liking for planting and
the care of trees, and succeeded in interesting my father in the
work. We set out quite a number of sugar maples on the road-
side near our home. A few years later we sold this farm and
bought the one I now own. Near our home on each side of
the street were beautiful large maples; in either direction from
these were very few shade trees, so the first thing that spring I
planted maples on each side of the street, and now, thirty-one
years after, we have a very beautifully shaded street. I speak of
it for this reason ; if a man loves to care for trees he is much
more likely to succeed in fruit culture. He should first have a
love for nature, trees, plants of all kinds, and take pleasure in
their care and development.

In the spring of 1894 1 set out 1,400 peach trees. This
really was the beginning of my doing much with the peach.

The land I use for my orchards is very stony, not only
some large rocks, but the ground is full of smaller stone.
Some of my neighbors thought I must be losing what little
sense I had to think of cultivating those fields. I took the
best care of the trees that I knew how, kept the cultivator and
harrow going until the last of August, and used crimson clover,
sowing the seed at the last cultivation. I have kept branching
out into these stony fields, and now have some very fine peach
trees growing. After the trees are set out and growing nicely
we use the plow very little.

The disc and cutaway harrow usually do good work, but
for this stony land the spring-tooth harrow is by far the best
tool I know of for digging and stirring the soil. We also
use the Hallock weeder.

One orchard of two-year-old trees is on a hill with a

Tenth Annual Meeting 191

portion sloping, so that it is liable to wash. We sowed oats
at the last cultivation, and they grew from eight to twelve
inches high. While we do not get much plant -food from this
growth, we do get a little mulch, or. covering for the ground,
and we do not think it will wash verj' much with this pro-
tection. This growth will also hold the leaves as they fall
from the trees, adding so much more covering.

The cow-pea would have given all this, with much more
nitrogen for the trees, but we used the oats as the next best
thing. In caring for our orchards, we must look after every
detail as the season advances.

Thorough cultivation, continually stirring the soil the entire
season, is the keynote to success in orchard and general fruit
culture. This intensive cultivation means less money paid out
for fertilizers, especially the first few years of the trees' growth.
It makes a dust mulch that holds the moisture, and this will
work wondrous results in carrying our fruit through a dry
season like the one we had last year.

The man who starts in to grow peaches for the market
must have a vast amount of courage; in fact, courage should
be a leading characteristic of any one who expects to be a
successful fruit-grower. It takes courage all along the line.
We must plant the trees, furnish abundance of cultivation and
plant -food for their best growth, and have courage enough to
thin the fruit when it covers the branches too thickly. In a
few words, I would say, to be successful in orchard culture,
especially the peach, feed the trees with plenty of plant -food.
For the first two or three years I would recommend drilling
in three rows of cow -peas between the rows of trees. The
growth from these will furnish a good supply of nitrogen.
Then, as the trees come into bearing, give a good supply of
ground bone and potash. Be sure and give thorough culture,
for upon this will depend largely how much the orchard will
return you in choice fruit. If you are fortunate enough to
have a good stand of fruit, do not be afraid to thin, for one
good, large, high-colored peach will bring more money than
one -half dozen small ones; then the large peach, practically
speaking, will not take any more vitality from the tree than
one of the small ones. You can always sell this large fruit

192 The Connecticut Pomological Society

at the highest price. The market is never oversupplied with
these large, high-colored fruits, but usually is more than full
of the lower grades, with color and quality so poor that few
consumers want them, and surely there is no money in this
class of fruit for the grower. If we have given the necessary
culture through the growing season, with careful attention to
the trees, and find, as the result, they are loaded with choice
fruit, what are we to do with it ? How shall we place this
fruit on the market, making it so attractive as to bring the
highest price? In short, how shall we get the greatest returns
for our labor ? These are questions we may well ask, for it
seems to me that upon them rests the business end of the
whole industry. I leave them to be answered by those of
wider experience.

Question: "What tool do you use mostly for cultivation?"

Mr. Buss: "My ground is full of stones, all sizes. We
have carried ofif a good many of the large ones, except some
large rocks, but the ground itself is full of small red stones, and
that being the case, I do not find any tool that will do the
digging like a spring-tooth harrow. A cutaway harrow will do
the work nicely, but I do not plow my ground, and as the
ground is very hard in the spring, the spring-tooth harrow
mellows it up good. I cultivate continually through the season,
clear up to the last of August or the ist of September."

Question: "What amount of cow-peas do you sow to the
acre?"

Mr. Bliss: 'T have not done very much with cow-peas in
the orchard. Last season I put cow -peas in my ensilage corn,
and we cut it and let it run into the silo. I could not tell you
the right amount of seed."

Question: "Have you points on your spring-tooth har-
row?"

Mr. Bliss: "I have two kinds. One is a wheel -harrow,
but on my land it is rather bad to drag around, and so I use
this land harrow the most, especially in my larger orchards. T
think you ought to have a harrow constructed in that style, as it
will dig better. It is sharper."

Question: "Then, as I understand you, you have your
harrow constructed with the points so it will dig better?"

Tenth Annual Meeting 193

Mr. Bliss: ''Not specially constructed with points, no.
You can dig all you want to with the ordinary harrow of that
style. You can kill a pair of horses easy enough."

The President: "To accommodate our speakers we de-
ferred one of the subjects on the program, and it will now be
taken up by Dr. Jenkins."

EXPERIMENTS IN FERTILIZING ORCHARDS

BY DR. E. H. JENKINS, Director Conn. Experiment Station

Every fruit-grower in this state is an experimenter. To be
successful he has to experiment with soils, with fertilizers and
with varieties of fruit. Almost every pomological meeting and
farm institute brings out the fact that even within the limits
of this little state the same given variety, — particularly of small
fruits, — with the same handling and care, does not give the
same results. The hardiness, productiveness and keeping quali-
ties of a given berry are not the same in different sections of
the state.

Each grower has to make his own tests for his own peculiar
conditions, and the general experience of other successful grow-
ers has to be supplemented and corrected by his own individual
observation.

Fruit-growers have been generous with the Station in coope-
rating in its work.

During this last year two prominent peach -growers have
allowed us to carry on spraying experiments in their orchards
which have settled certain points of general value — but at a
distinct loss of crop to these individuals.

Some time I hope that the Station may have an experimental
orchard of its own, where we may do as we like without the
embarrassment of feeling that we are trespassing on the good
nature of our neighbors or doing anything which may make
their year's work less profitable.

Experimenting is expensive work, as you all know. It is not
a money -making business usually for the experimenter.

It was charged recently in one of our papers that the Station
had not made a single experiment on its tobacco field which the

M

194 The Connecticut Pomological Society

practical farmer could make. Why, bless your heart, of course
not. It would be a wrong use of funds to do that.

The Station is here to do just those things which the prac-
tical farmer cannot afford to do. The failure of an experi-
mental crop may be as valuable as a money-making crop. The
Station cannot afiford to make money by farming. It should,
of course, do everything as carefully and economically as pos-
sible; and the fruits of its labors are not to be measured by any
revolutions in the practice of farming but by a gradual increase
in knowledge of the facts which make success attainable and
result in gradual improvement in farm methods.

Many of you are and have been experimenting for years on
ten, twenty, fifty and one hundred acres of orchards. It seems,
therefore, rather idle to call me in to say anything about fertilizer
tests made in two places on a fraction of a single acre and only
for a few years.

There is this consolation, however, that you know by this
time, quite as well as I, the uncertainties and vexations of this
kind of work, and will not expect from my work more than is
warranted.

It is interesting to note that in Germany the subject of the
fertilizing of orchards has been taken up and is being studied
with the care and thoroughness for which German experimenters
are noted

This work was begun in 1894 and was planned to continue
for a term of twelve years at least before the final conclusions
were made.

The potash syndicate has appropriated $7,500 for the object,
six or more of the pomological institutes have jointly taken up
the scientific work of the tests, and prominent fruit-growers in
many places are carrying out the practical field work. The
results, which we may not get in detail for five or six years
yet, will certainly be most helpful to us as well as to the Ger-
mans. Certain facts have already been published, but they
have chiefly a theoretic interest.

It is worth noting, however, that in their experiments on
the value and effect of different forms of plant-food, the Ger-
man experimenters have started out with the following formula
for an acre of orchard: 90 pounds of nitrogen, 45 pounds of

Tenth Annual Meeting 195

phosphoric acid, and 135 pounds of potash, with lime in vary-
ing amount up to 4,500 pounds per acre. This is a very large
amount of fertilizer; as much as we put on land for tobacco,
which is usually more heavily dressed than any other farm crop.
It is equal to a dressing of 600 pounds of nitrate of soda, 300
of acid phosphate and 270 of muriate or 300 of high-grade
sulphate of potash per acre.

In 1896 the Station undertook some experiments with ferti-
lizers in three different orchards in this state. In two of these
there has not yet been harvested a full crop of peaches, frosts
having nearly or quite destroyed the blooms each year that they
have promised us a crop. It is hardly worth discussing at all
these two experiments at this time.

I will briefly speak of the results of the third experiment, but
I ask you to remember that these are in no sense final. Such
an experiment needs to be carried on for a considerable number
of years to be at all conclusive. The effect of fertilizers in
orchards is not measured alone by the yield of fruit during the
first few years, but also by the continued growth and bearing
life of the trees. It has been shown that a large part of the
profit in suitable and liberal fertilization comes in lengthening
the productive life of the orchard.

For this reason such experiments need to be continued for
a much longer time than suffices in the case of ordinary garden
and field crops.

The third experiment is in the orchard of Mr. A. E. Plant,
at Branford.

The land for this orchard, after lying in grass for several
years, was broken up in the fall of 1894, and was dressed dur-
ing the winter with 75 to 100 bushels of unleached ashes. It
was set to peaches in the spring of 1895. Twelve hundred
pounds of Mapes' corn manure to the acre was put on and the
whole piece planted to corn. The next winter another dressing
of 75 to 100 bushels of ashes was put on and in the spring of
1896 our experiment began.

We laid off six plots, of about one -third of an acre each,
3 rows of trees in each plot, and 16 trees in each row. To
each plot has been applied, each year since, 160 pounds of acid
phosphate, and to one-half of each plot 3/2 bushels of lime

196 The Connecticut Pomological Society

(equal to 167 pounds). Three of the plots received 65 pounds
of muriate of potash ; one received double and still another four
times that amount. The last one of the series received 260
pounds of high-grade sulphate.

One plot received no nitrogenous fertilizer, a second had
170 pounds of cottonseed meal, and on the others crimson
clover has been sown each year in August and turned under
in the spring.

The experiment, you will see, is planned to answer these
questions:

1. Is a nitrogenous fertilizer worth while?

2. If so, how does a green crop, like crim.son clover, com-
pare in effect with a fertilizer like cottonseed meal?

3. Which quantity of muriate of potash gives the best re-
sults,— 200, 400, or 800 pounds per acre?

4. Do 800 pounds of sulphate of potash have any different
effect from the same weight of muriate?

5. Is the annual dressing of lime of any value?

Well, you know the usual experience with orchards. It
was found that the land of Plot A, which received no nitrogen,
was too wet and a drain had to be laid in it. Trees died and
were winter-killed and had to be taken out and new ones set.

In the five years from 1896 on, of the 48 trees set on each
plot, A, which was too wet at the outset, has lost more than
half the number, 29 — all of them of course at once replaced;
B, dressed with cottonseed meal, has lost 13; C, which had
crimson clover and the smallest amount of muriate, lost 15;
D, with a larger amount of muriate, 11; and E and F, with
the largest amounts of potash as muriate and sulphate, have
lost in these years only one tree each. Of the whole number
lost, three only were suspected of "yellows."

I am inclined to attribute this larger loss of trees on certain
plots more to the lay of the land and the damper soil than to
any action of the fertilizers. From this orchard we have picked
two crops — 1899 and 1900.

Since not all the trees were in bearing, I have calculated the
yield to baskets per tree in bearing. Now, I think it is quite
too soon to draw any conclusions from this test. The orchard
is not old enough to fully show the effects of the treat-

Tenth Annual Meeting 197

ment on the life and growth of the trees or on their bearing
capacity.

I can only tell you what appears to be the state of things
now .

1. We see no efifect from the lime on either the yield or
quality of fruit.

2. The trees where cottonseed meal was applied seem to
have made a little better growth than where no nitrogenous
fertilizer or where crimson clover was used. The yield of
peaches was also slightly larger.

3. Where 400 pounds per acre of muriate was used the crop
for two years was larger than where 200 was used, and still
larger where 800 was applied.

4. We see no difference in quality of fruit and scarcely any
in yield where sulphate of potash was used instead of muriate.

The most thorough and conclusive experiment on the matter
of fertilizers for peach orchards, and the only one that 1 know
of, carried through a period long enough to show fully the
effects of these fertilizers, was made in New Jersey, beginning
in 1884 and ending ten years later in a wind-storm which
partially destroyed the orchard.

Nitrate of soda 150 pounds per acre, acid phosphate 350
pounds per acre, and muriate of potash 150 pounds per acre,
were tried separately and in combination on separate plots, as
well as plaster alone and stable manure, twenty two -horse loads
per acre by itself and also with lime.

The final conclusion, after ten years' work and seven crops,
is as follows :

I. That it pays to manure orchards on land of medium
fertility. The soil in this experiment was decomposed trap
rock, with a clayey subsoil and good natural drainage. The
crops raised in 1884 indicated medium fertility, the unmanured
plots yielding 41 bushels of shelled corn per acre. The total
yield of fruit on the unmanured plot from 1887 to 1894, inclu-
sive, was 636.7 baskets per acre, or an average of 80 baskets
per year. The average yield on all of the fertilized plots, in-
cluding the plaster, was 1,480 baskets per acre, or an average of
over 185 baskets per year, an increase of 131 per cent. The
average cost of manure for all of the plots was $9.43 per acre,

198 The Connecticut Pomological Society

or a cost equivalent to g cents per basket for the increased

yields.

2. That manuring or fertih'zing extends the profitable bear-
ing period of the trees. On the unmanured plot the yield was
unprofitable after 1891, four crops having been secured, the
average yield per acre for 1892, 1893 ^"d 1894 being only 37
baskets per year, a yield so small as to warrant the removal of
the orchard. The average yield of the manured plots was 159
baskets per acre, or 132 baskets more than from the unmanured
plots during the first four crop years. On the fertilized plots
good crops were secured for three years after the trees on the
unmanured plots had practically ceased to bear.

3. That fertilizers or manures containing all the elements
of plant-food, viz., nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, are
more useful than single elements or combinations of two ele-
ments. The average yield per acre per year for Plots 9 and 11,
which received a complete manure, was 250 baskets; the aver-
age yield for a combination of two elements was 188 baskets,
and the average for single elements was 133 baskets. The
result is not in accordance with the recommendations for ma-
nuring peach trees, the claim being that nitrogen has a tendency
to too greatly stimulate leaf-growth. A combination of the
minerals, phosphoric acid and potash only, however, showed
better results than a combination of either phosphoric acid or
potash with nitrogen, and indicates that the best use of nitrogen
is in connection with an abundance of both the mineral ele-
ments, phosphoric acid and potash.

4. That chemical fertilizers are more profitable than yard
manure. The yield from Plot 11, upon which barnyard manure
was applied, was 2,064.4 baskets per acre, or an average of 258
per year. The total yield from Plot 9 was 1,939.8 baskets per
acre, or an average of 242.5 per year.

The manure cost $30 per acre, and the chemical manure
$10.72; the increased yield of 15.5 baskets was, therefore,
secured at a coast of $19.28, or at the rate of $1.25 per basket;
stated in terms of cost of manure per basket of fruit, the fruit
on Plot II from yard manure cost 11.6 cents per basket, and on
Plot 9 chemical manure cost 4.4 cents.

Some years ago, at one of the Pomological Society's meet-

Tenth Annual Meeting 199

ings, I spoke on this same subject of fertilizing orchards, and I
want to repeat now some conclusions which I made then.
Some of you did not hear them, and I can trust that the rest
of you have forgotten them! But they seem to me to bear
repetition.

1. Broadcast fertilizers in orchards. It is better policy than
to sow around each tree separately. . . . You cannot throw
bone-dust and potash salts into any part of a thrifty orchard
where the tree roots will not get at it.

2. If you cultivate, plow under the fertilizer deeply, right
after sowing. It keeps the main roots down where they belong,
and, if the fertilizer is turned in just above them, it will sink
somewhat as it dissolves, another annual growth of rootlets and
root-hairs will come up to get it, and, if they are cut by next
year's plowing, there is no harm done. Put your fertilizer where
you want your roots, and you will get them there. You can
call them as you can call a flock of hens.

3. Don't forget lime in some form, as a necessary plant-
food. If you are using wood ashes freely, as many of our
orchardists are doing, your orchard gets all the lime it needs.
Over one -third of ordinary Canada unleached ashes is lime.
But if you use muriate of potash instead of ashes, try putting
on half a ton of lime to the acre every few years. It will settle
the lime question, and will very likely make your fertilizer nitro-
gen more available.

4. Don't be afraid to put on nitrogen, quickly available
nitrogen, and plenty of it. Don't give too much thought to
the talk that nitrogen makes the tree run to wood and leaves.
A peach crop takes ofi from the orchard nearly as much nitro-
gen as it does potash. We found twenty pounds of nitrogen
in a peach crop, and twenty-two pounds of potash. We found
twice as much nitrogen as potash in peach twigs and small
branches. In the roots, limbs and trunks of the apple. Pro-
fessor Roberts found as much nitrogen as potash, and in the
green leaves two -thirds as much nitrogen as potash. Your
crop doesn't grow on air. It must grow on sound, lusty wood,
and only there, and sound wood must have plenty of nitrogen
for its growth. A well-balanced fertilizer will not make a tree
''run" to this or that; a well-fed tree will do what it was

200 The Connecticut Pomological Society

meant to do from the beginning, and unless you starve it in
one direction, you cannot moke it run perversely in another.

5. Remember that cultivating is fertilizing. Dried blood,
bone, cottonseed meal, and all the organic forms of nitrogen
are thrown away in a soil too wet or too dry or not well sup-
plied with air. They need to be tickled with the cultivator,
and to have the soil above them lightened to let in air, so that,
by microbe action, their nitrogen may take the form of nitrate,
and go to feed the trees.

6. Does it pay to practice green manuring with rye or with
crimson clover? Sometimes; and then, again, sometimes not.
Think first what green manuring does — that is book farming;
and then think whether your land needs that thing done — that
is practical farming. Either crop gets a start in midsummer or
early fall. Now before clover or rye do much of anything above
ground they send out and down a very large root -system below
ground. While the crop looks as though it were standing still
for several weeks, it is growing tremendously below ground,
and reaching out and laying hold of all the available food that
it can get. It takes very little moisture out of the surface soil
in the fall of the year, but takes up available plant -food rapidly.
If the crop is clover, and if the soil is not rich in available nitro-
gen,— and it is not likely to be, — considerable nitrogen may be
taken out of the air and fixed by the clover for its use. When
spring comes, assuming that the crop is not winter-killed, a
rapid growth begins above ground. The green crop still
draws some food from the soil, and as its foliage increases,
pumps water also out of the soil at a pretty rapid rate.. This
goes on until the crop is turned under. Then decay begins,
going on much more quickly in clover than in a grain crop,
and gradually the plant -food of this green mass is turned over
to the growing trees.

In the spring I would not call it any great loss if the crop
dies, as crimson clover is so likely to do after living all winter.
The plant -food is there in its roots ready to be taken up by
the trees. But if the crop is all there in the spring, how long
shall we let it grow? Some do not plow till the middle of May,
when the clover is in full bloom. I question whether, when
turned under as late as that, the trees will get very much

Tenth Annual Meeting 201

plant -food from it the same year. If the land is inclined to
be dry, harm may be done by drying out the soil too much
with this lush crop. If, on the other hand, the land is very
moist, the green crop, by standing till full grown, may be a
benefit, playing the part of a temporary underdrain.

To this 1 would add, in concluding: just as faith without
works is dead, so fertilizer without tillage is dead also.

Tillage can for a time take the place of fertilizers. Ferti-
lizers can never take the place of tillage. Nothing could be
more striking during the last two exceptionally dry summers
than the difference between orchards which were constantly
tilled almost up to harvest time and those which had not been
tilled at all or only in a half-hearted, unbelieving kind of a
way.

The former kept their foliage green as leeks, and ripened a
splendid crop; the latter showed pale, almost yellow leaves,
dropping badly, and undersized fruit.

Tillage is very expensive, but it pays. That I think is abso-
lutely certain. It is no matter, then, how expensive it is, if only
it pays.

After Dr. Jenkins concluded his very valuable address, the
subject of "Orchard Cultivation" was again taken up, Mr.
N. S. Piatt continuing the discussion, as follows:

Mr. N. S. Platt: ''Mr. President and Friends: The
matter of cultivation of orchards is something that need not
be spoken about but just accepted. We have so many orchards
now, particularly of peaches and plums, and have come to the
practice of cultivating more or less thoroughly, that I believe
we all accept the fact that peach and plum orchards need culti-
vating continually and thoroughly. Accepting it as a fact,
then, that our peach and plum and apple orchards need con-
tinual cultivation, and we have acres and acres of land to go
over and till, some of us believe pretty thoroughly that it
becomes an expensive matter through the season. When it
runs up to $50 or $ico for the cultivation of a single orchard
through the season, and where we have several orchards, mak-
ing it cost us anywhere from $300 to $500, then we want to
figure closely how that is to be done. An orchard should be

202 The Connecticut Pomological Society

planted so you can go two ways with the plow and harrow.
Otherwise it will be expensive work, for there will be strips of
ground that can only be partially reached, and that will grow
up with weeds and grass, and your ground will get hard and
your trees will be affected right at the time when they need
the moisture that is in the ground. As has been said, we have
had two seasons that were very dry, — 1899 and 1900, — and we
have found out that trees bearing a lot of fruit, very likely not
getting proper moisture in a light soil, on the top the leaves
begin to fall, and the trees suffer in that way through want of
water. The fruit suffers more than the trees do. Now 1 sup-
pose we all use the plow and harrow, and in some places that
is about all we do use. If the ground has not been kept free
from grass, a plow would have to be used in the orchard, espe-
cially with peaches and apples. The ground should be plowed
as near as vou can reach to the trees. Then, following that,
there are various ways of scratching that strip which is left.
We used to, in one orchard, take a common cultivator and a
single horse and stir up that strip with a man holding the culti-
vator and another man leading the horse. Going through,
perhaps once on each side, and then going ' cris-cross,' letter
'S ' fashion, going through one way, in one direction, and com-
ing back on the other side of the tree. To do that it needs a
driver, because the horse is too confused. He is continually
going this way or that way, and it is too much work to put
upon the cultivator. The cultivator will do the work if 3'ou
keep the horse in his proper path, and keep it scratching.
That will make good work of it, but it is a trying job. I
would rather go straight ahead. Now, then, I got up a tool
different from the one that the president has shown here. He
has shown you a tool to put on the end of the plow-beam so
as to bring the horse's whiffletree out on one side of the beam.
I do not like that so well as I do the Syracuse Grape hoe,
which is rigged up to get at the same thing, but is used with
a pole like that, — the ordinary two-horse pole, — and the for-
ward end is run or projected out to the right and passes the
horse clear. At the cultivator end it also projects in the same
way, and has one fixed handle and one movable handle, operating
a disc-wheel which acts as a rudder. Of course, if you were to

Tenth Annual Meeting ac?

see the tool you could understand it much better. It works
very well and enables you to work close up to the trees. The
cultivator is out three or three and a half feet from the horse.
That hoe works perfectly as regards the cultivator attachment,
which is to the right, and clear away from the horse. It can
be guided also perfectly. All the horse has to do is to draw
and bear his shoulder against it, thus helping to keep the thing
guided, and the man behind can do the rest. That helps to
mellow up those strips of ground that are left.

"This cultivation ought to begin, I believe, early in the
spring, before the ground dries off and becomes hard. A day's
work done then will answer for as much as a day and a half's
work later when the ground is dry.

"Now as to the method of putting in a crop like clover to
remain there in May and June. I tried it in 1899 and I made
a mess of it. The ground became dry before I got it down.
I do not believe it is wise to wait. I think you better do it
in the spring, and get the ground stirred up with the plow
and Syracuse hoe. After that you can harrow, but keep har-
rowing both lengthwise, crosswise and diagonally, and keep the
Syracuse hoe going with this attachment.

''As to tools, I do not believe, for a harrow, there is any
one tool so good as a spring-tooth. In one orchard where the
ground is sidling, and most of it slopes somewhat, the spring-
tooth harrow is used. That is used with an attachment that
will make it cut a little deeper. I do not believe that there are
any two tools so good as a plow and harrow, — just the two
tools I have mentioned. Still I have in my orchard weeds to
take care of. I have to take in another thing. I am using
a swivel plow throwing the soil all one way. That would
leave a strip of ground on the upper side next the row of
trees beyond the plow, and I am calculating to use a common
single plow to plow that strip, using a right-hand plow and a
left-hand plow once in the spring. After that I can keep it
fine with the spring-tooth harrow and the grape hoe. I believe
the spring-tooth harrow is used now in all our orchards, and
it requires some such tool to allow stones to pass, or sods or
clumps of grass to pass without clogging. There may be other
tools like the gang-plow, or disc harrows, or cutaway harrows

204 The Connecticut Pomological Society

that will work to good advantage in many places. One trouble
that those that have disc harrows have is that they are apt to
ride over stones and so escape some ground, but I have used
one of those with good effect in the spring; that is, a Cali-
fornia Cutaway with three discs that would reach close to the
tree. I did not find it, in my orchard, where there are some
stones, to advantage to use that tool except close to the trees,
where I had already thrown the stones out; it did good work
there. I understand Mr. Hale has found it to work well on
his Glastonbury orchard. These things have to be worked out
by the orchardists themselves, and you will find on visiting
orchards that they use certain tools and combinations of them.
There is no use in getting a lot of tools and making them
useless unless j^our ground is such as to require quite a variety.
I do not think that is necessary hereabouts anyway. 1 believe
our people have pretty well accustomed themselves to their
conditions, and know how they can take care of their orchards.
Perhaps the main point is to just do what they think they
ought to do, and use such tools as they think they need, and
not permit other orchardists to suffer from the use of needless
tools."

A Member: 'T would like to inquire the price of this
Syracuse hoe."

Mr. Platt: "It costs about $12, I believe, and there are
one or two attachments to it which make it cost a dollar or
two additional. There is a spring-tooth attachment which I
think costs about three or four dollars more. It is a tool that
can be used to very good advantage. All it wants is a fair kind
of a horse, a horse that can go straight ahead. It does not
require but little room to turn around. It can be turned in
perhaps ten feet."

A Member: "Does the driver ride?"

Mr. Platt: "Oh, no; he walks behind. He has one
handle which is stationary, and the other one moves the
rudder. He does not have to work particularly hard, but he
has to keep his eyes open, however, to carry the implement
close up to the trees where he wants it."

The last speaker on this topic was Mr. A. C. Innis, of
Stratford, who briefly covered the following points:

Tenth Annual Meeting 205

''^ Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: For me to come in at this
time and say anything to you on this subject seems preposter-
ous, and especially to attempt to follow such men as Brother
Bliss, Brother Piatt, and other growers who have spoken to
you so ably. An Irishman once appeared in court to testify to
his income. The attorney asked him, 'What is your gross
income?' 'Well, my gross income is it you want?' Yes,
vour gross income.' Pat, being a fisherman on the westerly
coast of Ireland, turned around and looked at the attorney,
and he says: 'Be jabers, I haven't any gross income; it's all
net.' Now, in regard to the cultivation of our orchards, it
seems to me it resolves itself into three questions: what to
use, when to use it, and how to use it? A spring-tooth har-
row, a weeder and a one-horse cultivator are the tools with
which I do the work. There is no question in my mind but
under some circumstances it might be useful, but after five
years it is almost impossible for me to use a plow. Up to
that time, — and I am speaking now of peach and plum orchards
more particularly, — to use a plow was impossible with me.
Therefore, I use a spring-tooth harrow, a weeder and a one-
horse cultivator.

"Now as to when to begin. Begin just as soon as you can
get onto the land in the spring, — just as soon as the soil does
not become wet and sticky. Then, before I can plow, I calcu-
late to go into my peach orchard with a cultivator, and go
both ways if possible, and again both ways with the spring-
tooth harrow. Then, unless you have very heavy land, the
weeder accomplishes all that is necessary. My method of
cultivation in the larger orchards is to use a one-horse culti-
vator both sides of the tree, going close as I can each side of
the row. Then I put in my spring-tooth harrow. If I find,
as I do occasionally, that there are eight sections in the cross-
cultivation both ways that I can reach, then I use it diagonally,
as Brother Piatt has suggested. This cuts up everything on
the top soil.

"Now, in the fertilization of the orchard there are all kinds
of materials which are used, and they range anywhere from
South Carolina rock to stable manure. I have used until last
year only bone meal, muriate of potash and lime. The past

2o6 The Connecticut Pomological Society

year, or in 1899, I found that my orchards were becoming
deficient in nitrogen. This was evident from the appearance
of the trees, and last spring I put on an application of five
pounds of the best bone, and a pound and a half of muriate
of potash. This gave me, according to the distance that my
trees are set, 850 pounds of bone and about 250 pounds of
muriate of potash to the acre. This past season I have seen
the result of it in a fair crop of fruit, the foliage remained on the
trees until the frost removed it, and the trees have gone into the
winter, I think, in better condition than ever before. As to
stable manure, I have studiously avoided it, perhaps owing to
Brother Hale's advice, as much as anything, but I am inclined
to think I should have too much wood-growth. I have all the
wood -growth, certainly, that my trees ought to have, and I
ought to avoid, I think, the probability of getting more."

A few questions remaining on the list were then taken up :

Question: ''Who, in Connecticut, has made a success of
growing winter pears?"

Mr. Platt: "Dr. Russell, from Hartford, has exhibited
two or three plates which have been very good pears, but I do
not know of any of our younger fruit-growers who are making a
success of growing winter pears. This gentleman is one of the
old school, and has been at it for years and years, and has been
fairly successful. He was exhibiting, probably, when most of us
were boys."

Question: "Is Hazeltine's moth trap destined to supersede
spraying for insect pests?"

Mr. Hale: "No."

Question: "How many orchardists profit by the increasing
reputation of eastern -grown apples?"

President Merriman: "It is a well-known fact that
our apples are better liked and bring higher prices than other
eastern fruit because of their better flavor. I think that question
has been well covered heretofore.

"Now I wish to thank the members of this Society for the
courtesies they have extended to me for the past year, and for
the good will and feeling that has pervailed in our Society. We
come together at these meetings without trying to outdo each
other, or to have any strife between ourselves, but we ought to

Tenth Annual Meeting 207

come here with the spirit and purpose of helping one another,
and if all help, and take an interest in our Society, which I
shall do in the future as in the past, we can certainly be of great
use to our business and ourselves, and to the state as well.
Thanking you all, I respectfully transfer this office into the
hands of the one who has been appointed to succeed me, and
do it very willingly."

President N. S. Piatt then took the chair and announced
the following appointments as chairmen of the standing com-
mittees for 1901 : Membership — Orrin Gilbert, of Middletown;
Exhibitions — G. S. Butler, of Cromwell; Injurious Insects —
Prof. W. E. Britton, of New Haven; Fungous Diseases — J. H.
Putnam, of Litchfield; New Fruits — F. L. Perry, of Bridge-
port; Markets and Transportation — J. H. Hale, of South
Glastonbury; Legislation and Business — A. R. Wadsworth, of
Farmington.

President Piatt congratulated the Society on the success of
the meeting, the very large attendance and continued interest
throughout all the sessions, and the fact that about thirty new
members had affiliated with the Society.

At 5 P. M. the grandest meeting in the history of the Society
was brought to a close.

REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON THE FRUIT EX-
HIBIT AT THE ANNUAL MEETING

The committee finds in the adjoining rooms two long tables
well filled with exhibits of fruits, notably apples and pears, and a
few nuts as well. The specimens shown are in excellent condi-
tion for this season of the year, and the whole exhibit is very
creditable to the Society. Special mention should be made of
the large collection of apples secured by Mr. Hale from the
recent exhibition of the Marylarid Horticultural Society. The
first was grown in the mountain region of Maryland and West
Virginia, and includes a number of varieties of western origin,
new to eastern growers. The apples are of good size, very

2o8 The Connecticut Pomological Society

brilliant in color and free from defects of every sort, and,
although taken from cold storage and exhibited at a previous
exhibition, the specimens are in fine condition. Dr. Russell, of
Hartford, show^s several varieties of w^inter pears, all in excellent
condition and the more remarkable in these days of scarcity of
good late pears. These exhibitions in connection with our
annual meetings should be continued, and to encourage the
showing of well-kept winter fruit, small premiums might be
offered.

Respectfully submitted.

N. S. Platt,
Chas. Black,
a. g. gulley,

Committee.

REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON IMPLEMENT EXHIBIT

We find on exhibition the following:

From Cutaivay Harro-w Company, Higganum, Conn.

Clark's Cutaway Orchard Rushing Plow, used and recommended by

many of the large peach-growers in the state.
Clark's Extension Cutaway Harrow, showing several new improve-
ments.
Clark's Double Cutaway Harrow.

From Old & Whipple, Hartford.

Acme Extension Harrow for orchard work.

From Harnjey & Leivis, Hartford.

Microscopes, suitable for examining twigs for scale, insects, etc.

From C. I. Allen, Terry'ville.

Eclipse Spraying Pumps, made by Morrill & Morley, Benton Harbor,
Mich. Considered by many growers to be the best outfit on the
market.

From The Deming Company, Salem, Ohio,
The Deming Knapsack Sprayer.

The Goulds Manufacturing Company, Seneca Falls, N. Y.

Pomona Spray Pump and outfit; also the "Kerowater" pump for apply-
ing kerosene and water. A very practical style of pump.

Tenth Annual Meeting 209

From Rochester Spray Pump Company, by Henry Woodford, Avon, Conn.
The "Best" Automatic Sprayer.

From A. A. Judson, Silver Lane, Conn.

The Expansive Tree Protector for insect pests.

From Coles & Company, Neav York.

Fruit packages, baskets, crates, etc. A very complete exhibit.

From Butler & Jeivell Company, Cromivell.
Baskets and crates.

From Botvker Chemical Company, Boston.

Prepared insecticides and fungicides, comprising Bordeaux Mixture
Bodlime, Kerosene Emulsion, Whale Oil Soap, &c.

The entire exhibit of tools, supph'es, etc., is a valuable fea-
ture of these meetings and should be continued.

Respectfully submitted,

J. T. MOLUMPHY,

J. C. Eddy,

J. NoRRis Barnes.

VIEW IN THE PEACH ORCHARD OF PRESIDENT PLATT, AT WEST HAVEN

TWO NOTABLE CONNECTICUT PRODUCTS — " PEACHES AND GIRLS'

(210)

Report of Institutes and Field
Meetings in igoo

DURING the year, of the six meetings held by the Society
two were one-day institutes, in connection with the
granges. Early in the year an appeal was sent out
urging the cooperation of those interested in the dissemination
of pomological knowledge through the medium of the institute.
The first to respond was Union Grange, and accordingly
was held an

Institute at Southington , March l6, IQOO

PROGRAM

MORNING SESSION — OPENING AT lO O'CLOCK
Music.
Address, "Some Points on the Cultivation of Orchards." ....

R. A. Moore, Kensington.
Address, "Berries, Grapes and Currants: their Successful Cul-
ture for Home and Market." Chas. I. Allen, Terryville.

Paper, "The Relative Influence of Stock and Cion."

Prof. A. G. Gulley, Horticulturist, Conn. Agricultural College.

■HEC ESS

AFTERNOON SESSION, AT I.30
Music.
Address, "How Can We Best Supply the Necessary Fertilizers

for Our Fruit Crops?" Dr. E. H. Jenkins,

Director, Conn. Experiment Station, New Haven.
Discussion, "Future Fruit Markets: What Shall Growers Do to

Improve Them?" ... . . J. H. Hale, South Glastonbury,

N. S. Platt, New Haven,
N. H. Sherwood, Southport.
A question box will be open to receive any inquiries on fruit topics,
which will be answered and discussed as time permits.

(211)

212 The Connecticut Pomological Society

Owing to a severe storm of snow and ice, the speakers
were late in arriving and it was not until 12:45 that the meet-
ing was called to order by President Merriman.

Mr. C. I. Allen, of Terryville, was the first speaker, his
topic being, "Berries, Grapes and Currants: their Successful
Cultivation." Mr. Allen referred first to the culture of grapes,
of which he has made a success. The site for the vineyard is
of prime importance, in order to avoid frosts and fungous
troubles. A high southern slope is best. These varieties
were recommended for market: Worden, Concord, Delaware,
Niagara, Lindley and Brighton. Early Ohio is promising but
rather too small in berry. Early Victor is a fine grower but
also too small. Moore's Early will sell if well ripened. The
Worden is his best and most profitable grape, and from the
fact that it is a poor shipper we have an advantage over the
western New York growers. Grapes should be sprayed every
season, the early spraying being of the most importance. In
pruning he cuts back his vines to two canes and trains these to
upper vines of the trellis. This avoids tying during the growing
season. Mr. Allen advises cutting back each year to canes of
last year's growth, as the old wood bears no fruit, and aiming
to keep new wood to secure a crop of fruit. Prune according
to the vigor of the variety. For marketing the 5 -lb. basket is
the best package.

Mr. Allen receives better prices for his grapes than do the
New York growers and finds the crop a sure one. His market
is within the state and the home competition is small. He
would advise studying the market to see what can be done to
supply the near-by dealers. Our grapes are better flavored than
the western fruit, because they can be more thoroughly ripened
on the vine.

A vigorous discussion followed Mr. Allen's address, when
the following points were brought out :

Late pruning of grapes does not rob the vine of vigor. Mr.
Allen sees no difference as to time of pruning, only a weak-
growing vine should be pruned shorter; he has never found
summer pruning, as practiced by the French, to be of advantage
to him. Mr. Chas. Leigey, of Berlin, told of the methods of
grape-growing in vogue in France and also his own methods.

Institute at Southington 213

He advocated very close pruning to secure a few big bunches of
fruit rather than many small ones. We must cultivate our
vineyards thoroughly or leave grape -growing alone. He starts
the work of pruning as soon as the leaves fall in early winter and
prunes through the winter. Let us grow American grapes for
American wines.

The next subject taken up was "Our Future Fruit Mar-
kets," the discussion being opened by Mr. N. S. Piatt, who
said our future fruit markets is the greatest problem now on the
fruit-grower's mind. We know that our section of the coun-
try will produce good fruit in abundance; the next thing is the
problem of finding a market. We must look away from home
for our best markets. This will be a new thought for many of
us. Mr. Piatt spoke of exporting peaches to European mar-
kets, which is now a possibility open to our growers. In this
kind of marketing rigid inspection is needed before shipping, and
we ought to have some one follow our fruit to the market for
the best results. Apples from Watsonville, Cal., are shipped to
London and bring excellent prices. Apples for foreign markets
must be absolutely sound and graded properly; the buyer must
be able to rely upon the brand. For varieties to ship long dis-
tances, the Ben Davis type of apples is desirable, as they always
have good color and will hold well to the tree. Mcintosh
Red and Northern Spy are not profitable apples on the
warmer lands of Connecticut. Mr. Piatt referred to the apples
from Grand Isle, Vt., which are shipped to our markets and
keep so well in cold storage. Mcintosh Red, Swaar, Esopus,
Spitzenberg and others do well in that section, while they are
failures here. Mr. Piatt showed samples of these varieties found
in the market here.

Mr. Merriman asked -for a better apple for exporting than
the Baldwin. The Sutton Beauty was thought to be a possible
successor.

Mr. Fenn called attention to the fact that the dry climate of
California will produce fruit of better keeping qualities for ex-
port trade than the eastern portion of the United States.

Mr. Morse, of Cheshire, was invited to tell of his apple or-
chards, which have produced much fine fruit. Most of his trees
are growing in sod, and with good results. He fertilizes with

214 The Connecticut Pomological Society

wood ashes largely, and in applying the ashes he often sprinkles
them over the foliage of the trees, and thinks them a remedy for
the apple scab.

Mr. Merriman thought cultivation of the apple orchard is
of first importance. Spraying comes next. Exporting peaches
promises to be a good outlet for our growers in seasons of
abundant crops.

At this point a song was given by Mr. C. W. Waterhouse,
of Union Grange, which was enjoyed by all.

N. H. Sherwood, of Southport, continued the discussion on
fruit markets, saying among other things: "1 have not thought
much about the foreign market, but have studied to improve the
home markets. We growers make a mistake in marketing our
fruit individually. We must make use of cooperation in this to
be most successful. I am a firm believer in the commission man.
We would do better to sell our produce through one central
house and avoid sending to a market already overloaded. Farm-
ers all over our country must join hands in the marketing end of
their business. Other industries have had to come to it; why
not the farmer ?"

Mr. Sherwood told of his success of growing and packing
onions for the New York market. Make your name a guaran-
tee of the quality of your product and keep up the reputation of
that name. In selling strawberries, pick carefully, sort and
grade the fruit, and let the commission man sell it for you. We
must not stay at home all the time, but get out and study the
market. Farmers are too independent. What a power they
could wield by means of cooperation! Don't sell at retail and
to a commission house too; you can't do both successfully. As
these reforms in marketing work out we see things more
clearly.

On account of the absence of several of the speakers the
question box was made a feature of the meeting.

Question: "Who has tried the Wilder grape?"

Mr. Allen: "It is a tough grape and of peculiar flavor,
but a good keeper."

Question: "What of the knapsack style of spray pump? "

Several thought it undesirable, because too heavy to carry on
one's back. It has its place, however, in small work.

Institute at Southington 215

Question: "Is crimson clover a good cover crop for the
peach orchard?"

Mr. Platt: "I have used it and hke it. Often we make
the mistake of plowing it under too late in the spring. It will
quickly sap the moisture from the soil at that season."

Question: "Is potash and bone a good fertilizer for
peaches?"

Some present thought wood ashes better than muriate
potash.

Mr. Frisbie thought the lime in ashes of as much benefit to
trees as the potash.

Mr. Platt recommended using ashes and muriate alternate
years.

Mr. Merriman considered bone very necessary in an orchard
fertilizer.

Question: "What are the three best kinds of plums?"

"Red June, Abundance and Burbank."

Question: "Which pears shall we plant, Standards or
Dwarfs?"

"Standards every time." Several said the Kieffer pear is hot
much grown for market in Connecticut.

Mr. Merriman considered the Cumberland raspberry the
coming berry for market.

Question: "Are currants profitable in Connecticut?"

Mr. Allen: "A limited amount will sell, and pay too; but
not too many of them."

Question: "Are mixed orchards desirable? "

"Apples and peaches go well together."

Question: "How late shall we continue cultivation?"

Mr. Merriman: "Cannot cultivate apples too much."

As to berries, several had cultivated throughout the season
with good results.

Mr. Platt : "We need to cultivate our peach orchards
when the trees are carrying a crop of fruit. In a dry season late
cultivation is very necessary to make size of fruit."

Mr. Merriman cautioned against making the buds tender by
too late cultivation.

Mr. Sherwood asked as to spraying peaches for the scab.

Mr. Platt said to take off the mummied peaches first and

2i6 The Connecticut Pomological Society

destroy them, then spray with sulphate copper solution before
the buds swell in spring.

This is a serious trouble and often destroys a whole crop.

Mr. Piatt favored giving an orchard plenty of sunshine and
free circulation of air to help overcome this disease.

A paper on "The Relative Influence of Stock and Cion," by
Prof. A. G. Gulley, was read by the secretary in Professor Gul-
ley's absence, followed by a discussion of the topic.

The grafting of the improved chestnuts was recommended;
too expensive to purchase the trees; buy the cions and graft our
native seedlings.

After extending a vote of thanks to the Grange for their
hospitality, the meeting adjourned at 4.15. About one hundred
were in attendance.

SCURVY BARK-LOUSE [Chionaspis furfur

Institute at Stratfordy March JI, IQOO

PROGRAM
MORNING SESSION — OPENING AT IO.30

Address of Welcome F. S. Hopson, Lecturer State Grange.

Music.

Address, " Injurious Insects of the Garden and Orchard." . . .

Prof. W. E. Britton, Horticulturist Conn. Experiment Station.
Address, "The Home Fruit Supply." . . . Geo. S. Butler, Cromwell.
Question Box.

AFTERNOON SESSION AT I.30
Music.
Address, *' The Outlook for the Fruit-Grower in Connecticut." .

J. H. Hale, South Glastonbury.
Paper, "Agricultural Possibilities at Home and Elsewhere." . .

Geo. F. Platt, Milford.

Discussion, "How to Care for Our Orchards"

Cultivation President J. H. Merriman.

Pruning and Thinning ... E. M. Ives, Meriden.

Spraying Dr. W. C. Sturgis,

Conn. Experiment Station, New Haven.

The Society accepted an invitation from Housatonic Grange
of Stratford, and an interesting and profitable meeting was held
in that town, March 31. President Merriman called the meet-
ing to order at 10.45 A. M. Worthy Master F. S. Hopson, of
the Grange, gave an address of welcome, greeting the Society
very cordially, and saying that he was glad that the efforts of
the Society were being appreciated. ''The awakening interest
among farmers in regard to fruit culture is a welcome sign of
the times." A pleasing vocal solo was given by Miss Eva Innis,
after which Professor W. E. Britton, of the State Experiment
Station, was introduced and spoke on the subject of "Injurious
Insects of the Garden and Orchard." Among other things he
said the subject of insects is an old one but always timely.

The Professor referred to the green cabbage worm and its

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21 8 The Connecticut Pomological Society

destructive work. Also the plant lice on peas, which have been
so prevalent the past season. The fumigation of nursery stock
is one of the latest methods of dealing with many insect pests.
The San Jose scale is one of the pests that is being controlled in
this way. A wash of whale-oil soap applied in June is the best
remedy for all the scale insects. In fact, at this season of the
year, when the eggs are hatching, is the only time to effectively
fight these pests. Paris green is a sure remedy for most of the
insects attacking the cabbage and may be safely used while the
plants are young.

For the codling moth which attacks the apple, spray the
trees in the spring while the blossoms are upright and before
the calyx closes up. Many growers are practicing spraying once
or twice with Bordeaux and Paris green before the buds open,
for the bud moth. The most successful method of checking
the ravages of the canker worm is to apply a sticky band about
the trunks of the trees in October. This prevents the females
from depositing their eggs. For the plum curculio, jarring the
tree is the surest way. The European varieties of plums, how-
ever, may be sprayed for this insect. The Professor recom-
mended for most biting insects, spraying with one pound
Paris green to 150 gallons of water, adding a little lime. In
the discussion following, Mr. Piatt said: "We have the San
Jose scale in our orchards and are digging out and burning the
trees."

Professor Britton: "You can just as well control the
scale with kerosene or whale-oil soap, first pruning back the
trees severely."

Mr. Cook gave a valuable recipe for a tree- wash for borers:
Two ounces of soap potash to 8 gallons of water, adding a
handful of sulphur and lime enough to make the mixture stick.
This he applies in June.

The next subject under consideration was the home fruit
supply. Mr. George S. Butler, of Cromwell, opened the dis-
cussion, and said that, as a rule, the mechanic's home is better
supplied with fresh fruits than is the farmer's table. In an in-
teresting paper the speaker told how and what to plant in the
fruit garden in order to have a continuous supply through the
season.

Institute at Stratford 219

At this point the contents of the question box were brought
forward for discussion.

Q. "What are the best varieties of Japan plums for home
use ?"

Mr. Butler: "The Abundance is the earHest good plum.
The so-called Earliest plum is very poor in quality. Berger and
Engre are also early, but worthless. Lutts and Red June both
ripen earlier than the Abundance, but are not equal to it for
quality. For a succession plant Burbank, Chabot, Satsuma,
Wickson and Hale."

Mr. Perry: "I would add the Kerr, which is a fine early
yellow plum, ripening ahead of the Red June. Normand is an-
other yellow plum of great value. The new October Purple is
also very promising and is a wonderfully strong grower."

Q. "Shall we plant gooseberries for profit ?"

Mr. Butler: "No; they will sell only in a limited way."

Q. "What are the best three varieties of strawberries for the
home half-acre ?"

Mr. Butler named Michel's Early for earliest, Haviland or
Bubach for midseason, and Brandywine or Gandy for late.
Several present objected to Gandy on account of its acidity.
Mr. Beard said if Gandy is left to ripen thoroughly on the vines
it will not be acid.

After giving an invitation to those present to become mem-
bers of the Society, the president announced an adjournment
for dinner. During the recess the ladies of the Grange served a
bountiful lunch, which all enjoyed.

The meeting came to order again at 2 P. M., with an in-
creased attendance. A piano solo by Miss Seeley opened the
program. Miss Fanny Seeley, of Plattsville, gave a recitation
which was highly enjoyed, and she responded to an encore. In
the absence of J. H. Hale, Mr. George F. Piatt gave a brief
talk on "Agricultural Possibilities at Home and Elsewhere,"
telling of his winter trip to Porto Rico. He said the island is in
an undeveloped state, but the advantages for successful fruit- and
vegetable -growing are promising. With irrigation it would be
a real paradise for gardeners, as the growing season is all the
year round, the banana being the staple food crop. Orange
culture offers great possibilities. There are no budded trees

220 The Connecticut Pomological Society

on the island, all the oranges being produced from seedling
trees.

The Spanish have always controlled the land and the busi-
ness of the island, but American capital and enterprise bids fair
to revolutionize things soon.

Mr. E. M. Ives, of Meriden, next spoke on "Pruning,
Spraying and Thinning in the Orchard." Spraying the fruit
is more essential than thinning, but trees that are sprayed
from year to year will produce larger crops of fruit, and
then severe thinning is necessary. Thorough pruning is the
first step in the direction of producing a good crop of fruit.
Mr. Ives showed by means of a chart the comparative results of
spraying two sets of apple trees. The effect of spraying on
the keeping qualities of the fruit was very marked. Over one-
half of the fruit from the unsprayed trees decayed, while there
was a loss of only 17 per cent from the sprayed trees. Prun-
ing, thinning and spraying were all factors in these results.
Prune enough to open up the trees to the light. Oftentimes
summer pruning is necessary and very effective in securing
highly colored fruit. The subject was then briefly discussed
by several present. Mr. Innis inquired the best way of thinning
plums. Mr. Perry gave his method, which is to use pruning
shears, running rapidly along the sides of the limbs.

President Merriman gave an account of his old Baldwin apple
orchard, and what thorough pruning, thinning and spraying had
done for it. The last speaker of the afternoon was N. S. Piatt,
of New Haven, who gave his views on the outlook for the fruit-
grower in Connecticut.

After passing a vote of thanks to Housatonic Grange, the
meeting closed at 5 o'clock. Nearly one hundred and fifty were
present, and as a result of this institute the work of the Society
and the interests of the fruit-grower gained many new friends
in this part of the state.

FIELD MEETINGS IN 1900

CONTINUING the important feature of summer gather-
ings on the farms of the members, the Society enjoyed
two outings in igoo, the first during the strawberry sea-
son at A. E. Plant Sc Son's farm in Branford, and another later
on in the summer at the State Experiment Station in New
Haven. Other invitations would have been given, but for the
fact that the extremely dry season affected fruit crops to such an
extent as to make a poor showing on most farms.

Strawberry Meeting at 'Branford y
June IQ, IQOO

RESPONDING to a cordial invitation from Messrs. A. E.
Plant & Son to visit their extensive fruit farm, nearly
two hundred members of the Society and other guests
spent a most enjoyable day at Branford.

The visitors filled a special car attached to the early morning
train from New Haven, and by special arrangement stopped at
Mr. Plant's largest berry field, located some distance west of
Branford and near the railroad. After examining these six acres
of splendid fruit, from which several thousand quarts were being
shipped daily to Boston, the party took teams for the Plant
homestead, pleasantly situated in the village of Branford. The
pleasant social chat and exchange of views among the visitors,
always the most enjoyable part of these gatherings, was inter-
rupted all too soon by the call to the dining tables, which were
tastefully arranged under canvas on the lawn and were loaded
with the good things provided by the hostess and other ladies
of the Society, luscious strawberries forming a prominent part of
the feast. After dinner impromptu speeches were in order,
President J. H. Merriman presiding. Mr. Plant welcomed the
company and gave a brief account of his fruit-growing and the

(221)

222 The Connecticut Pomological Society

methods used, which have been very successful. Edw^in Hoj^t,
of New Canaan, was next called upon, and said: "Many of us
feel our smallness when we get on a large fruit farm like this
one, but we all can learn valuable lessons from Mr. Plant's
operations." Mr. N. S. Piatt said he was familiar with this
farm and the thrifty, clean appearance of the crops is only an
average condition here. Mr. Plant has a hard, stiff soil to

THE DINNER. TABLES— ALWAYS A PROMINENT FEATURE OF FIELD MEETINGS

work, but with his methods and enterprise success has been at-
tained. The help of his son has been no small factor in reach-
ing these results. Other speakers were Mr. R. L. Hammer, of
Branford; Professor Britton, of New Haven; F. S. Hopson,
lecturer of the State Grange, who said he admired Mr. Plant's
system of thorough cultivation; J. M. Hubbard, of Middle-
town; Rev. T. S. Devitt, of Branford; Dr. Gaylord and S.
G. Cook, of Branford; G. F. Piatt, Milford; and A.N. Farn-
ham. New Haven, who thought that we make no mistake in
leaving home, even in a busy season, to attend such meetings as
this. We come away refreshed and inspired. Mr. L. Sanderson,
of New Haven, said we need to feed our soils judicially, but the
best fertilizer, after all, is intensive cultivation. Mr. J. C. Eddy
was the last speaker, and proposed a vote of thanks to the host,
which was heartily given.

A small but choice exhibit of strawberries contributed by

Strawberry Meeting at Branford 223

several members attracted the attention of all present. The
remainder of the day was devoted to looking over Mr. Plant's
extensive peach orchard, pear orchard (one of the few paying
ones in the state), currants and raspberries and the cultivated
crops, of which onions and potatoes are leading specialties, and
lastly a trip to the elegant new Blackstone Library rounded out
a day of rare pleasure and profit.

OYSTER-SHELL BARK-LOUSE (Myditapis promorum) . Bouche

Field Meeting at the State Rxperiment
Station

AUGUST 28, 1900, the Society visited the Connecticut
Experiment Station, at New Haven, and received a
cordial welcome from the director, Dr. E. H. Jenkins,
and other members of the staff. The visitors availed themselves
of the opportunity offered to look over the various departments
of the Station and note the valuable scientific work being car-
ried on in the interests of the farmer, especially the investiga-
tion of the adulterations in foods, the studying of plant diseases
and injurious insects, experiments with fertilizers, etc. A
bountiful lunch was partaken of on the lawn, under the trees,
following which brief remarks were listened to from G. S.

THE PLANT HOME AT BRANFORD

Butler, of Cromwell ; B. C. Patterson, Torrington, master
of the State Grange; W. M. Tyler, Waterbury, and Mr. J.
H. Hale, who called attention to the value of the Experiment
Station and the need of cooperation between farmers' organi-
zations and the Station. Incidentally Mr. Hale threw out
the point that the present season he had been successful in

(224)

The Meeting at New Haven 225

changing undesirable varieties of orchard fruits by budding and
grafting. As an instance of this he spoke of changing the
Sneed peach to Carman. Prof. A. G. Gulley told of the plans
for preparing a suitable fruit exhibit for the coming Pan-Ameri-
can Exposition. Our Connecticut fruits made an excellent
showing at the Paris Exposition. At 2 o'clock the party
boarded special trolley cars and made a trip to the Atwater Bros,
market-garden farm in Cedar Hill. The afternoon was spent in
looking over the crops of vegetables, strawberries and the large
peach orchard, the latter showing the effects of the severe
drought. The fruit, loading the trees, was greatly shriveled,
the leaves wilted and yellow, and in many cases much of the
fruit was dropping — a sad sight, indeed, and a most discouraging
one for the growers; a fine crop of fruit only partially matured
lost for want of a little rain, and no signs of any in sight. Yet
this unpleasant spectacle was not without its striking and helpful
lessons — that the fruit-grower must reckon on seasons of
drought and be prepared to fight it with every means at his
command. About one hundred members participated in this
second outing of the summer.

The Third Annual Exhibition of

Fruits Ugoo)

WITH the closing of the field meeting season, prepara-
tions were begun for the Fall Fruit Show of the Soci-
ety. Responding to an urgent invitation from the
Middletown members of the Society, the exhibition was held in
that beautiful city October 4 and 5, 1900. The commodious
City Hall was placed at our disposal, and, aided by the liberal
efforts of our Middletown friends, a most successful meeting
was carried out.

FIRST DAY — MORNING SESSION

Tuesday, October 4, was largely taken up with receiving and
arranging the exhibits, which were numerous and of high qual-
ity. Representative growers from all sections of the state, to
the number of fifty-six, contributed exhibits, and an aggregate
of nearly 800 separate plates of fruit competed for the pre-
miums. The staging was in charge of Prof. A. G. Gulley,
chairman of the Committee on Exhibits.

What a magnificent sight was presented as one entered the
hall! Long lines of tables filled with beautifully colored, per-
fect specimens of the fruit-growers' skill — a veritable study in
color and form! The preserved fruits, too, were largely in evi-
dence. Probably no finer showing of native fruits has ever been
held in our state, nor has an exhibition devoted entirely to fruits
received greater attention and praise from so large a number of
visitors.

FIRST DAY — AFTERNOON SESSION

According to the program, President Merriman called the
Society to order and announced that in the absence of the
speakers who had been engaged for this meeting, the Society
would have the pleasure of listening to Mr. E. C. Powell, ex-

(226)

Third Annual Exhibition of Fruits 227

secretary of the Eastern New York Horticultural Society. Mr.
Powell complimented the Society on the excellence of its fruit
exhibit and said that it was by far the best in quality of anything
he had seen before. The speaker gave an interesting account
of apple orcharding as carried on at his father's fruit farm in New
York state. The president next called upon Mr. George M.
Clark, of Higganum, who said he came to this meeting to learn
how to care for his trees, believing that care is half the battle in
our business.

At this point the apple-growers present compared notes as to
the amount of fruit destroyed by the recent severe wind -storm.
Mr. Piatt was of the opinion that there was still quite a crop
left on the trees. Mr. Merriman said that the wind had taken
off two-thirds of his crop and that the drought of the past
season had caused a heavy dropping of the fruit besides. Mr.
Gold thought that in his section the wind took ofif only the im-
perfect fruit. Such trees as have flexible limbs suffer the least
m such storms.

Professor A. G. Gulley, of the Connecticut Agricultural
College, was next called upon. He told of his experiences in
spraying in the apple orchard, and that during the past season
the work had seemed to have little effect upon insect pests.
Professor Gulley called attention to the value of the Wagener
apple, which bears young, sometimes at the age of three years,
and bears profusely. It is a good variety to plant as a "filler" in
orchards.

Mr. J. H. Hale was asked to speak on the question of plum-
growing. Mr. Hale said: "We know that the Japan varieties
will succeed on a greater variety of soils than almost any other
fruit. They do well even on the poorest soil. Sometimes,
however, the trees die suddenly, and apparently without any
good cause." He recommended cutting back the trees severely.
Very few growers do this, but in order to secure profitable crops,
it must be done.

The fruit should be carefully thinned also, to secure high
quality. Japans vary greatly in quality, one season with another.
The demand in our markets for good plums is steadily increas-
ing. Head your plum trees low, cutting back the limbs every
spring.

228 The Connecticut Pomological Society

The session closed with the reading of a paper by E. R.
Newell, of Southington, on "Birds of Interest to the Farmer."

EVENING SESSION

The exhibition was open to the public Thursday evening
and a delightful meeting was held, the presence of many promi-
nent people of the city adding greatly to the pleasure of the
occasion.

President Merriman called the company to order and in well-
chosen words called upon ex-President J. H. Hale to preside
during the evening.

Mayor F. P. Burr, of Middletown, was introduced as the
first speaker, and he gave a very pleasant address of welcome.

Mr. Hale, in responding, thanked the mayor and the people
of Middletown for their interest in this meeting, and said
further: "We must have the cooperation of the city folks.
You need to understand the value and usefulness of these fine
fruit products. That is the aim of this Society — to aid in the
development of the fruit-growing interests of our state and to
educate both those who are the producers and those who are
the consumers of fruit products. The Society stands, as this
exhibition well illustrates, for perfection in fruits. To attain
this perfection we have many difficulties to overcome, and co-
operative efifort is of the utmost necessity. Our fruit seasons
are changing. Fresh fruits of almost every kind are to be found
in our markets the year round. The trade and the demand,
too, are changing and the people are being educated to a finer
knowledge and appreciation of good fruit. No small part of
these changes are due to the influence of horticultural societies."
Mr. Hale then referred to great fruit-growing interests of other
sections of America, notably the mountain regions of West
Virginia and Maryland, where the peach and the apple are lead-
ing crops.

A pleasing vocal duet was rendered by Mrs. Carroll and Miss
Tucker, of Middletown. Hon. J. M. Hubbard, of Middle-
town, spoke next, followed by Prof. W. O. Atwater, of
Wesleyan University. Mrs. Carroll and Miss Tucker responded
again and sang very sweetly.

Third Annual Exhibition of Fruits 229

Other speakers of the evening were Gaston T. Hubbard, of
the Rogers & Hubbard Company, Ex- Mayor Briggs and Rev.
Mr. Mapleson, of Middletown. About 250 enjoyed the
exercises.

SECOND DAY

During the forenoon the exhibits were judged and premiums
awarded. The following acted as judges: On single plates of
apples, R. A. Moore; collections of apples, J. H. Hale; col-
lections of pears and grapes, E. M. Ives; single plates of
pears, J. H. Merriman; single plates of grapes, Geo. S. Butler;
peaches, plums and quinces, Prof. A. G. GuUey; canned fruits
and fruit juices, Mrs. H. C. C. Miles and J. C. Eddy; Nuts,
N. S. Piatt.

Very careful work was necessary on the part of the commit-
tees, and as a result of this work awards to the amount of
$319.25 were announced.

The following were among the —

WINNERS OF PREMIUMS
FIRST DIVISION — COLLECTIONS

Class i. Best General Collection; of Fruits.

C. I. Allen, Terryville.
Class 2. Best Collection, 20 Varieties Apples.

S. G. Cook, Branford and Connecticut Agricultural College.
Class 3. Best Collection, 12 Varieties Apples.

Connecticut Agricultural College; Robert Hubbard, Middletown; G.
F. Piatt, Milford.

Class 4. Best Collection, 5 Varieties Apples for Market.

Connecticut Agricultural College; E. Manchester, Bristol.
Class 5. Best Collection, 6 Varieties Pears.

E. Manchester, Connecticut Agricultural College, and H. I. Nettle-
ton, Durham.

Class 6. Best Collection, 12 Varieties Grapes.

C. I. Allen and Connecticut Agricultural College.
Class 7. Best Collection, 6 Varieties Grapes.

A. E. Plant, Branford, and C. I. Allen.

230 The Connecticut Pomological Society

SECOND DIVISION

Class i. Single Plates, Apples.

Baldijuin — E. Rogers, New Britain; L. A. Smith, Higganum; J. H.

Merriman, Southington, and H. C. C. Miles, Milford.
Rhode Island Greening — Dennis Fenn, Milford; E. Rogers, H. C. C.

Miles and A. A. Moses.
King—E. J. Roberts, Middletown; E. Rogers, L. A. Smith and S. G.

Cook.
Northern Spy—E. J. Roberts, Middletown; E. Rogers and H. C. C.

Miles.
Roxbury Russet— Dennis Fenn; H. B. Curtis, Cheshire; S. G. Cook

and F. E. Boardman.
Fall Pippin — Henry Gilbert, Middletown, and F. B. Bailey, Durham.
Peck's Pleasant— W. H. Mansfield, West Hartford; L. A. Smith and

Robert Hubbard.
Hurlburt — E. Manchester, F. E. Boardman and C. I. Allen.
Fallaivater — F. B. Ashton, Middletown, and H.I. Nettleton.
Maiden Blush— L. A. Smith.
Hubbardston — H. B. Curtis, E. Rogers and Connecticut Agricultural

College.
Grwvenstein — J. M. Whittlesey.
Wagener — W. H. Mansfield.
Tnjjenty- Ounce — J. M. Whittlesey and C. I. Allen.

Class 2. Single Plates, Pears.

Bosc — H. O. Griswold, West Hartford; J. E. Andrews and H. I.

Nettleton.
Seckel—Eym^Ln Payne, Portland; E. Manchester, Orrin Gilbert and

Abner Trask.
Lanvrence — E. C. Warner, Fair Haven; E. Manchester and H. I.

Nettleton.
Louise Bonne — H. O. Griswold and A. B. Pierpont, Waterbury.
Anjou — E. C. Warner, E. Manchester and W. H. Mansfield.
Sheldon— Omn Gilbert, E. C. Warner and H. B. Curtis.
Kieffer—S. G. Cook and S. A. Smith, Clintonville.
fVinter Nelis—H. C. C. Miles.

Clairgeau — Butler & Jewell, Cromwell, and H. I. Nettleton.
Bartlett—E. C. Warner and S. A. Smith.
Hoivell — F. B. Bailey and A. B. Pierpont.
Buffum—E. C. Warner and C. I. Allen.

Class 3 — Single Plates, Grapes.

Concord— C. I. Alien, W. H. Mansfield and Thomas Gilbert.
Niagara — R. A. Moore, Kensington, A. E. Plant and H. O. Griswold.
IVorden—C. I, Allen, Thomas Gilbert, H. B. Curtis and Abner Trask.

Third Annual Exhibition of Fruits 231

Cataivba — F. B. Bailey, A. A. Moses and Connecticut Agricultural

College.
Brighton — Connecticut Agricultural College and C. I. Allen.
Delaivare — C. I. Allen.
Diana — H. O. Grisvvold, E. R. Newell, Southington, and Charles

Leigey, Berlin.
Isabella — E. C. Warner.
Diamond — Charles Leigey.

Classes 4 and j. Peaches, Plums and Quinces.

Crosby — H. B. Buell, Eastford ; A. A. Moses, Lyman Payne and W. M.

Tyler, Waterbury.
Fox Seedling — J. R. Barnes, Yalesville; A. E. Plant and J. H. Hale.
Late Cra~Lvford — J. R. Barnes, E. C. Warner and E. J. Hough,

Yalesville.
Stump— Y.. J. Hough, C. E. Lyman, Middlefield, and Robert Hubbard.
Elberta — J. E. Andrews, W. M. Tyler and C. E. Lyman.
Oldmixon—'W. M. Tyler, F. B. Bailey and J. E. Andrews.
tV heat land— %. G. Cook, W. M. Tyler, H. I. Nettleton and F. E.

Boardman.
Wonderful — William Tyler and E. C. Warner.
Keyport White— ^. C. Warner and G. F. Piatt.
Reine Claude — C. L Allen.
Damson — C. L Allen.
Champion — H. L Nettleton.
Orange— C. I. Allen and H. B. Buell.
Meech—Yi. C. C. Miles.

THIRD DIVISION

Class i. Best Collection Canned Fruits.

Mrs. H. Bushnell, Berlin; Mrs. Harvey Jewell, Cromwell, and J. E.
Andrews, New Britain.

Class 2. Best Collection Pickles.
Mrs. Harvey Jewell.

Class 3. Best Collection Jellies.

F. B. Bailey.
Class 4. Best Single Cans Fruit.

Peaches — Mrs. H. Bushnell, J. E. Andrews, Mrs. Orrin Gilbert, Mrs.

Harvey Jewell, Cromwell, and Mrs. H. B. Curtis.
Plums — Mrs. H. Bushnell and Mrs. Harvey Jewell.
Berries — Mrs. Harvey Jewell, Mrs. H. B. Curtis, Mrs. Orrin Gilbert and

Mrs. H. Bushnell.
Pears — J. E. Andrews and Mrs. Orrin Gilbert.

232 The Connecticut Pomological Society

Single Cans, Jellies.

Mrs. H. B. Curtis and Mrs. Harvey Jewell.
Single Cans, Pickles.

J. E. Andrews, Mrs. H. B. Curtis and Mrs. Harvey Jewell.
Fruit Juices.

C. I. Allen and Mrs. Harvey Jewell.

The closing session of the meeting was taken up with dis-
cussions of the awards and the consideration of several important
topics. There was a fair attendance of members.

Mr. Hale called attention to a new peach trouble, the " peach -
leaf mite," which causes a copper-colored appearance of the
leaves and promises to be quite injurious to the foliage. Pro-
fessor Britton thought the kerosene and water mixture would be
found useful in destroying this pest, but further study was
needed to establish this. Reports of the effects of the season's
drought upon fruit crops were given by a number of growers.
Mr. G. F. Piatt said drought had no terrors for him; constant
cultivation will overcome it and a dry season is to be preferred,
as the rot is much less prevalent. S. G. Cook said the drought
had injured the peach crop in his section, but apples were fine.

Prof. C. S. Phelps, of Storrs, was the last speaker of the
afternoon. He referred to the fact that the advantages of fruit
culture are attracting shrewd business men to make investments
in our hill towns. Commercial fruit-growing of this kind is
coming and we, as farmers, should be quicker to see these
opportunities ourselves and not allow others to reap all the
profits.

After passing a hearty vote of thanks to Middletown friends,
and especially to Bro. Orrin Gilbert, for their kind assistance the
meeting was adjourned.

Notes on Certain Diseases of Plants Recently

Observed

BY W. C. STURGIS. PH.D.

Sooty Spot of Apples. — Doubtless everyone who grows Rhode
Island Greenings or Newtown Pippins is familiar with the
appearance of fruit affected with this trouble. It is well illus-
trated in Plate I. The fungus causing it was described
by the writer in the Twenty-first Annual Report of the State
Experiment Station. It is a very widely spread trouble, occur-
ring in all localities and to a greater or less extent every year,
though its spread is naturally more rapid in a damp season
than when the weather is dry. Its effect upon the fruit is
entirely superficial, that is, it is limited to the skin of the
apple and does not penetrate or injure the flesh. It does,
however, render the fruit unsightly and therefore detracts
from its market value.

This superficial habit of the fungus renders its control by
fungicides so simple a matter that it is astonishing that more
growers of apples do not adopt the practice of regular and
systematic spraying. As shown in the Report above referred
to, trees sprayed with Bordeaux mixture not only yielded a
larger crop of clean fruit than trees not sprayed, but the fruit
from the former showed that the fungicide acted as a preserv-
ative, the "keeping quality" of sprayed fruit being far superior
to that of the unsprayed fruit.

The sooty spot occurs on many varieties of apples and
pears.

Crown Gall of Peach. — This peculiar disease, illustrated in
Plate 2, is unquestionably on the increase in Connecticut.
It was not more than five years ago that my attention was first
called to it. To-day it can probably be found in every peach
orchard in the state. It is an insidious disease, working below
the surface, revealing its presence only in the gradual decline
of vigor on the part of its victim, not easily reached by fungi-

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234 The Connecticut Pomological Society

cides, and extremely contagious. Professor Tourney, formerly
of the Arizona Experiment Station, has recently made a careful
and thorough study of the disease as it occurs on almond trees.
He has shown that it is caused by a minute organism, occur-
ring in the soil and related to that which causes the familiar
"club-root" of turnips and allied plants. He has furthermore
proved that it can be transferred to a healthy tree from bits of

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Fig. I. SOOTY SPOT OF APPLE

the galls remaining in the soil from which a diseased tree has
been removed, so that in case a diseased tree is dug up care-
lessly the disease is certain to be spread broadcast when the
plow, harrow, or cultivator is run over the spot. The greatest
care should therefore be exercised in digging up such a tree
not to break off any of the galls; the tree should be burned
at once and upon the very spot whence it came. Of course
all nursery stock showing the crown -gall should be destroyed
by fire.

The disease can be kept in check by examining the trees
once a year, cutting off the galls, and covering the wound with

Notes on Certain Diseases of Plants 235

a paste composed of copper sulphate and lime, but as a rule it
will be found more satisfactory to destroy diseased trees and to
guard against a fresh importation of the trouble from the
nursery.

Foot -Rot of Peach. — Occasionally the student of plant dis-
eases is confronted with what appears to be a hitherto undis-
covered disease. It may be actually new. or it may be merely

Fig. 2. CROWN-GALL OF PEACH

a peculiar phase of an old trouble. Such is the disease of
peach trees which I have called foot-rot, and which is illus-
trated in Plate 3. It made its appearance very suddenly a
year or two ago, and since that time has spread with alarm-
ing rapidity. The diseased trees show, above ground, symptoms
similar to those accompanying the crown-gall; that is, a gradual
decrease in vigor. But these symptoms are much more pro-
nounced than in the case of crown -gall, and the disease runs
its course much more rapidly. Thus, the tree in the illustra-
tion referred to appeared normal and healthy one season; the
next spring it put out leaves, but the latter failed to develop

Fig. 3. FOOT-ROT OF PEACH

(236)

Notes on Certain Diseases of Plants 237

properly and in June of the same year, when this photograph
was taken, the death of the tree was evidently imminent.
Below ground there are no signs of galls accompanying this
trouble, but just above the surface the trunk is swollen, often
to twice its normal size, and the bark is rough and cracked.
The wood of this portion is soft, almost spongy in places, and
more or less decayed, so that the trunk is greatly weakened
and frequently breaks under the force of the wind. Imme-
diately below the swollen portion the trunk is contracted,
forming a sort of collar, and it is here that the break occurs.
A tree which still appears fairly vigorous may sometimes be
broken off at this point merely by a strong push.

It is a peculiarly sporadic disease; that is, one orchard may
show scores of trees affected with it, while an adjoining orchard
exhibits no trace of it. Even in the same orchard the diseased
area may be distinctly limited, although nearly every tree in
that area has succumbed. In one orchard which I visited the
remains of an old stone wall divided the diseased trees from
the healthy ones. The trees were all of the same age and
variety and had received the same culture, yet on one side of
the wall hardly a tree was standing, while on the other not a
single tree was affected. Practically nothing has yet been
done toward determining the nature and cause of this disease.
Certain facts indicate that it may be due to an organism identi-
cal with or similar to that which induces crown -gall. Diseased
material has been preserved for study, but meanwhile it is of
the utmost importance that peach -growers should watch for
the first signs of this new trouble and report its appearance at
once to the Experiment Station or to me personally. The total
destruction of the diseased trees by fire is the only safe proceed-
ing at present.

Cane-Gall of Raspberry. — This disease, figured in Plate
4, has been sent in to me from several localities in the
state during the past year. The illustration shows admirably
the characteristic symptoms of the disease, — rough, whitish
masses of tissue of a cheesy consistency bursting through the
bark. It is unlike any disease of raspberries with which I am
acquainted, but the general character of the diseased tissue
recalls that of the galls formed sometimes on the roots of

23B The Connecticut Pomological Society

raspberry plants affected with crown -gall. It is possible that
these two troubles, as well as the crown -gall and foot -rot of
the peach, may allibe caused by the same organism, or by one
nearly related to it. Growers of raspberries are urgently re-
quested to watch'for this cane -gall and to send me fresh speci-
mens if it is found.

Fig. 4. CANE GALL OF RASPBERRY

The New Law Concerning Insect Pests

AT the annual meeting of the Connecticut Pomological
Society at Hartford, February 7, 1901, resolutions were
adopted calling attention to the destruction caused by
the San Jose scale and recommending that a law be enacted to
protect the fruit interests of the state from this dreaded pest.
A bill was introduced into the legislature and thoroughly dis-
cussed at a hearing before the joint Committee on Agriculture
on March 19. The discussion led to the drafting of a substi-
tute bill which m.et the views of the fruit-growers represented
and of the committee. This was passed on June 4 and ap-
proved by the Governor on June 10. The text of the law is
given below.

Since the law went into effect the Board of Control of the
Connecticut Experiment Station have appointed Prof. W. E.
Britton, horticulturist at the Station, to be state entomologist,
and the provisions of the law are being carried out. The wis-
dom of this work under the state control seems already proved
beyond question.

CHAPTER CXXII

AN ACT

CONCERNING INSECT PESTS

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in
General Assembly convened:
Section i. The Board of Control of the Connecticut
Agricultural Experiment Station, at New Haven, shall desig-
nate and appoint a man qualified by scientific training and
practical experience to be state entomologist during the pleas-
ure of the board, and to be responsible to said board for the
performance of his duties as prescribed in this act. The state
entomologist shall have an office at the Experiment Station
in New Haven, but shall receive no compensation other

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240 The Connecticut Pomological Society

than his regular salary as a member of the station staff. He
may appoint such a number of deputies, not exceeding three,
as he may deem necessary or expedient.

Sec. 2. It shall be the duty of the state entomologist, either
personally or through his deputies, to visit any orchard, field,
garden, nursery, or store-house, upon the request of the owner,
to advise treatment against pests. He may inspect any orchard,
field, or garden, in public or private grounds, which he may
know or have reason to suspect is infested with San Jose scale
or any other serious pests; may from time to time issue such
circulars and bulletins as in his judgment are needed to convey
information about pests, which publications may be issued as
bulletins of the said Experiment Station ; may also conduct such
experiments and investigations regarding injurious insects as
will tend toward a better understanding of them and the reme-
dies for their attacks; may diffuse such information by means
of correspondence, lectures, and published matter; and may
employ such assistance in his office, laboratory, or in the field,
and purchase such apparatus and supplies as he may deem neces-
sary for the successful prosecution of his duties. He shall keep
a detailed account of expenses and shall publish each year a
report of such expenses, and of the work done under this act.

Sec. 3. All nursery stock shipped into the state from some
other state, country, or province, shall bear on each box or
package a certificate that the contents of said box or package
have been inspected by a state or government officer and that
said contents appear to be free from all dangerous insects or
diseases. In case nursery stock is brought within the state
without such a certificate, the consignee may return it to the
consignor at the latter's expense, or may call the state entomol-
ogist to inspect the same and deduct the costs of such inspec-
tion from the consignor's bill for such stock. This section shall
be deemed to be a part of every contract made in this state for
the sale of nursery stock to be shipped into this state.

Sec 4. All nurseries or places in the state where nursery
stock is grown, sold, or offered for sale, shall be inspected at
least once a year by the state entomologist or one of his depu-
ties, and if no serious pests are found, a certificate to that effect
may be given. If such pests are found, the owner shall take

Law Concerning Insect Pests 241

such measures to suppress the same as the state entomologist
shall prescribe. If such measures are not immediately taken by
the owner of such nursery or place, such certificate shall be
withheld, and any nurseryman who does not hold such a certifi-
cate after the first annual inspection as herein prescribed, who
shall sell or otherwise dispose of nursery stock in the state, shall
be fined not more than fifty dollars. The form of certificate, as
well as the season for inspecting nurseries, may be determined
by the state entomologist. The state entomologist or any of
his deputies shall at all times have the right to enter any public
or private grounds in the performance of any duty required by
this act.

Sec. 5. The sum of three thousand dollars annually for two
years is hereby appropriated for carrying out the provisions of
this act, and the comptroller is hereby directed to draw his
orders therefor quarterly on the treasurer in favor of the treas-
urer of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, who
shall hold the same subject to the order of the state entomologist.

Sec. 6. This act shall take efifect July i, 1901.

Approved June 10, 1901.

LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE
CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY

1901

Adams, Joseph, Westport.
Adler, Leon W. , New York City.
Albison, Joseph, South Manchester.
Allen, Chas. D., Mt. Carmel Center.
Allen, Chas. I., Pequabuck.
Allen, W. F., Jr., Salisbury, Md.
Andrews, J. E., New Britain.
Ashton, Frank B., Middletown.
Atwater, Edwin B., New Haven.
Atwater, E. A., Cheshire.
Atwater, E. B., PJantsviile.
*Aver, E. C, Unionville.
Babcock, G. P., Rockviile.
Babcock, H. J., Rockviile.
Bailev, F. B., Durham.
Baldwin, N. S. , MeHden.
Baldwin, Walter H., Cheshire.
Ballou, Prof. H. A., Storrs.
Barber, C. W., New Britain.
Barber, Henry A., Danbury.
Barker, N. C, Lebanon.
Barnes, A. G. , New Milford.
Barnes, J. Norris, Yalesville.
Barnes, John R., West Cheshire.
Barnes, J. J., Southington.
Bartholomew, W. L, Putnam.
Bass, Lucien, Scotland.
Bassett, George E., Clintonville.
Batty, H. P., New Britain.
Beach, A. S. , Plattsville.
Beach, Prof. S. A., Geneva, N. Y.
Beach, Z. P., Wallingford.
Beard, Wm. T., She'ton.
Beard, O. G., Shelton.
Beckwith, G. C, Nepaug.
Beers, F. H., Hawleyville.
Beers, S. Perry, Greenfield Hill.
Benedict, F. C, West Hartford.
Benham, Leonard M., Highwood.
Benham, Wilbur H., Highwood.
Bernhard, Albert, Meriden.
Blakeslee, G. N. , Clintonville.
Boardman, F. E., Little River.
Blakeman, J. H., Oronoque.
Bliss, Ethelbert. Wilbraham, Mass.
Bolles, C. P., Wilbraham, Mass.

Bradley, F. N., Derby.
Brainerd, A. H., Thompsonville.
Brainerd, M. N., Southington.
Brewer, C. S., Hartford.
Britton, Prof. W. E., New Haven.
Brockett, Hobart J., Montowese.
Bronson, N. S., New Haven.
Brown, J. S. , Vernon.
Brownson, S. B., Shelton.
Buckingham, C, Southport.
Buell, H. B., Eastford.
Burr, W. H., Westport.
Bushnell, Huber, Berlin.
Bushnell, Mrs. Huber, Berlin.
Butler, George E., Meriden.
Butler, George S., Cromwell.
Callahan, Thos. , Newington.
Carnell, A. D., Bristol.
Case, G. J., Canton.
Chamberlain, L. P., Storrs.
Chillingworth, Felix, New Haven.
Church, F. J., Pleasant Valley.
Clarke, D. N., Westville.
Clark, George M.. Higganum.
Clinton, E. B., Clintonville.
Coe, Ernest F. , New Haven.
Coe, W. T. , Durham Center.
Coleman, M. L. , Seymour.
Coleman, M. P., South Coventry.
Colton, L. F., Hartford.
Comstock, G. C, Norwalk.
Conn. Agricultural College, Storrs.
Cook, Reuben T. , Meriden.
Cook, S. G. , Branford.
Craw, Alanson, Waterville.
Curtis, H. B., Cheshire.
Curtis, Mrs. H. B., Cheshire.
Curtis, Robert W. , Stratford.
Davidson, C. M., Cincinnati, O.
Davis, Chas. T. , Middletown.
Davis, E., Branford.
Davis, Richard, Middletown.
Dearden, Greenwood, Tolland.
De Bogart, F. Van, Bridgeport.
Dewing, Chas. J., Litchfield.
Dimon, Wm. B., Shelton.

(243)

244 The Connecticut Pomological Society

Doolittle, Arthur H., Westville.

Doolittle, H. M. , Meriden.

Doolittle, S. B., Wallingford.

Dowd, Frank C, Madison.

Downs, W. S , Derby.

Dunham, H. C, Middletown.

Eddy, J. C, Simsbury.

Eddy, John S., Unionville.

Elsworth, Frederick, Hartford.

Elwood, J. F., Green's Farms.

Eno, R. B., Weatogue

Ensign, F. H., Silver Lane.

Ensign, E. R., Silver Lane.

Expansive Tree Protector Co., Roch-
ester, N. Y.

Fairchild, H. L., Nichols.

Fanton, L C, Westport.

Farnham, A. N., New Haven.

Fawthrop, Walter, Cromwell.

Fenn, Dennis, Milford.

Ferson, E. B., Chicago, 111.

Flagg, Chas. H., West Hartford.

Flint, George W., Storrs.

Forbes, J. S., Burnside.

Francis, J. H., Meriden.

French, W. H., Wolcott.

Frisbie, Martin M., Southington.

Frisbie, M. W., Southington.

Frost, Frank M., West Cheshire.

Fugazzi, Chas. S., Cincinnati, O.

Gates, W. F. , Willimantic.

Gaylord, E. F. , Bristol.

Gaylord, E. W., Bristol.

Gilbert, Henry, Middletown.

Gilbert, Orrin, Middletown.

Gilbert, Mrs. Orrin, Middletown.

Gilbert, Thomas, Middletown.

Gillette, E. Samuel, Bristol.

Gold, T. S., West Cornwall.

Goldsborough, H. H., Willimantic.

Goldsmith, H. G. , Branford.

Goodwin, H. H., Cheshire.

Gordon, Mrs. Robert, Shelton.

Gould's Mfg. Co., Seneca Falls,
N. Y.

Gridley, E. E., New Britain.

Griffith, Geo. H., Bristol.

Griswold, H. O., West Hartford.

Griswold, J. B., Newington.

Griswold, S. A., West Hartford.

Griswold, W. F., Rockv Hill.

Griswold, S. P., West Hartford.

Groesbeck, F. O. , Hartford.

Gulley, Prof. A. G., Storrs.

Gulley, Roy C, Storrs.

Guyer, John, Milford.

Hale, G. H., South Glastonbury.

Hale, J. H., South Glastonbury.

Hale, Mosely, South Glastonbury.

Hale, Stancliff, South Glastonbury.
Hall, Chas. H., Cheshire.
Hall, G. D., Wallingford.
Hall, G. H., Manchester.
Hall, Linus H., Wallingford.
Hall, Wilbur H., Wallingford.
Hammond, G. S., West Goshen.
Hannah, A. J., Bristol.
Hannah, W. L. , Bristol.
Hart, Mrs. S. A., Kensington.
Hart, G. W., Unionville.
Hersey, G. M., Hartford.
Hill, S. B., Waterbury.
Hilliard, H. J., Black Hall.
Holmes, John E., Stratford.
Hopson, G. A., Wallingford.
Hopson, F. S., Bridgeport.
Hotchkiss, B. S., Waterburj-.
Hotchkiss, Chas. T., W. Cheshire.
Hotchkiss, D. B., Prospect.
Hotchkiss, Chas. M. , Cheshire.
Hough, E. J., Yalesville.
Hough, George E., Yalesville.
Hough, Joel R., Wallingford.
Hough, Eli S., Poquonock.
Hoxie, George H., N. Franklin.
Hoyt, Edwin, New Canaan.
Hoyt, James, New Canaan.
Hubbard, Clement S , Higganum.
Hubbard, Elmer S., Higganum.
Hubbard, J. M. , Middletown.
Hubbard, Robert, Middletown.
Hunt, W. W., Hartford.
Innis, A. C, Stratford.
Ives, E. M., Meriden.
Ives, C. P , New Haven.
Jackson, George O., Colchester.
Jeffrey, H. L. , Woodbury.
Jenkins, Dr. E. H., New Haven.
Jennings, E. G. , Plattsville.
Jennings, Geo. P., Green's Farms.
Jennison, E. F. , Hartford.
Jerome, F. M., New Britain.
Jewell, Harvey, Cromwell.
Jewell, Mrs. Harvey, Cromw^ell.
Johnson, Dr. F. E., Mansfield Depot.
Kelsey, Charles B., Hartford.
Kelsey, Frederick, Higganum.
Kenney, J. P., Hockanum.
Kilbourne, Harry N., Litchfield.
King, N. N., Thompsonville.
Kingsbury, Andrew, Coventry.
Kirkham. John S., Newington.
Knapp, M. C, Danbury.
Koons, Prof. B. F. , Storrs.
Lapsley, Arthur B., Pomfret Center.
Lathrop, E. B., Vernon Center.
Latimer, F. C, New Britain.
Lee, W. S., Hanover.

List of Members

245

Lewis, Frederick J., Highwood.
Liegey, Charles, Beckley.
Lobdell, J. C, Greenfield Hill.
Loomis, John, South Manchester.
Lord, J. W. , Warehouse Point.
Loury, H. P., Whigville.
Lower}', L. L. , Whigville.
Loverin, D. P., Huntington.
Lyman, C. E., Middlefield.
Lyman, D. A., Willimantic.
Manchester, George C, Bristol.
Manchester, E., Bristol.
Manchester, H. G. , West Winsted.
Manchester, Robert, Bristol.
Manchester, E. F. , Bristol.
Mansfield, Wm. H., W. Hartford.
Mansfield, Peter, West Hartford.
Martin, J. A., Wallingford.
Matthews, E. A., Bristol.
May, W. B., Hartford.
McCall, E. H., Lebanon.
McCormick, Samuel, Waterbury.
Meachen, George, Stratford.
Merriman, J. H., New Britain.
Merwin, Walter L. , Milford.
Mexcur, George, Bloomfield.
Miles, H. C. C, Milford.
Miller, F. B., Bloomfield.
Miller, W. H.. Bristol.
Miller, Mrs. Wallace H., Bristol.
Mills, D. E., Bristol.
Molumphy, J. T., Berlin.
Monson, W. B.. Mt. Carmel.
Moore, Charles, Southington.
Moore, H. S., Southington.
Moore, R. A., Kensington.
Morgan, E. P., Cheshire.
Morse, C. Z., Shelton.
Morse, H. C, Wallingford.
Morse, J. J., East Berlin.
Morton, E. G. , East Windsor.
Moses, A. A., Unionville.
Moss, Julius W., Cheshire.
Munson, W. A., Huntington, Mass.
Nason, George K. , Willimantic.
Nettleton, H. L, Durham.
Newell, E. R., Southington.
Noble, JohnB., East Windsor.
Norton, John, Kensington.
Orcutt, P. C, Clintonville.
Parker, John B., Jr., Poquonock.
Patterson, E. C, Torrington.
Patterson, S. A., Stratford.
Payne, George K. , Portland.
Payne, Lyman, Portland.
Pease, Simeon, Greenfield Hill.
Peck, A. C, West Cheshire.
Peck, Clifton, Yantic.
Peck, F. J., Mt. Carmel.

Peck, W. N., Mt. Carmel Center.
Petremont, Mrs. E., Shelton.
Pero, Louis, South Glastonbury.
Perry, F. L. , Bridgeport.
Pierpont, A. B., Waterbury.
Pierpont, A. J., Waterbury.
Plant, A. B., Branford.
Plant, Albert E., Branford.
Piatt, Frank N., Milford.
Piatt, G. F., Milford.
Piatt, N. D., Milford.
Piatt, N. S , New Haven.
Piatt, William F., Milford.
Plumb, James, Stratford.
Pomeroy, C. B., Willimantic.
Post, Prichard E., Essex.
Prior, J. E., Moosup.
Putnam, J. H., Litchfield.
Reinhold, R. W., Mill Brook.
Rice, W. B., Meriden.
Roberts, C. S., Riverton.
Roberts, E. J., Middletown.
Roberts, S. W., Middletown.
Robertson, L. J., Hartford.
Rogers, E., New Britain.
Root, L. C, Farmington.
Root, T. H., Farmington.
Rugg- J- H., Stratford.
Russell, Dr. GurdonW., Hartford.
Russell, S., Jr., Middletown.
Ryder, G. B., Oronoque.
Saunders, A. W. , Forestville.
Savage, Clarence H., Storrs.
Savage, H. E., East Berlin.
Schwink, J. G. , Meriden.
Scranton, Charles W., New Haven.
Seeley, Edward, Plattsville.
Sharp, A. G. , Richmond, Mass.
Shedd, G. v., Preston.
Shelton, Mrs. Dora A., Shelton.
Shepardson, W. M., Middlebury.
Sherwood, J. H., South port.
Sherwood, N. H., Southport.
Sisson, H. B., Hamburg.
Skinner, M. G. , Higganum.
Sloper, A. J., New Britain.
Smith, Andrew D., Litchfield.
Smith, George R., Cromwell.
Smith, G. W., Hartford.
Smith, H. P., North Haven.
Smith, J. A., Hartford.
Smith, J. B , Berlin.
Smith, J. Elliott, Wolfville, Nova

Scotia.
Smith, Dr. L. A., Higganum.
Smith, L. P., Lebanon.
Smith, S. A., Clintonville.
Spicer, G. W., Deep River.
Splettstoeszer, Herman, Kensington.

246 The Connecticut Pomological Society

Stadtmueller, F. H., Elmwood.
Staples, G. W., Hartford.
Sterling, S. P., Hamburg.
Sternberg, A. C, West Hartford.
Stevens, N. S., East Canaan.
Stevens, W. W., Clintonville.
Stone, D. E., Cheshire.
Strumpf, George, Burnside.
Sturgis, Dr. W. C, New Haven.
Sturges, W. S., Sheltori.
Sturges, Mrs. W. S., Shelton.
Taylor, Edward J., Southport.
Terrell, C L. , Cheshire.
Thomas, T. L. , Forestville.
Thomas, W. T. , Groton.
Thomson, Paul, West Hartford.
Thrall, A. O., Rockville.
Tillinghast, G. G. , Vernon.
Tillotson, H. D., West Hartford.
Todd, E. A., Waterbury.
Trask, Abner, Silver Lane.
Trask, W. W. , Silver Lane.
Tucker, F. E., Vernon.
Turney, Oliver, Fairfield.
Tuttle, L. P., North Haven.
Tyler, W. M., Waterbury.
Valentine, H. E., Cheshire.
Van Alstyne, E., Kinderhook, N. Y.
Vibberts, L. A , New Britain.
Wakeman, S. B., Saugatuck.
Waller, W. E., Trumbull.

Wander, Eugene A., Hartford.
Warner, E. C., Fair Haven.
Warren, W. A., Storrs.
Watrous, J. L. , Meriden.
Webster, George, Jr., Rockville.
Webster, M. C, New Britain.
Wells, Dudley, Wethersfield.
Wells, S. M., Wethersfield.
Werking, Adolph, Plantsville.
Whitney, C. A., Upton, Mass.
Whittlesey, H. A., Newington.
Whittlesey, J. M., Morris.
Wilcox, J. J., Meriden.
Wilcox, W. E., Meriden.
Wilcox, R. C. & Sons, Guilford.
Wiley, C. H., Hartford.
Williams, A. W., New Britain.
Williams, R. W., Bristol.
Wadsworth, A. R., Farmington.
Wolcott, E. R., Wethersfield.
Wood, O. S., Ellington.
Wooding, M. N., Hamden.
Woodruff, R. H., Guilford.
Woodward, R. W., Franklin.
Yale, Allan R., Meriden.
Yale, A. C, Meriden.
Yale, C. E., Yalesville.
Yale, J. H., Meriden.
Young, C. O. , Yalesville.
*Zorn, G. B., Mt. Carmel.

* Signifies the death of a Member.