TRANSACTIONS OF THE WISCONSIN STfiTE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY INCLUDING ADDRESSES AND PAPERS PRESENTED, AND PROCEEDINGS AT THE SUMMER AND WINTER MEETINGS FOR THE "^EAR 1H86-7. VOI-. XVII. H. C. ADAMS, Secretary. MADISON, WISCONSIN: DEMOCRAT PRINTING COMPANY, STATE PRINTERS. 1887. LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. To His Excellency, Jeremiah M. Rusk, Governor of the State of Wisconsin. Sir: In compliance with law, I have the honor to trans- mit to you the seventeenth volume of the transactions of the State Horticultural Society, including a full statement of the receipts and expenditures of the Society, together with the papers read at its meetings in 1886-7, and such other matter as has been deemed likely to promote the hor- ticultural interests of the state. Very respectfully, H. C. ADAMS, Secretary. ^ I en TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page. Letter of Transmittal iii Officers for 1886 vii Committees viii Members, 1886-7 ix Recommended Fruit List xi Recommended Trees and Shrubs xiii Act of Reorganization xiv Constitution xvi By-laws xvii Publication Laws xviii Timber Laws xx Premiums Awarded at Janesville xxii Proceedings at Janesville Meeting 1 Debts of Honor, by Mrs. B. K. Towne 23 California Fruits, by J. B. Stickney 44 The History of some of our Cultivated Fruits, by Mrs. C. A. Willard 63 The Maple Bark Louse, by Prof. A. B. S^^jmour 81 Proceedings at Waukesha Meeting 86 Address of Welcome, by A. Cook 86 Response, by B. F. Adams 88 Secretary's Report 90 Report of Delegates 101 Ornamental Trees, by A. L. Hatch 109 Beautifying our Homes, by Mrs. D. Huntley 114 The Slaughter of the Innocent, by Ida E. Tilson 128 President's Address 135 Injurious Insects and how to Fight them, by Prof. A. J. Cook. . 140 When, Where and How to Teach Horticulture, by Chas. W. Garfield ....'. 159 CD Foi estry, by B. S. Hoxie 168 Marshall Pinkoey Wilder, by J. C. Plumb 182 Small Fruits in Chicago, by Jonathan Periam 188 Eihics of Horticulture, by Vie H. Campbell 197 Life of Women on Farms, as it is and as it should be, by Mrs. Alura Collins Ilollister 204 Treasurer's Report 213 vi Contents. Proceedings at Waukesha Meetino — Report of the Committee on Awards 219 House Plants, by Mr. Currie 221 Insect Pests 233 New Varieties of Small Fruits, by Geo. J. Kellogg 240 Handling and Marketing our Fruit, by C. H. Hamilton 246 Reports of Committees on Observation 250 First District, by G. P. Peffer 250 Second District, by N. N. Palmer 254 Second District, by Geo. J. Kellogg 259 Third District, by H. Robbins 262 Fifth District, by Wm. Toole 265 Sixth District, by A. D. Barnes 269 Eighth District, by Wm. Springer 272 Fourteenth District, by Mrs. H. C. Vaughn 275 Report of Janesville Society 277 Report op Grand Chute Society 278 OFFICERS FOR 1886. PRESIDENT^ J. M. SMITH, Green Bay. VICE-PRESIDENT, B. F. ADAMS, Madison. RECORDING SECRETARY, H. C. ADAMS, Madison. CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, B. S. HOXIE, EVANSVILLK. TREASURER, M. ANDERSON, Pine Bluff, SUPERINTENDENT, B. S. HOXIE, EVANSVILLE. COMMITTEES. ^EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. Ex- Officio. THE ABOVE OFFICERS. By Election. Dist. 1. S. Hunt, Evansville. 2. G. C. Hill, Rosendale. 3. B. F. Adams. Madison. 4. J. B. Stickney, Wauwatosa. 9. "Wm. Springer, Fremont. Dist. 5. Henry Floyd, Berlin. <■ 6. Daniel Huntley, A upleton. 7. Wm. Foote, North Adams. 8. E. G. Partridge, Warren. COMMITTEE ON NEW FRUITS. J. C. Plumb, Milton. E. G. Partridge, Warren. F. K. Phoenix, Delavan. COMMITTEE OF OBSERVATION. Dist. 1. G. P. Peffer, Pewaukee. 2. N. N. Palmer. Brodhead. 8. G. H. RoBBiNS, Platteville. 4. Mrs. Ida Tilson, Wesi Salem. 5. Wm. Toole, North Freedom. 6. A. D. Barnes, Campbellsport. 7. John Smith, Depere. Dist. 8. Wm. Springer, Fremont. 9. Henry Isabel, Fremont. 10. Isaac Clark, Galesville. 11. 18. 13. 14. A C. Fish, Bloomer. H. Barnes, Florence. Mrs. H. C. Vaughn, Ashland. COMMITTEE ON NOMENCLATURE. J. C. Plumb, Milton. H. Floyd, Berlin. G. P. Peffer, Pewaukee. FINANCE COMMITTEE. B. S. HoxiE, Evansville. B. F. Adams, Madison. N. N. Palmer, Brodhead. COMMIITTEE ON HORTICULTURAL FERTILIZERS. Prof. W. A. Henry, Madison. H. C. Adams, Madison. G. H. Robbins, Platteville. ME3IBE11S, 188()-7. Adams, John, ^larkesan. Adams, B. F., Madison. Adams, H C. Madison, Alcott, Wm., Brodhead. Aldin, Ius subsoil, and if their materials are wanting naturally they i-h uld b'? supplied artificially. 4. Better plant but few varieties. xii Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. BLACK RASPBERRIES. Fo7' general cultivation — Gregg, Ohio, Souhegan, Tyler (early). RED RASPBERRIES. For general cultivation — Cuthbert, Turner, Brandy wine. For trial — Shaffer's Colossal. BLACKBERRIES. For general cultivation — Snyder, Stone's Hardy, Ancient Briton. (Win- ter protection is recommended for all.) For trial — Taylor, Bartel's Dewberry. PEARS. j\Iost likely to succeed — Flemish, Beauty. For trial in the lake shore regions — Ananas d'Ete, Early Bergamot, Bartleit, Onondaga (Swan's Orange), Seckel, Winter, Nelis, Clapp's Favor- ite, Beurre d'Anjou, Doyenne d'Ete. PLUMS. For general cultivation — De Sota. For special localities — Lombard, Imperial Gage, Yellow Gage {Magnum Honum), Eldridge, Duane's Purple. i^or friaZ--- Cheney (on recommendation of J. S. Harris). CHERRIES. For general cnltivation — Kentish {Early Richmond), Lite Kentish, Morello. CURRANTS. Red Datch, White Grape, Victoria. GOOSEBERRIES. Houghton. Downing, American, Chester. TREES AXD SHRUBS RECOMMENDED. EVERGREENS. For General Plan ting— in order named: White Pine, Norway Spruce, Red or Norway Pine, White Spruce, Arbor VitiB, Balsam Fir, Austrian Pine, Scotch Pine. For Ornaviental Pletnting — in order named: Hemlock, Red Cedar, Siberian Arborvi £e, Dwarf Pine. DECIDUOUS TREES. For Timber — White Ash, Black Cherry, Wild Black Walnut, Hickory, Butternut, White Oak, European Larch, American Larch. Street Shade Trees — White Elm, Hard Maple, Basswood ^or Linden, Ashleaf Maple {Acer Negundo), Norway Maple, Hocklurry. For Laivn Mantinq — Weeping Cut-leaved Birch, American Mountain Ash, Green Ash, Horse Chestnut, European Mountain Ash, Wisconsin Weeping Willow, Oak-leaved Mountain Ash, Canoe Birch, Weeping Golden-barked Ash, Weeping Mountain Ash, Weeping Poplar. ORNAMENTAL SHRUBS. Uardy Shrubs — Snowball, Syringa, Upright Honeysuckle, European Strawberry Tree, Fringe or Smoke Tree, Purple-leaved Baiberry; Lilac, White, Purple and Persian; Black Alder. Half Hardy Shrubs — Deutria (Gracales), Wegelia (Rosea), Flowering Almond, red and white; Spereas, Prunifolia and olhers, Flowering Qaince, Cut-leaved Sumac, Hydrangraa Grandiflora. Cumbers — American Ivy (Ampelopsis quinquefolia), Scarlet Honey- suckle {Lonicera semper vir ens). Fragrant Honeysuckle (Lonicera caprifo- Hum), Clematis jacJcmanni, Virgin's Bower, {Clematis virginiana) Climb- ing Biiter Sweet. ROSES (with protection)- Climbers\ — Queen of the Prairie, Gem of the Prairie, Baltimore Belle. Moss Roses — Princess Adelaide, Luxembourg and others. Hybrid and June Roses — Persian, Yellow Harrison, Madam Plantier, General Jacqueminot, La France, General Washington. ACT OF REORGANIZATION. OF THE STATE HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY, Chapter 151, Laws of 1879, as Amended by Chapter 14, Laws of 1887. Section 1. The executive committee of the Wisconsin State Horticul- tural Society shall hereafter consist of the president, secretary and treas- urer of said society, and of one member from each congressional district of the state, said members from the congressional districts to be chosen annually by the county and local horticultural societies in the respective dist ricts. Section 2. The present officers and executive committee of said society shall hold their respective offices until the Tuesday next succeeding the first Monday in February, 1880, and until their successors are appointed. Section 3. It shall be the duty of the said society to aid in the forma- tion and maintenance of county and local horticultural societies, to pro- mote the horticultural interests of the state by the holding of meetines for discussion; by the collection and dissemination of valuable information in regard to the cultivation of fruits, flowers and trees adapted to our soil and climate, and in every proper way to advance the fruit and tree grow- ing interests of the state. Section 4. The annual meeting of the society for the election of its oflBcers, the transaction of general business, and the consideration of ques- tions pertaining to horticulture, shall be held at such time and place as may be determined at the last preceding annual meeting. In case of the failure of such meeting to so determine, the executive board may call such meet- ing by giving at lease thirty days' notice to each member of the society. Section 5. All vacancies in the oflBces of said society may be filled by the executive committee; and should there be a failure to elect a member of the executive committee in any district, the vacancy may be filled by a two-thirds vote of the members of the society present at any regularly appointed meeting. Section 6. It shall be the duty of the secretary of said society to make an annual report to the governor of the state of the transactions of the society, including an itemized account of all moneys expended during the Act of Reorganization. xv year, in addition to such matters as are now specified in the law relating to the same. Section 7. The number of printed pages of said report shall not ex- ceed three hundred and fifty, and the number of copies shall be limited to three thousand five hundred. In all other respects the publication and distribution of said report shall be in accordance with the provisions of law now in force concerning the same. Section 8. The sum of ^600 is hereby appropriated out of any money in the state treasury not otherwise appropriated, to aid the said society in carrying out the provisions of this act; said sum to be paid by the state treasurer upon the order of the president of said society, in such sums and at such times as shall best contribute to the prosperity of the society and the interest it represents. Section 9. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and publication. Approved March 1, 1879. CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS. As Amended February, 1887. CONSTITUTION. Article I. This society shall be known as the Wisconsin State Horti- cultural Society. Article II. Its object shall be the advancement of the art and science of horticulture throughout the state. Article III. Its members shall consist of annual members, paying an annual fee of one dollar, which shall entitle the wife of such member to the privileges of full membership; of secretaries of local horticultural societies reporting to the state society, who shall be considered members ex- officio ; ot life members, paying a fee of tea dollars at one time; of honorary life members, who shall be distinguished for merit in horticul- tural and kindred sciences, or who shall confer any particular benefit upon the society; and honorary annual members, who may, by vote, be invited to participate in the procedings of the society. Article IV. Its officers shall consist of a President, Vice-President, Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary, Treasurer, Superintendent, and an Executive Board, consistingof the foregoing officers and additional members, one from each congressional district of the state, five of whom shall constitute a quorum at any of its meetings. In addition to the fore- going officers, the presidents of all local horticultural societies reporting to this society shall be deemed honorary members and ex-offlcio vice-presi- dents of this society. All officers shall be elected by ballot, and shall hold their office for one year thereafter, and until their successors are elected; provided, the additional executive members may be elected by the county or local horticultural societies of their respective districts. Article V. The society shall hold its annual meeting for the election of officers, at such time and place as may be determined at the last pre- ceding annual meeting. In case of the failure of such meeting to so de- termine, the executive board may call such meeting by giving at least thirty days' notice to each member of the society. It may also hold a meeting in December of each year, at such place and time as may be de- cided upon by the society, or the executive committee for the exhibition of fruit and for discussions, and such other meetings for discussions and By-Laws. xvii exhibitions as the executive committee may direct, at such time and place as the executive board shall designate. Article VI. This constitution, with the accompanying by-laws, may be amended at any regular meeting, by a two-third vote of the members present. BY-LAWS. L The president shall preside at meetings, and with the advice of the recording secretary, call all meetings of the society, and have general supervision of the affairs of the society, and shall deliver an annual address upon some subject connected with horticulture. II. The vice-president shall act in the absence or disability of the pres- ident, and perform the duties of the chief officer. III. The secretary shall attend to all the correspondence, shall record the proceedings of the society, preserve all papers belonging to the* same, and superintend the publication of its reports. He sha'l also present a de- tailed! report of the affairs of the society, at its annual meeting. He shall also endeavor to secure reports from the various committees, and from lo- cal societies, of the condition and progress of horticulture in the various districts of the state, and report the same to the society. It shall be the duty of tl\e secretary to make an annual report to the governor of the Btate, of the transactions of the society, according to the provisions of the statutes for state reports. IV. The treasurer shall keep an account of all moneys belonging to the society, and disburse the same on the written order of the president, coun- tersigned by the secretary, and shall make an annual report of the re- ceipts and disbursements, and furnish the secretary with a copy of the same, on or before the first day of the annual meeting. The treasurer elect shall, before entering upon the discharge of the duties of his office give good and sufficient bonds, for the faithful performance of his duties, subject to the approval of the executive committee. V. The executive board may, subject to the approval of the society, manage all its affairs and fill vacancies in the board of officers; three of their number, as designated by the president, shall constitute a finance committee. VI. It shall be the duty of the finance committee to settle with the treasurer, and to examine and report upon all the bills or claims against the society which may have been presented and referred to them. VII. The standing committees of this society shall be as follows: 1st. Committee on Finance, consisting of three members; 2d. Committee on Nomenclature and New Fruits, consisting of three members. 3d. Com- mittee on Observation, as now provided. Said committees to be appointed annually by the executive committee of the society. b— H. xviii Wisconsin State Horticultukal Society. LAWS RELATING TO THE SOCIETY. Chapter 151, Laws of 1879. Section 6. It shall be the duty of the secretary of said society to make an annual report to the governor of the state of the transactions of the society, including an itemized account of the moneys expended during the year, in addition to such matters as are now specified in the law relating to the same. Section 7. The number of printed pages of said report shall not ex- ceed three hundred and fifty, and the number of copies shall be limited to three thousand five hundred. In all other respects, the publication and distribution of said report shall be in accordance with the provisions of the law now in force concerning the same.— [Revised Statutes, 1858.] Chapter 320, Laws of 1883. Section 7. There shall be printed annually by the state printer, and on the order of the commissioners of public printing, the following docu- ments. ****^**** 2. Twelve thousand copies of the transactions of the Wisconsin State Horticultural Society, together with such abstracts of reports of county and other horticultural societies, and such other matters pertaining to fruit growing and other horticultural interests of the state as shall be deemed important; provided, ths number of pages shall not exceed two hundred. *'X****» * Section 8. Eleven thousand five hundred volumes of said report shall be bound in cloth, uniform in style with volumes previously published, each volume to contain one copy of each of the reports desigoated in the preceding section, and shall be destributed as follows: Thirty copies to each member of the legislature; one hundred copies to the State Histori- cal Society; twenty-five copies to each county agricultural society and district industrial association which embraces two or more counties and furnishes the State Agricultural Society a report of its proceedings; one hundred copies to the State Horticultural Society; twenty-five copies to each county horticultural society that shall report its organization, with ofiicers elect, and give an abstract of its proceedings for publication in said volume to the secretary of the State Horticultural Society; one hun- dred copies to the State Dairymen's Association; fifty copies to the State University; five copies to the Wisconsin Humane Society; two copies to each public library in the state; and the remaining copies to the State Agricultural Society for distribution by its secretary. Section 9. Five hundred copies of the transactions of the State Agri- cultural Society, and five hundred copies of the transactions of the State Horticultural Society, shall be bound singly, in cloth; five hundred copies Laws Relating to the Society. xix of the transactions of the State Dairymen's Association, and five hundred copies of tlie report of the department of agriculture of the state Univer- sity shall be bound in paper, for t'ae use of these several societies and de- partments for distribution or exchange. Chapter 435, Laws of 1885. Section 7. 2. Sixteen thousand five hundred copies of the transactions of the Wisconsin State Horticultural Society, together with such abstracts of reports of county and other horticultural societies, and such other mat- ters pertaining to fruit growing and other horticultui-al interests of the slate as shall be deemed important; provided, the number of pages shal not exceed three hundred. ****** Section 8. Thirteen thousand volumes of said report shall be bound in cloth, uniform in style with volumes previous published, each volume to contain such part of one copy of each of the reports designated in the pre- ceding section, as the compiler shall select, the size of said joint report not to exceed one thousand pages; and shall be distributed as follows: Thirty copies to each member of the legislature; one hundred copies to the State Horticultural Society; twenty-five copies to each county agricultural society and district industrial association which embraces two or more counties, and furnishes the State Agricultural Society a report of its pro- ceedings; one hundred copies to the State Horticultural Society; thirty copies to each county horticultural society; two hundred copies to the State Dairymen's Association; one hundred copies to the experiment sta- tion of the State University; twenty-five copies to the library of the State University; five copies to the Wisconsin Humane Society. To the gov- ernor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, attorney general, state superintendent cif public instruction, railroad and insurance commissioners twenty-five copies each; to each public library in the state two copies; and the remaining copies to the State Agricultural Society for distribution by its secretary. Section 9. Twenty-five hundred copies of the transactions of the State Horticultural Society shall be bound singly in cloth and one thousand in paper. Twenty-five hundred copies of the State Dairymen's Association shall be bound in cloth and twenty-five hundred in paper. Twenty-five hundred copies of the report of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the State University shall be bound in cloth and twenty-five hundred in paper for the use of these several societies and departments for distribution or exchange. Chapter 36, Laws of 1885. To appropriate to the Wisconsin State Horticultural Society a sum of money. Section 1. There is hereby appropriated to the Wisconsin State Horti- cultural Society the sum of two thousand dollars, out of any money in the XX Wisconsin State Horticultukal Society. state treasury not otherwise appropriated. This appropriation is made to cover the years of 1885 and 1886, and shall be paid to said society in two annual equal payments, viz.: in 1885 and 1880. Section 2. Tliis act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and publication. Published April 10, 1885. LAW RELATING TO TREE BELTS. Revised Statutes, 1878. Section 1469. Every owner or possessor of five acres of land, or more, who shall successfully grow by planting with forest trees, consisting of the following kinds, or such species thereof as will grow to the height of fifty feet or more, viz. : arbor vitae, ash, balsam, fir, basswood, beech, birch, but- ternut, cedar, black, cherry, chestnut, coffee tree, cucumber tree, elm, hack- berry, hemlock^ hickory, larch, locust, maple, oak, pine, spruce, tulip tree and walnut tree belts in the manner and form prescribed in the next sec- tion, shall be entitled to have the land on whieh such tree belts grow until they shall reach the height of twelve feet, and after they have attained that height to receive an annual bounty of two dollars per acre for each acre so grown. Section 1470. Such tree belts shall be planted on the west or south sides of each tract of land, to be of uniform width through their entire length, contain not less than eight trees, at nearly equi-distance, on each square rod of land, and be at least thirty feet wide for each five acre tract, sixty feet wide for each ten acre tract, and one hundred feet wide for each square forty acre tract, and upon all square tracts of land, upon two sides thereof. All tree belts owned by the same land owner must be planted not to exceed a fourth of a mile apart, and on the west and south sides of every square forty acres, and shall not exceed oae-fifth of the entire tract of land on which the same are planted; pi'ovided, that when the east and north sides, or either, of any tract of land is bounded by a public highway, a tree belt one rod wide may be planted next to said highway, although it, with the others on the west and south sides, shall exceed one -fifth of the whole tract; and tree belts may be planted on any other lines within each forty square acres, by permission of the assessor. Section 1471. The assessor shall, upon the application of the owner thereof, in each year, at the time of assessing the personal property in his district, make a personal examination of all tree belts for which bounty or exemption from taxation is claimed, and ascertain whether they have been planted as required in the preceding section, and are thriftily grow- ing, and if he shall be satisfied thereof he shall not assess the same for taxation unless the trees therein shall have attained the height of twelve feet, and in that case he shall deliver to the owner a certificate that he is Law Regulating Sale of Cranberries. xxi entitled to an annual bounty of two dollars for each acre of such tree belts, stating therein tiie whole amount of such bounty, and giving a de- scription of the entire land of which the tree belts form a part, and the amount of such bouaty shall be credited by the treasurer in payment of ' any taxes assessed on such land as so much cash; but if not so satisfied, the assessor shall assess the land for taxes or refuse to grant any certificate for the bounty, as the case may require; aad if, after any certificate for such bounty shall have been issued, the owner of any such tree elts shall suffer the same to die out by want of cultivation or otherwise, or shdll cut the same down, or in any other way allow the same to be so thinned out, that in the opinion of the assessor he ought no longer to receive such bounty, he shall give the treasurer written notice thereof, and thereafter no further bounty shall be allowed until such owner shall again receive a certificate therefor TO REGUr.ATE THE SALE OF CRANBERRIES. Chavter 384, Laws of 1885. Section 1. The legal and standard cranberry barrel in this state shall bo twenty-three and three-quarters inches high, sixteen and one-fourth inches in diameter at the head, and eighteen inches in diameter at the bridge in- side measure. Every manufacturer of barrels for cranberries shall stamp or brand his name with the letters W. S. on such barrels to indicate that they are Wisconsin in standard in size. All sales of cranberries in pack- ages less than a barrel shall be by the bushel or quart, struck or level dry measure. A standard bushel crate for cranberries shall be twenty-two inches long, twelve and one-fourth inches wide by seven and one-hair inches deep, inside measure. Section 2. Any person who shall in such manner stamp or brand cranberry barrels of a less capacity than is provided in the first section of this act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined in a sum not less than five nor more than twenty- five dollars and costs of suit, and may be committed to jail until such fine and costs are paid. Any person selling cranberries in barrels thus branded, of less ca- pacity than herein provided, shall be liable to the purchaser in damages to three times the amount of such shortage, and all contracts or agreements for the sale of cranberries by the barrel or crate, unless otherwise espec- ially sti[)ulated shall be understood and construed to mean legal standard barrels or crates. PREMIUMS AWARDED AT THE SUMMER MEETING AT JANESYILLE. Best display cut flowers Miss Edith Kellogg, Janesville Second best O. P. Freeborn, Milton Best display pansies O. P. Freeborn, Milton Best floral design Walter Helms, Janesville Best display ferns Walter Helms, Janesville Best display roses Miss Edith Kellogg, Janesville Second best Mrs. Frank Lawrence, Janesville Best boquet roses T. M. Towne, Ft. Atkinson Best display house plants Walter Helms, Janesville Second best O. P. Freeborn, Milton Best display verbenas O. P. Freeborn, Milton Best display five named varieties roses Edith Kellogg, Janesville Best plate Willow Twig G. J, Kellogg, Janesville Second best G. Jeffery, Milwaukee Best plate Golden Russets G. Jeffery, Milwaukee Best new seedling G. Jeffery, Milwaukee Best display strawberries, "Varieties not less than 10. G. J. Kellogg, Janesville Second best J. C. Plumb, Milton Best display strawberries of five varieties G. J. Kellogg, Janesville Second best J. C. Plumb, Milton Best quart cresent J. B. Smith, Clinton Second best J. W. Hausche, Racine Best quart Manchester J. G. Williams, Janesville Second best G. J, Kellogg, Janesville Best quart Wilson J. B. Smith, Clinton Second best , J. G. Williams, Janesville Best quart Miner's Prolific J. W. Hausche, Racine Second best G. J. Kellogg, Janesville Best quart Chas. Downing J. W. Hausche, Racine Best quart of Longfellow J. W. Hausche, Racine Second best J. C. Plumb, Milton Best plate Windsor Chief G. J. Kellogg, Janesville Second best J. W. Hauscle, Racine Best quart Sharpless J. P. Plummer, Second best B. Spence, Janesville Premium Awards. xxiii Best quart Cumberland Triumph J. W. Hausche, Racine Second best J. C. Plumb, Milton Best quart Prince of Berries G. J. Kellogg, Janes ville Best quart Seneca Queen G. J. Kellogg, Janesville Best quart Atlantic G. J. Kellogg, Janesville Best quart Parry G. J. Kellogg, Janesville Best quart Cornelia G. J. Kellogg, Janesville Best quart Old Iron Clad J. C. Plumb, Milton Second best G. J. Kellogg, Janesville Best quart Piper's Seedling J. C. Plumb, Milton Second best G. J.Kellogg, Janesville Best quart, any variety, quality considered, Jessie, F. W. London, Janesville Second best, Mrs. Garfield G. J. Kellogg, Janesville Best quart, any variety, size considered, Jessie. . F. W. London, Janesville Best quart Captain Jack J. B. Smith, Clinton J. C. Plumb received honorable mention for the following varieties not in the premium list. James Vick. Mount Vernon. Boyden. Glendale. Bidwell. Green's Prolific. Phelps. Best display seedling strawberries F. W. London, Janesville Best display seedling, originated in state F. W. Loudon, Janesville Best peck peas S. L. Miller, Janesville Best display vegetables, all kinds J.M Smith, Green Bay Best bunch asparagus J. M. Smith, Green Bay Best bunch onions J. M. Smith, Green Bay Committee on Flowers — Mrs. C. A. Willard, 0. A. Willard, Mrs. Vie H. Campbell. Committee on Strawberries and Apples — A. J.Phillips, Mrs. Vie H. Campbell, N. N. Palmer, Committee on Vegetables — A. J. Phillips, N. N. Palmer. TRAISrS ACTIONS AT THE SUMMER MEETING HELD BY THE IisGoi|siii StDte Horticultural foGletii At Janesville, June 16-18, 188G. Janesville, Wis., June 16, 1886. The convention was called to order in Lappin's Hall, at 11 o'clock by President J. M. Smith. Pres. Smith made the following remarks: Ladies and Gentlemen: — According to our programme, we are a little behind time in opening, as we very often are at the commencement of our summer conventions, but at 10 o'clock the hall was not quite ready. The commence- ment of the programme is an address of welcome by our friend G. J. Kellogg. He has done all in his power to assure a pleasant place of meeting, in which efforts he has been most ably seconded by his daughter. Mr. Kellogg said: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends of the Horticidtural Society: — I expected we would have about a dozen at the opening of this meeting. If we had been on time in opening we should have had just thirteen here. It was a mistake to put me on the programme. Mr, Adams' put me on and now he dare not come down. Right behind the flag hanging there is the word " Welcome." We could not arrange the flag without covering it up. We bid you a 2 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. cordial welcome to our hearts, homes and strawberry patches. The great point of attraction for which we have invited you here is to view the wonderful success of Mr. Loudon's seedling strawberries, particularly the Jessie. He has growing on his grounds from ICO to 150 of these seed- ling strawberries. We are to go over there this afternoon and we expect to have a good time. We have with us dele- gates from all over the state. Mr. Adams, though not here, has done his part towards booming this convention in many parts of the state. Every member of the Horticul- tural Society has been notified of the meeting and has had a programme and premium list sent to him. Because of the early hour of opening we have but a few members pres- ent. We expect to increase the membership of the state society about thirty or perhaps forty. There is one thing very unfortunate in connection with this exhibition of fruits. We have experienced the most extensive droughts ever known in the growing of strawberries. We have had only three or four showers during the season. On account of the drought the exhibition is very meager to to what it would have been in other seasons. You must make due allowance for the bad season. We had hoped for fruit from the northern part of the state. The best berries are now gone from many of our grounds. Still, in the name of Janesville and of our Horticultural Society, I bid you welcome. I hope this meeting will be fraught with interest and that the discusions and the knowledge dis- seminated will do us much good, as, also, the volumes we expect to give to every new member. We expect to give the past two years' Aolumes and the present volume, which has just been sent by Mr. Adams for distribution. We never had the report so early before but once. I intended to just get up here and point out that word " Welcome " without saying a word and it would have been the most eloquent speech I ever made. President Smith — Ladies and Gentlemen: Upon our programme the next thing after the address of welcome is the response by the president. If Mr. Adams had been here I should have insisted upon his taking my place at that, as Minutes. 3 he is so ready and eloquent a speaker. But as he is not here I will say a few words and in reply to Mr. Kellogg, I can only say, that we thank you for your efforts to make this convention pleasant, and for your kind words, coming as they do from one of the most constant workers this soc- iety has ever had, one who always means what he says and says what he means; but some of you do not know how hard he has worked to make this room so pleasant as it now is. It used to be a common thing, more common in ancient times than now, when the watchman upon the walls of the city came around, for citizens to call out: " Watchman, what of the night?" In times of peace the response was always: "All is well." We horticulturists cannot reply that " all is well, " but we can reply safely and surely, that we are working towards a point where all is well. In some things the progress is rapid. Horticulture has been satisfactory and successful in all parts of the state. There is no state in the northwest and none east of the Rocky Mountains, that can be said to have been more successful in raising small fruits. Strawberries, raspberries, grapas, all do remarkably well in our state where- ever they have a fair chance. I remember of hearing a gentleman a few years since, in speaking of small fruits, while passing a store where there was a very fine lot of Delaware grapes, ask a man: "Where were those grapes grown?" He said: "By a farmer some few miles from here. " The gentleman said: " I asked for information and and not to be fooled with. " The brother of the man who had first replied, then said: " I work for the man and know that these grapes were grown here. " " Why, " said the gentleman, " I never saw finer Delaware grapes than theet^ here. I am a Californian and I never saw nicer grapes than these. " I mention this to show that in the northern part of the state we can raise grapes, and so all over the state. We all know that the Great Architect of the Uni- verse has made laws in regard to fruit growing that are in- variable. If we comply with these laws success is almost certain; if we break them failure is almost as certain. One of the members said to me, not long since: " We are m the 4 Wisconsin State Horticulturatl, Society. 'ruit region, not out of it. " This seems strange in view of the recent failures. But my friends, we must be ourselves in connection with the laws of nature. If we break these laws we shall fail. The law is inevitable. Last winter when I covered my vines, I never saw such a fine showing for fruit. Early in the spring some of my drains got filled up and as a result the water stood in some places on the bed and when I got the water off the plants were dead. The law, you know, is invariable — you must not allow water to stand on plants. I did so and lost my berries. It applies equally to apples as well as to strawberries. Difference s in soil^ situa- tion and temperature have made it impossible for us to grow the same varieties that are grown in the east. We must learn the laws of nature, and, we are learning to believe, we shall in a short time get varieties that will accomodate themselves to soil and situation in this state. By so doing we shall certainly make a success of apple growing — as much of a success as we have made in smaller fruits. I do not want to take up your time in regretting failures, but to all the friends here, I will repeat the words, "Thank you for your kind welcome to us. " President Smith now spoke of his correspondence with certain parties with reference to the collection of the premiums awarded at the New Orleans Exhibition, to the exhibit of the Wisconsin Horticultural Society. He stated that he had received an offer to collect the premiums awarded for fifty per cent, of the amount involved. He said: "As some of you are aware, there was a rule that ruled us out as a society from all the premiums, but one or two; I withdrew the list and entered them in my own nam© and some of them, I think, in Mr. Peffer's, they belong to the society, and will be paid to the society. The premiums that appear in my name belong in reality to the society. In reply to one of my letters with reference to this matter I received an answer saying in substance: "If you will accept, I will send you fifty per cent, of the premiums awarded you. " I will state a little further that it would be necessary for you to send him a power of attorney, in order ^hat he could collect these premiums, and it is barely possi- Minutes. 5 ble that the man might get the money and not pay it over but it is fair to suppose that he will pay it, and I under- stand that he is paying large amounts in that way. He is an ex-mayor of New Orleans, was mayor when we held our Mississippi Valley Convention there, and I imagine if we give him a power of attorney the money will be paid. Mr. Hoxie — Accepting your remarks as final, I move you that the offer be accepted. Mr. Plumb — 1 would like to inquire if that proposition in- volves our advancing anything to him? President Smith — It does not. We shall only have to send him a power of attorney which will cost perhaps twenty- five cents. Mr. Tuttle — It is far better than I ever supposed it would be to hear of any such offer. The question was now called for and the motion carried. Mr. Hoxie — I have two or three communications that I should like to introduce at sometime during the session. Perhaps some of you are aware that there might be a pros- pect for a bill in congress whereby this state might be al- lotted a sum to be used in experimental work. I was in- structed by the other members of the committee of your society having this matter in charge to open correspondence with members of congress, in regard to this matter, I wrote to Governor Rusk but he could give me nothing satis- factory. I also wrote to Mr. Caswell, the member of con- gress from the first district. His letter is short and I will read it now. ( Reads Mr. Caswell's letter.) That is about all there is of that matter. I wrote to Professor Budd some- time ago and I mentioned this in connection with other matters I was writing about. He replies that he has but little faith in that. Last night I received a letter from Mr. Adams saying he could not be here owing to press of work; he hopes that myself and this shorthand reporter can do all the work. That is about the substance of his letter. I thought I had Professor Budd's letter but I do not seem to find it now. Here is a letter from the secretary of the Minnesota Horticultural Society. I wrote some time ago to Mr. Gideon, I also wrote to the Massachusetts Society and 6 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. have the reports of their work for three years. This is a letter from the Minnesota Society. ( Reads letter. ) The letter from Professor Budd is very encouraging as to the way they are experimenting in Iowa, with artificial fertiliz- ers; we of course expect to be benefited by the work in Iowa, and we want to try to do something to pay for this work either by appropriation or by work by the society. I believe there is a report to give as to what we have started to do. President Smith — Gentlemen, in connection with this matter spoken of by Mr. Hoxie, I would say that I have written to a number of members of congress with whom I am acquainted, and have received very encouraging reports with regard to a bill being passed. But they say that other appropriations are likely to be very large indeed, this year, and so I am afraid our horticultural appropriations will have to go by the board. Mr. Tuttle — I am not in favor of having appropriations for experimental work from congress. I believe we may have this work done at a very small cost. Minnesota is so doing and I can see no reason why Wisconsin cannot do some work by itself. My idea would be to establish experi- ment stations in different parts of the state, upon different soils and in places that have been considered good for fruit and also in places where it has hitherto been difficult to grow fruit. And have persons appointed and let them make their experiments, and let persons forward things to be ex- perimented with to these stations, and let these go on all over the state, on all kinds of soil, and let them go through a number of years so we shall know that when we plant a variety we shall not have to dig it up in a few years. We have planted trees that have not been worth anything. I planted 500 Pewaukees that are not worth anything. As for i;hat work is concerned, in my own locality, on the kind of Boil I have, I am perfectly willing to make a trial of fruits that should be forwarded to me; I am perfectly willing to make the trials. President Smith — What would be the objection to hav- ing the expense of these trials paid by congress? Minutes. 7 Mr. Tuttle — I think there is no objection to it, but we should not wait for it. I think experiments should be com- menced immediately. If a person has a fruit he wants tested let him send it there. We have been recommending fruits that will only do for a single location. Mr. Hoxie — It may be very well and is a good plan, if every one of the members of this society were situated so he could afford to give the time to this work that Mr. Tuttle can. But it costs something to do this work, and experi- ments to be of any value must be conducted v/ith under- standing. If a man wants to grow ten thousand bushels of corn or potatoes, he ought to know how to do it. And it is so in growing fruit. If we cannot get an appropriation from congress it would all be very well. I have been requested to lay the matter before the board of regents, and see if we can get anything from them. It was expected and hoped that Mr. Adams could spend time when the board meets there, to talk this matter up before them. I believe now a little work has been mapped out in the way of experiments with strawberries this year, and that is the extent of it. I do not believe there are half a dozen men in the state that would be willing to give a plant the care that is necessary. I know I have been a member of this society for fifteen years, and I know this society has put out lists of all kinds, and many of them have failed. You all know that. Now Mr. Tuttle is not able to test all these varieties. We are in- vited, as Mr. Kellogg says, to see Mr. Loudon's strawberry varieties, one hundred to one hundred and fifty of them, mainly his own. Now if Mr. Loudon had sent these out a year or two ago to different parties in the state, some one might have gone in and stole these and Mr. Loudon would have been out all his money. Now if these experiments had been conducted as they ought to be, he might be pro- tected in what belongs to him. Mr. Tuttle — When we talk about apples it is a different thing from strawberries and blackberries. It has been said that I have a favorable place to grow apples, but my orchard is nearly ruined. Mr. Phillips — I think mine looks a little worse. 8 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. Mr. Tattle — Well, I don't know. I thought I had a good orchard. The Fameuse are played out. They look: worse than they did last year. I do not know of having seen any orchard on the road that I have corns here on. I have seen none that begin to look like mine. I had five hundred Pewau- kee trees and not one single one of them lived but what is and so with the whole list right through. Of six trees of hurt, the St. Lawrence I have five that are all right. The Duchess trees, of course, are all right. Now if there is any worse place than mine I would like to see it. It was now proposed to open a discussion on currants, al- though Mr. Stickney was not yet present; Mr. Pilgrim said that Mr. Stickney would be here for the evening session or the next morning. Mr. Hoxie — I think Mr. Pilgrim could tell us something about currants. Mr. Pilgrim — Do you want me to tell you something about Mr. Stickney's currants? I have been through my sec- tion of the country this spring, in different localities and failed to find amongst the farmers in general, scarcely a currant bush remaining in the gardens. This spring in par- ticular they were grubbed up, pulled up and burned up. They have given up raising currants. Our friend, Stick- ney, in place of giving up, is gouig right in and planting by wholesale. I would not dare to say how many he has on his premises in the village of Wauwatosa, but on his farm, four or five miles from the village, he has four or five acres of bushes of the Long Cluster, and so on. I never saw anythink look better than they are, and his. bushes to home are loaded with fruit, and he is expecting a big har- vest, now that is as far as I know. I heard Mr. Stickney making a remark about his Duchess orchard, say that he didn't think he had a sound tree in his orchard. We heard from Mr. Tutfcle that this was his best. The tree is troubled by a bug or something else that gouges the apples. Mr. Tuttle — The reason that he does not grow them is that in that locality he can grow something better. Mr. Phillips — Can you tell us how he has succeeded in his currants, and by what means? Minutes. 9 Mr. Pilgrim — He has dusted them over and over with hellebore. He has a watchful eye himself and has good help. He intends to set out there, ten acres of these currants— Long Hollands exclusively. One person said to me that the rea- son Stickney succeeded so well vvith this variety was that the currants, bushes and everything were too mean for the bugs to hurt. They are shipped to a Chicago firm every [year and are shipped even further than there. They never bruise nor stain the boxes they are put in. They sell well. They are a good fruit in the market. Mr. Plumb — I want to say a word against the Long Bunch Hollands. Their name is a misnomer, it has not a long bunch. Mr. Pilgrim — I would like to correct the gentleman. Does the gentleman know what the soil is? We have bunches 5 and 7 inches long. Mr. Plumb — Our bunches are only about three inches long. I would sa}^ a word in defense of the Holland currant. My wife says they make the best jelly of any currant we have ever grown, and currant jelly is the one thing above all others that currants are wanted for at our place. For this currant culture Mr. Pilgrim and Mr. Stickney, at Milwaukee county, have an entirely diff- erent soil and climatic conditions than we have in ihe center of the state. With us we have two or three that will hold their foliage until the fruit ripens, the White Crab, Perry, Red Dutch, and two others. The others all lose their foliage, and we do not know of any way to prevent it, whereas the Holland currant and the Versailles hold their foliage. The Fay's Prolific is too delicate. I was examin- ing ours yesterday. They had fruit last year and the year before, and have a little this year, but under our system of culture Fay's Prolific cannot stand it. It is fully as large as the Perry. Mr. Tuttle— I have seen a single specimen of the Fay's Prolific. It was the only specimen I have ever seen. Right beside it are growing the Red Dutch, and the Fay is doing better. Mr. Plumb — Now, about this currant culture, it is not 10 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. the worm that we are afraid of; it is the blight. We have very little trouble with the worm. We grow the plants for commercial purposes. There are only these two or three varieties named that can be depended upon to hold their foliage right through. Mr. Hoxie — I once heard of a farmer that raised sheep. He bought them when cheap and sold when dear. Friend Stickney is going upon that suggestion. There was a short article by him in the Farmer, suggesting a cure for the worm, but evidently covering a hope that the farmers would not adopt it, for he was raising currants himself. We thought a few years ago, that we could not raise potatoes, and would have to import them, on account of the potato bugs. If friend Stickney can raise Long Holland currants, we can do it too. If the currants are good enough to make jelly they are good enough for us, and I think farmers ought to raise what they can for jelly, if for nothing else. Mr. Jeffery — I live a little way from Mr. Stickney and understand pretty well how he got the worm under control. I find that this Long Bunch Holland grows very nicely with me and I think it is a stronger grower with me than anything else, I have one dollar invested in the Fay's Prolific, but it don't get prolific with me so far. Whether I have got the true Fay or not I don't know; the currant is not so large and the bunch is not so long. The bush is four years old and this year will only have about a quart on it and not nearly as large as the Cherry. I have got more than twice as many on the Cherry bush and some would say that the old common kinds would have more. The Holland would have more than twice as many at the same age I think. The Fay currant is larger than the Holland but not as large as the Cherry. I have got some of the Red Dutch that seem to be doing well. I have a few bushes of the black variety which sell very well in Milwaukee, but do not seem to be in favor out here. English people love the black currant and they sell well. I am getting along with the worm by using hellebore water; using about two table- spoonfuls to a pail of water and applying it with a force pump. I put it on once or twice and do not think I shall Minutes. 11 have to use it again. When farmers see that Mr. Stickney is doing so well they will go into it. I think they ought to get a force pump and use the hellebore. Pres. Smith — It is about 12 o'clock and as we have some work to do this afternoon and it is expected that at 3 o'clock we shall go to view the grounds of Mr. Loudon, perhaps it would be just as well to adjourn and get to- gether as promptly as possible and get the work done so as to view the grounds. This matter of currant culture can be taken up again if we wish to. I think that it would be well to take it up when Mr. Stickney is here as he is the most experienced currant grower in the state. Recess until 1:30 P. M. afternoon session. Wednesday, June 1G. President Smith — The first thing on the programme for the afternoon was a discussion on " Ornamental Trees," led by J. C. Plumb. Mr. Plumb — Is this to be an informal talk? Mr. Hoxie — Make it formal as you can. President Smith — We expect it to be a good sensible one. Mr. Plumb — 3fr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: — I don't know that you will hear me back at the windows. The other day I asked a gentleman what he understood by an ornamental tree. He said: A tree that will adorn my yard I consider an ornamental tree. Well, I thought, that was pretty good. I next asked another gentleman. He says: A shade tree is an ornamental tree. A tree that does not shade me is not an ornamental tree. Another gen- tleman says: I want an ornamental tree that will not only shade but that will hide. Ornamental trees that are used to hide defects. I think I asked seven or eight during the day and got various answers. One gentleman says: An orna- mental tree, that is a tree that is imported, it is not a native tree. I said, don't you consider the oak an ornamental tree? He said: I do not. It is only a shade tree. It seems to be a difficult thing to define an ornamental tree. When we 13 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. come to define it it means a great deal. It means not only a shade and shelter but it menns something that will fill up vacancies and hide defects. That answer that said an or- namental tree must be imported, i don't accept at all, be- cause my experience has taught me that the best ornamen- tal trees we have in this country are natives. So when we talk about ornamental trees and put them in our catalogues, we mean trees that will shelter and hide defects in ou*;- grounds, so that they will give a background around build- ings so that people passing by will see a background of beautiful trees sometimes placed there by nature and some- times by man. They are all ornamental trees. The next question that would occur is. What ornamental trees? Now this matter of the choice of ornamental trees has just as many sides to it as there are tastes, and situa- tions and circumstances. One gentleman said to me this morning — I don't see him here present, I am sorry the gen- tleman is away. He says: " These elms are a failure." I said. Why? "O," he said, "the wind breaks them down." Well, they are in that sense pretty near a failure, for if the land is very rich, and if they have a strong hold, the violent winds are apt to break them down. I might as well answer to that, where the elm is liable to break down from any cause, from rapidity of growth or wrong structure it should be cut back. Well, said I, if the elm is a failure, what next? " Why, the sugar maple, the old tree of New England." Really that is my first choice, too. I was brought up in the shade of sugar maple trees that my fathers planted over a hundred years a^o. But it is a slow tree. But the gentle- man said: "Yes, but it is always pretty." Now I like a sugar maple tree because it is always pretty. It is a slow grow-ng tree, but its leaf, when it falls, is a beautiful leaf, and it leaves a clean, handso^me tree, handsome even in winter. The elm comes first, the generally accepted ornamental tree. The maple will come next. In many locations the white ash would be placed first. I know a gentleman in this city who would plant notaing but a white ash because white ash will grow where there is only six or eight inches of soil over sixty feet of gravel; and so where Minutes. 13 other trees have failed the white ash has become an accepted tree and they want it. The next tree that I would name in the order would be the basswood, our common American linden. It has been a neglected tree, but it is a tree of great merit. Its foliage is beautiful, its flowers yield the richest of honey and it is a tree which I believe in coming years will be more appreciated than in the past. If you want to see some beautiful lindens, they are scattered in certain parts of this town but do not grow in other parts. Across the river we strike a limestone clay where they do better than on the gravel beds on this side of the river. The next tree that I would name would be the catalpa. Speaking about the linden, another advantage it has is its being a broad leafed tree. But there is a clipping from the catalpa, what is called the hard catalpa. There is some talk of their being two varieties. There are no doubt two varieties. There are trees in this state that have never killed back a particle. This is a clipping taken from a tree, a seedling, two years ago. When it killed back last fall when frost came, the top of that tree was just as green as that you see there. [Pointing to the clipping.] The frost killed the top and these broad leaves, and before the winter set in, the wood had gradually ripened, but that stem was green half of its length, but it had ripened its wood until it had wintered without any protection, killing back that much. [Using the clipping.] The hard catalpa is going to come in and help us out on broad leafed trees. When we come to study this question, we find a need of broad leaf trees. I hope the time will come when we shall have sycamore trees that will endure this climate. Those that are familiar with the climate of the city of St. Louis, will know that the best known trees they have in that city are the buttonwood or sycamore trees. I have a tree of this catalpa that has been out for some ten or twelve years. It has a very conspicuous flower. [The flower of the catalpa was shown to the aud- ience.] The flower is very fragrant. I want to say further, I am going on and extend the list. The native hackberry is a better tree than the elm. With very little cutting it is a perfect tree. The only trouble with the hackberry is that 14 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. ■we cannot get it. In the city of LaCrosse and Sparta the hackberry vies with the elm in beauty. Mr. Palmer — What about the hickory ? Mr. Plumb — I will speak about that in a moment, I want to make a special point of that. The butternut, mountain ash and walnut are all beautiful trees, but have defects. Poplars and willows are beautiful, but have defects also. We have no native willows that will succeed this far north except the weeping willows. All of the imported willows, such as you see coming from eastern nurseries, are a failure. I do not know of one in the state of Wisconsin that has survived over four or five years. Not because the top is not hardy, but because the stem which is used for the top is tender. The American mountain ash and the European ash is a hardy tree, but both have defects. You will ask why I have not spoken about the soft maple. There is one tree I want to speak about, and that is the birch. It is a very pretty tree, but the European white birch is a very much better tree. That variety stands at the head of all ornamental trees at the north. I am informed that from Boston to St. Paul, there is no tree that is as widely set as that tree. I cannot point to any in the city, although I think there are two or three in the citv. It is a tree you will all want if you can get it. Of the European varieties there are none of them but what are a little delicate. Now for the hickories and live oaks. I have spoken of trees that can be grown in nurseries and sold. There are trees that cannot be grown in that manner, these are the hickory and the live oak. The burr oak as some of you heard me say years ago, is the .finest tree in America. It has peculiar qualities. It is a rustic tree, you can't take a little twig off from a burr oak tree but it is a curiosity. It is a tree that should be saved by all means. It is difficult to transplant. There is only one way to transplant a hickory when it is four or five years old and when taken out has just as much growth below ground as above ground, I found that when the trees were two years old we could dig down H or 2 feet and cut the top root and the second year Minutes. 15 after transplant it. It will form a few side roots. This is the best way to transplant forest trees, dig down and cutoff the main roots, and in that way you will get side roots. I will not take up any more time. Mr. Phillipps — I was going to say that if it is the pro- gramme of this meeting to go to Mr. Loudon's at three it only leaves ten minutes for both Tattle and myself, and I think I had better give way to him. Well, in reference to this ornamental tree planting I don't exactly know why I was placed here. I never talked'on this subject in my life and never thought on it but a little. The only reason I can give that Mr. Adams put me on this discussion is that he knows I like to be in good company; and being with Plumb and Tuttle I find I am there. It is a little different subject from what I expected. I hardly knew what an ornamental tree was. I started out to find a man that knew more about it than I did. I asked a man that had planted many orna- mental trees, what he considered an ornamental tree. He said: A tree good for nothing but to look at. I made up my mind that about nine-tenths of the tree planting done in Wisconsin for the last ten years was of the ornamental kind. Our orchards are all ornamental plantations. I wondered what I would say here; I thought he would not take up birches, live oaks, hickoriefi, etc., but he has given you a discussion of the whole subject; I want something that is ornamental and useful both, I find I have many or- namental apple trees and now I am taking a little different view. As stated here this morning, we don't want to go contrary to nature in planting trees. If I can get a tree that will live five or six years, I will call it an ornamental tree. I heard a definition in Minnesota of an ornamental tree that I thought much of. Mr. Hedges, called the tree planter of the west, was there. His hobby was planting ornamental trees and forest trees to furnish shade. Having to read a paper at the Minnesota Society his main point was this, to examine the native forest and see what was doing well there and it was safe to set such trees out in that lati- tude. That was the point he tried to make in a whole hour. IG Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. After he got through questions were asked, and one man asked Mr. Hedges this question, " How far north he would consider it safe to plant the native walnut or butternut?" Hedges looked around with disgust and said, " I would go into the forest and find the tree and I would not plant it any further north than God Almighty intended it." That was a very good answer. You will find on the Missouri River growing there the box alder and the elm and the cotton- wood and there I have only recommended to plant these three varieties. I don't think it necessary for me to say anything about varieties. Mr. Plumb has given you the names. One word about ornamental and useful trees. I shipped in a carload of spruce trees years ago and set many of them a rod or two apart where I intended to have a fence, and after that put in Whitney's No. 20, and where the 20 failed put in some other kinds, and I am plant- ing most of my trees in that way now, in thick rows, and am now using that for fence posts. Some say people will go along and steal the fruit. Let them steal it. They are orn- amental to the farm and they are useful. By keeping a lath protection around them one year I have very little trouble in keeping them. I presume there is not a man here this afternoon but has ornamental trees all around his prem- ises and likes to see them. I am like Mr. Plumb, I think a great deal of the hard maple. The people at Trempealeau had a cemetery that needed to be adorned. Mr. Wilcox, the old gentleman, said if the people would get up a festival and raise the money to put in ornamental trees he would furnish the trees. I told him that people would remember him longer by that than by anything else. Such a thing will perpetuate our memory better than any other act we can do. I guess I have taken my time and Mr. Tuttle's too. Mr. Tuttle — I have very little to say on ornamental trees but I think if I had an interest out on the treeless plains of Colorado and Dakota, I should think most any tree was an ornamental tree. I always had a preference for the elm in the city. In fact I came from what is called the City of Elms. I think any tree that will compare with the elm is Minutes. 17 au extraordinary tree. The maple has too close a shade. It ought to be trimmed out higher than it ever is. The beauty of the elm is that it goes up and you have the light. As maples are generally set they are trained too low. Now I had once hard maple trees standing close to the house and I had to cut them down. Of course the maple is an orna- luental tree, and this hackberry that is grown in La Crosse is one of the very best of trees. I would prefer it to the maple. An ornamental tree depends upon what you want it for. If you have but a line you want a variety of trees. No one tree can produce the right kind of an effect. Then the soft maple ought np>ver to be planted. I don't know what Lombardy poplars are planted for unless for the light- ning to strike. Poplars planted in my city sometime ago are now being cut down. Elms planted at the same time are beautiful trees now. I never saw a tree that would com- pare with the elm. In the city of New Haven the elm trees form one of the most beautiful of sights. I would say that that I have seen a tree that was planted in New Haven over 200 years ago. The first minister there after Davenport the people agreed to build him a parsonage, and the whole col- ony came in to give something towards it. One man, the poorest man in the colony, had nothing to give but brought two elms and set them out in front of the house. After 200 years those elms are still standing while the offerings of all the rest have gone to decay. I never found any trouble with elms except the red elm. That will kill in the top. It should not be set as an ornamental tree. I know in early times I used to cut the red elm and I never could find one sixteen inches in diameter that was not dead in the top. I came to a man setting a red elm and I said, Why do you set that tree? I said, the top will become dead. The tree is there yet but it will not endure with the white elm. I have trees of the white elm that I set thirty years ago and I never knew of one being killed. I have seen trees with limbs broken off, but that could be avoided if trimmed when young. It cannot compare with the soft maple though in the breaking off of limbs. In New Haven where they have 2-H. 18 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. set out elms they have set all elms. In our city there is no uniformity. Many of the trees after a few years are worth- less. Every man who comes from the city of New Haven is proud of it, and because of its elms. President Smith — Ladies and gentlemen, we must close this discussion and postpone our going to Mr. Lou- don's on account of Professor Armsby who has to go to Madison to night. Prof. Armsby — Ladies and gentlemen, the subject as- signed to me by the secretary is a pretty broad one, and as he left me no special instructions, I suppose he left it to my discretion as to the branch I should take up. There are a great many things to be said about fertilizers; a great many ways in which they may be looked at. If I should take up too many things it would take too much time. I wish to give you a very short talk upon simply one aspect of the question, and that is the best way of buying them; and by fertilizers we mean those that are known as commercial fer- tilizers, those that are much more valuable than manures on the farm. Theseare not used, so far as I know, to any great extent in this state at present. I have no doubt that the use of these concentrated fertilizers will rapidly increase. There are all the indications of an increase of demand for them among market gardners and others. The first question is, what do you buy fertilizers for, and what do you want to do with them? There are three things upon which the value of a fertilizer depends — nitrogen, potash and phosphate. I do not need to detain you with any discussion of these substances. These three substances give value to the fertil- izers. Phosphoric acid is contained in them in three forms. "What is called the soluble, the insoluble and a third inter- mediate one which, while it will not dissolve in water, will dissolve in soil more readily than the insoluble. Some of the most common substances furnish these ingredients. The most common sources of nitrogen are three, salt of ammonia, and the various forms of animal sources such as dried blood and the tankage of slaughter-houses. The phosphoric acid of these fertilizers is almost always furnished either in some form of bone or some form of native phosphatic rock such Minutes. 19 as the phosphate of South Carolina. The potash, finally, is usually found in some form of commercial potash soils, which are mined in Germany very extensively. Now, as I said, in buying fertilizers you buy them for the sake of the nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid they con- tain. But how shall the farmer to whom the names are a little bit of a mystery, who is not familiar with the differ- ent sources of these three elements, how shall he buy these fertilizers intelligently? You need to know, in order to buy them intelligently, how much of these materials, to be valuable, must be contained and how much to pay for it. The only way. to find the value of a commercial fertilizer is to have an analysis of it. There are very cases where we can tell the value by simple inspection. Most materials used as fertilizers, but especially mixed fertilizers, contain- ing a number of things ground together, are very liable to great adulteration. A poor fertilizer may smell just as bad as a good one. The only way to tell a good fertil- izer is to have an analysis made of it. As to the second point, as to what to pay for it, there too it is necessary to call in the aid of an expert. In the east, in the experiment stations, it has been made a part of their business to find out what they can be bought for in the market. For in- stance the substance nitrogen. Every year it is endeavored to be found out what the retail price of some source of nitrogen, as nitrate of soda, is. They find out the price and about how much nitrogen it contains. From this data it is very easy to find how much nitrate of soda you have to get to get a pound of nitrogen. Last spring it was found you would have to pay about 18 cents. To get enough sulphide of ammonia at retail to furnish you a pound of nitrogen you would have to pay about 18^ cents, and so on through the list. They have published this information in a little table, a table of estimated trade values, showing what is a fair price per pound for these fertilizers. Having this and also an analysis of the fertilizer we are in a fair condition to know what is a fair price for that fertilizer. Suppose our fertilizer contains 10 per cent, of nitrogen and 4 per cent, of phosphoric acid. Then we get 200 pounds of nitrogen 20 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. in a ton of the fertilizer. The 200 pounds of nitrogen would cost, to buy in the same market, 200 times 18|, and so in a ton of the fertilizer there is $37 worth of nitrogen. Of the 4 per cent, of phosphoric acid which is worth, say about five cents a pound, 80 pounds will be worth $4-, that is beside the $37 of nitrogen in the fertilizer. By means of such an analysis and valuation you have the means of knowing whether the price asked is a fair one or not, and no man who buys any quantity of fertilizers and purposes to make money on them should neglect to have their value determined in this way and should hold the manufacturer to account for selling goods to him at a fair price. Of course very few farmers in the country can afford to pay for chemical analyses, and so to meet this point experiment stations have been founded in several of our states. In several states this was the primary object of the stations to give farmers a place for analyses of this kind. It is fortunate that in Wisconsin we were not called upon to do this work too exclusively. At the same time we de- sire to do this work so far as time will permit, and if any of you are intending to buy fertilizers do not fail to determine its value by such means. We can determine the amount of valuable ingredients in the fertilizer and can tell you with a fair degree of approximation whether the price is a fair one. We cannot tell exactly but we can tell within five dollars a ton probably, whether the price is a fair one or not. Then, just a few words in regard to the best method of buy- ing this material. I have been talking about this in a gen- eral way, but not in a particular manner. In the first place, buy goods of this sort of large manufacturers, This kind of business requires honest, straightforward dealing, be- cause the business is done on a very small margin. There is such a competition and such a strict oversight kept upon the business that there is very little liability to being cheated by dealing with respectable places of business. In the second place do not trust the manufacturer too much. Be sure that his fertilizers are as good as represented to be. Every reputable manufacturer will guarantee that his fer- tilizer contains so much of one or all of these valuable ele- Minutes. 21 ments. Frequently a guarantee reads, nitrogen 2i to 3 per cent. That means :2.V per cent. He comes within his guar- antee. Moreover, another use of this guarantee is that ib is a good way to get at whether it is a fair price or not. You can figure out if you have one of the tables of valua- tion which are published in the annual report of the sta- tion — you can figure out whether the price he asks corresponds to his analyses of the fertilizer. The better way is not to buy so many tons of fertilizer but so many pounds of valuable ingredients at so much a pound. For instance, if you were buying dried blood, instead of paying the man $30 a ton with his guaranty that it contains 80 many pounds of dried blood you make an agreement with him that you will pay him so much for every pound of nitrogen or phorsphoric acid that there is contained in it, the analysis to be made by some experiment station man. Then you would pay for just what you got and would know just what you got, and furthermore, if you wanted to compare prices with some other manufacturer you could compare them directly. If the offer is so many cents a pound, see that the valuable ingredients compare closely and then you have the thing fixed. You can tell which is making the best offer. Finally, with regard to the laws of determining the value of fertilizers. In some states manufacturers are required to deposit with the state chemist a certified sample of the goods they desire to sell. In other states these mat- ters are managed in different ways. Some states require every manufacturer to pay a certain sum before they can sell their goods. In other states analysis fees are required and the deposit fee besides. The provisions are various in the different states. So far as I know there are no laws of this sort in this state, and it has seemed to some of us that it is time some such action should be taken in this di- rection, now while the matter is in its infancy and before a large trade is established in this state, and before manu- facturers and dealers have got into ruts and think any in- tervention is an imposition upon them. It would seem per- fectly fair to establish some such law, and it is possible that some such law will be brought up at the legislature next 2i Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. •winter. I don't think the law ought to start out with the presumption that every dealer will cheat. It may be there is no need of such a presumption. The business is perfectly legitimate. As to specific provisions, I do not know as I am prepared to say anything very specific about it. Mr. Plumb — I would like to ask a question: Given land at a given price of say $25 per acre and ordinary stable manure at 25 cents a load, would it pay to buy commercial fertilizers? Prof. Armsby — Your question reminds me of a story of the professor of political economy in Yale College, who, when lecturing upon supply and demand, asked at the close of the class if anyone wanted to ask any questions. There was a pause when finally one of the young men said: Pro- fessor, suppose 1 buy a horse for $80 and sell him for $100, do I do right? The professor said, now, that is a ques- tion to be settled between you and your God. Such a ques- tion as you ask me depends altogether upon what a man can get out of his land. Mr. Plumb — You give us only general principles. Prof. Armsby — Exactly, that is just what we pretend to do. I would say, though, that I don't think it would do at the prices you gave to use fertilizers. The convention now adjourned until evening, to visit the grounds of F. W. Loudon. Carriages had been provided, and all who wished, were taken to Mr. Loudon's place. The party was shown every attention by Mr. Loudon and his assistants and an hour or two was spent in viewing the wonderful showing of berries on Mr. Loudon's grounds. Tables were spread under the shade trees and those who wished were served with delicious strawberries and cream. The party returned to the city in time for supper, though few felt the need of it, and all joined in pronouncing Mr. Loudon a most bountiful host as well as a most successful strawberry grower. Debts of Honor, 33 evening session. Wednesday, June 16. The first on the programme for the evening was to have been a paper by Miss Ella Giles, of Madison, but as Miss Giles was not present, Mrs. B. K. Towne, of Chicago, then read a paper on "DEBTS OF HONOR." We are born into this world debtors. Man did not bargain with the Author of his being, agreeing to a contract that read: '' For so much life I promise to pay," etc. Instead, life was simply placed at his account on what may be styled longtime. And the way that it was thus placed, with no questions asked as to standing, no pledges required, no notes given, speaks of an established credit, flattering to self love, and he who appreciates this, sees that at the very outset he was placed upon his honor. Life is wonderful, whether it be found in the heart of a flower, or the heart of humanity, and its ivonderfulness con- sists even in its possibilities. Down in the meadow we find a wild rose blushing and paling in the sun, balancing its cup to hold the dew to- day, to-morrow a heap of frailty upon the sod. Behind the white paling of a garden fence we find a second rose unlike the first as regal beauty from frail loveliness, and looking down into its velvet depths we find it hard to realize that this second rose is but the expansion of possibil- ities the first held in trust. Half way up the mountain side we find a gnarled grape vine sturdily reaching to hang its fruit on the top of a dead plum tree; fruit that for all the rare sunshine bathing the hillside is sour and unlovable. On a trellace on a southern terrace we find a second vine, borne down by its weight of luscious vintage; again and again we pluck and partake, yet this second vine is but the out-reaching tendrils of the first. Down in an alley we find a lad, slow of step, sluggish of 2i Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. speech, a scraggly specimen of humanity such as is some- times found upon life's hillside; over in yonder hall of learn- ing we find a silver-tongued orator, showering down scin- tiiating thoughts upon a delighted audience; and yet again the second is but the out-growth of the first. But while life is given as freely to the rose upon the meadow as to the rose behind the garden pale, we right- fully expect more from the latter than the former, and we are not disappointed. Nature is honorable and pays what she owes to the last farthing of expectancy. Does man? There are some debts we can never pay. We can never pay the mother for the breath she spent toiling into mother- hood. We can never pay the father for the blows he struck on life's anvil to provision needs our coming awakened. We can never pay the generations back of us, whose com- bined skill hung in anticipation of our coming, the lightly swinging cradle in place of the hollowed log they them- selves were rocked in, and prepared the tasteful raiment of civilization rather than nature's garments once the all needful. But while there are debts we cannot pay there are others that we can, and he who leaves a debt unpaid that may be paid smirches his honor. Life is complex, and while the rose upon the meadow is the cradle of all rose-life, the reaching out of that rose-life takes many individual forms of expression, and each to be developed successfully must be understood; for we owe it to nature when we enter into partnership with her, as junior member of the firm, that we place ourselves in sympathy with her designs, and not set blindly to work fastening the grape back upon the unyielding trellace, in a vain attempt to make it grow straight enough for fence posts. I have before me the growers of vines, vines that in many cases cluster around homes, in which are other vines, all with individual needs and far reaching tendrils. Does the grower of the vine without place it in soil of his own choosing, and there bid it gro\^. Aye. But he is care- ful to choose only such soil as he knows the nature of that vine requires. Down among the Berkshire hills a young man went Debts of Honor. 25 a-wooing, as young men will the wide world over — and find- ing the dove he thoujrht best suited to his nature, he cooed, and the dove cooed back — as doves will the wide world over — and so both settled undor one roof tree. It was something of a responsibility that young man took upon himself when he deliberately set about drawing a young girl from out a path. She walked contentedly in until he taught her differently, teaching her to keep step to step with him for all time to come. But the first winter passed like a slant of sunshine, and spring oame and the plow was asked to run its furrow; and the days were asked to hold more than they could hold, and so ran over into other days; and after the plowing came the planting, and be- tween times, for catch- up- work, the vegitable garden. " John you'll not forget the poesy bed, Annie said leaning from the window to watch the beet beds nearing the well curb, and John looking at the picture his dove made framed in sunshine, said : " You can't eat poesies, Annie." But he made the bed for her, and though it was much too small for all the seeds Annie had in waiting, and small indeed compared to the beet and turnip beds, Annie made the best of it, and laughed as she said excusingly, " John's so fond of his vegetables." The next year Annie called again from over the garden beds: "John, you'll remember and give me a flower bed?" And John answered: '"Yes, it you'll give it back in time for a second sowing of turnips." But Annie knew her husband too well to take this, save in jest. But as she saw how very small the bed reserved for her use was — smaller than last year — and so narrow, showing where the spade had cut down on each side of it to make more room for the turnips and beets, it some how made her think of a grave, but as she murmured again, " John's so fond of his vegetables,' she called a smile to her lips, and made it stay there ever after her eyes grew sad. Again spring came, and this time Annie did not call to John, but, in a further room she hummed a tune, and as she touched the cradle thought: " John'll not forget the flower bed, seeing I've always had it." But upon going to the window later, she found that John had forgottou, the 26 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. vegetable beds reached close to the well, and little pine sticks with paper labels stuck in them, stood as headstones, telling what lay buried there; but perhaps they held more than the labels called for, for looking upon them Annie turned, and laying her head upon her baby's neck, cried, and John coming in and learning the cause, went out of the house quickl3% and the door, either by accident or other- wise, slammed, and as John stood at the well drinking, he thought: " Hoiv can a ivoman make such a fuss over a little thing." It is the sliver and not the pine wedge that makes its own way under the flesh festeringly. Had it been a difficult thing Annie asked of her husband, in his busy seeding time, she would not have felt to measure his love for her by its non-accomplishment. The next year John made the flower bed himself, and it was not shaped like a grave; in fact, he took particular pains not to raise it above the level of the ground — for so Annie wished; and he covered it with the blue-eyed peri- winkle Annie loved; and he planted also the sturdy pinks and sweet elysium Annie raved over; and he even went over to the old home among the hills, and asked Annie's mother for a shoot of the white-rose by the gate — the gate where the doves had cooed. And there seemed nothing too sweet, and nothing too costly, to be planted upon that bed. But it was not in the home garden it rested, but in God's Acre; and though it was hidden in bloom, so that it lost its shape in a wilderness of sweet-smelling things, it was for all a grave; and as the days went by, more and more did John realize what was buried there. Often in the cool of evening he was to be seen working among his blooms, and people passing, said: "How he loves her." But in John's heart was ever an unsatisfied longing as he remembered items of the past; longings for power to do something more to prove the love that really existed. And he wished he might make that bed as wide as all out- door, so that he could pour into the past what he had withheld from it. But, alas! only the interest of the debt could now be touched by loving attention, for the principal had passed beyond his reach. Debts of Honor. 27 Do we not owe it to the ones we ask to share life with us; to the ones we agree to share life with; that as far as in our power lies, we will answer to the wants of their nature — thus supplying heart and soul nourishment. As surely as we fail in this, we too may plant flowers to hide a grave, watering them with regretful tears. And, now we come to the little vines, the off-shoots of ourselves. Children seldon thrive well as cuttings. We do find them stuck down in life's sand, and striking out for themselves independently; but, in general, their future is more assured when cultivated as layered branches of the parent stalk. But there is many a parenc who refuses to do by his child as by the vine he thus propagates, and why? For lack of faith with the vine; after he has a branch with many buds carefully arranged upon the ground, but unsev- ered from the main stalk, he proceeds to leave some of the buds of that branch uncovered to shoot-up through the sun- shine into leaves and tendrils, and covering others with the moist soil, believing they will shoot down into the darkness of earth forming roots and fibres; and if, as the growth of the vine proceeds, he finds more buds starting forth than he thinks wise, he rubs some off so that the main vine may not be too heavily taxed for sustenance ere the time arises for severing the branch. Now, with his child, he is willing to follow much the same plan, save, that he wants all the buds of the child's nature to shoot right up into sight where he can know about them, and when he sees the child putting out a rootlet of thought, that strikes down, below the sur- face, out of sight, beyond his oversight and full comprehen- sion, and he takes alarm at once, and he says: "Here is something I don't quite like the looks of, — it don't grow like the others, and it has a shy way of creeping off out of sight as though it didn't want folks to know about it; I guess I won't have it;" and he rubs it off. As well might the hus- bandman say to his vine, as it strikes its roots down into the earth: "See here; none of that! You've got to do your growing above ground. I'll have no underhanded sneaking off into the dark." If that vine grows, it will grow the way it is its nature to 28 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. grow; and, while that growth by a judicious cultivation may be guided and controlled, an honorable faith must be extended to that growth that wills to exist out of sight, as well as that existing in sight, for both are essential to devel- opment. Down in the woods we^find a boy fixing a water- wheel. Adjusted to his satisfaction, he throws himself back upon the sod, and with arms pillowing his head, he looks up through the net-work of green into the blue vault of heaven as though he would pierce it with his gaze and know what was beyond. But, even as he rests thus, the rustle of the leaves, the falling of the water, the dropping of the nut, the chip of the squirrel, is all taken thought of, and their music thrills him as pure symphony the soul of a musician. Now that hoy appreciates nature when found thus, and hi^, father appreciates it when found at the end of a hoe handle. The father "can't see for the life of him where his Jack got so much love of f ol-de-rol." Well, it does not make so very much difference as to where he got it — if by f ol-de-rol is meant his love of sweet music, and vocal music, and chipmunk haunts and water-courses. It was no doubt given him by the Great Father, back of all life, who gave to the rose its fragrance and to the onion its fragrance; and if you have the rose and the onion, you have to take them with their fra- grance; and, if you have Jack at all, we're afraid you'll have to take him as he is with his ear attuned to earth's music your's is closed to, and eyes open to things you behold not. He's yours, as much as his nature's his, and you've both a part of that little item life bestowed on man on long credit, with nothing but his honor for a backing. The question is, what are you going to do about it? " But I can't have Jack out there on the grass looking up into the sky and that onion bed running over with weeds." Certainly not. Onions were made to be weeded, and boys were made to weed, there's no gainsaying that. But how are the two to be brought alongside? There are three ways of accomplishing this. First: The yank-and-haul system. But we don't advise this for Jack, for it may in the end swing him further than Debts of Honor. 29 you intend, landing him on the out-going ship while ijou are left to pay for advertising for a runaway hoy. Second: There is the dead pressure system of my will's stronger than your will, and I say weed that hed out and you weed it. This, like the other, is apt to do the work too thoroughly, it presses down so upon the boy that it presses the very best there is in him out of him — his individuality. It leaves him an I-don't care- lurap-of- humanity, that gets through the days automatically. If father says weed, he weeds, and then he stops, and if father says hoe, he hoes, aud then he stops, and finally he develops into a sort of wooden man. Men, that like the dancing Jack, work very well when some one else is near to pull the wires, but the moment the hand controlling the wires drops he drops. There is a better way than this, and now you've brought Jack into the world it's only fair that you give him the benefit of the most approved methods of development. This third way is the steady draw of sympathetic magnetism. But in order to make this plan successful you must have faith in your boy, faith in the requirements of his nature, as they were stamped by the Giver of Life and pronounced fit for use; without this you can do nothing. More, you must have faith in yourself. These assured, use your magnet of lov- ing sympathy; first to draw your boy to you as the sun' draws the flower, make him believe in you, believe that what father says is so because father says it's so and father knoivs. This done and you will find it comparatively easy work to interest him in nature found at the end of the hoe as found in results our own labor bring forth. But every plant needs stimulating. Stimulate Jack by appreciation. When he has done well with the onion weeding show him your appreciation of it by an hour in the woods for the things he loves so well, as a reivard. " You don't believe in rewards! Believe children should be taught the higher way." Oh, yes, yes, that's all very well in the main, but when you stick those grape cuttings down in the sand you told them that if they'd take root and grow you'd give them some better soil by-and-by, and those that didn't root you didn't give any better soil to. And Our Great 30 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. Father of all says: "You do the best you can down on that little earth of mine and if you grow well I'll give you a better place to grow in. But to bring this matter of re- wards a little nearer home. We find on certain pink- tinted slips of paper passed around here to-night, $10 for the best strawberries not less than ten. Now isn't that a pretty large reward for the growing of ten strawberries, and strawberries brought forth by the bushel? "Yes, but it's for the very best strawberries, mind you." And how was it about the onion weeding, didn't you ask for the very best there too? Ten dollars for ten of the best strawberries — dollar apiece — and Jack asked to pull weeds ten hours in his very best style and no reward. Fm afraid big boys sometimes ask of the little fellows ichat they don't ask of one another. Reward is a legitimate mcentive to development and a judicious use of it is lawful. More than this, you did not ask Jack what he thought of the idea of life before you brought him into life, you just put him down and told him to grow. jSTow there is a little danger if you push him into a corner, so that he feels that he is not fairly dealt with, that he may remind you of this not having been consulted, as a certain little maiden did we brought from the south to take up life in our northern home. The matter arranged of her return with us, and we said but little to the child save the bare fact that she was to go. She was but four and we acted on the plan, " least said, soonest mended," and she on her part, said very little. But the morning arrived for our departure, she permitted her traveling hat to be banded down, and she kissed her mother good bye and she climbed into the old stage, for her ride over the cordoroy roads connecting with the railway, and later she settled down into life by the rough Lake Michigan. So unlike the life she had known back of the magnolias, without a word, and we wondered if she were quite as bright as she ought to be. She took the change so indifferently. Bat one day we were obliged to remove her from the dinner table to have her face and hands washed, and then the change came. A storm wreath gathered on her face, but save by the scowl- Debts of Hoj^or. 31 ing look she threw toward the food, she craved she gave no expression to it, and even as she stood watching the water run into the marble basin, she said nothing, but with the first pressure of the cool fluid upon her angry face, and she drew back a perfect little /?/;•?/ and stamping her small foot upon the floor, she cried: " I never asked to come. It's too far." As long as our will lies along of the child's will, this not having been consulted, is never heard from, but the moment the wills cross, and like a flash there rises in the breast of every quick-witted child, resentment at the un- ceremonious way he has been disposed of, and in his heart at last he cries, I never asked to come. Of course there are times when the cool restriction of the parent must be laid upon the child's turbulant nature, but we must look well to it, that the circumstances surrounding these occasions justify, and we must never invite them needlessly. Over in a corner we see a girl bending above a book. Now we always have great sympathy for a girl who loves a book, and seeing one engaged with one, we feel like tiptoeing along for a glance over her shoulder to see has she made a wise selection. But we never like to see a girl reading the way this one spoken of is doing, with her shoulders drawn forward as though she had accustomed herself to read by too little light; thus reaching forward for all there is to be gained; more than this, reading hurriedly, with her eyes darting from time to time to the door as though she feared interruption, and with a guilty flush upon her face, and, at a slight noise, thrusting her book aside only to resume it again when satisfied her fear was ground- less. There is surely something wrong when a girl reads a book thus. Either the book is bad, or something else is bad. But this one we find later is one to be approved. Then why did she need to read it by stealth, as a dog partakes of a stolen bone — with one eye on the food, and one on the world at large? 32 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. " I'll tell you," speaks up her parents. " She don't want to do anything but read, that's the matter." Then we are to understand that she takes more time for reading than you are willing to allow her for her book? "Allow?" " No need of allowing her any time for a book, she'll take enough without that I" •' Then in order to have her bone she's got to steal it? In other words, if she takes any time for reading at all, she must take it by stealth; and yet the very sight of gold and green or a new book cover causes a thrill to run through her as the sunshine filtered through the green leaves above Jack. And of the leaves of the forest there are no two alike, and the Good Father says to all, grow. " But we can't have Mary dowdling over her book, and the mother around washing the dishes." That's true. Every Mary must do her share of helping mother, and more if she be the stronger. " But she won't as long's that book's left in sight." There are some words formed in an old book that reads: " To every thing there is a season, and a time to every pur- pose under the sun^ On top of those words lay that boois:, fresh from the impress of another's mind, and say: "Mary, there's a book you'll like, when you get time for it." Time! Won't that girl get time, if time means ih.i^'^ Try her. Leave the book in sight, with your approval stamped upon it, and see if it does not prove sucli an incentive to well doing in her homely task, as you never dreamed. Leave it where its silent communings shall be hers as she flits through the morning's tasks, speaking to her, as it will, of a parent's loving forethought, that has provisioned an arbor of rest beside life's high-way, that her young feet may not grow a-weary. ■ And if in spite of your counsel she seems to love her book over well Yio^e patience with her. It is but meet that having planted these young spirits by our fireside, that we deal tenderly with them, giving them a fair chance to come face to face with the inspiration of their life. For while you may have met yours in some of the more prosaic walks of life. Jack may meet his in the heart of the woods he Debts of Honor. 33 loves so well; and MaryVmay suddenly be flashed to her from some thought^of another's mind and left as indelibly upon her own as upon the page before her, again we say : " By the magnet of loving! sympathy draw your children from themselves unto you and from thence you can lead them to ivhither-so-ever you choose. But while we are Igiving attention to these individual weeds, pruning and caring for the second growth of the world's forest let us not forget the forest itself. The world has u-eeds. Not a breeze is wafted to us, but bears the thistle down of humanity from all shores and from under all suns. The world needs men. Men of broad brow, broad brain and broad understanding. Who can grapple with the issues of the hour, never so complicated? Where shall these be found if not among those who go out to meet the day with heads bared to the invigorating wind borne athwart dew laden clover fields, who drink inspiration off hill and dale stretching out in wide expanse, and who can look straight up into God's blue with no foul smoke of the world's engines obstructing their vision. The world has need of men strong of heart, and strong of faiih. Where will she look for these if not among the ones who go through life heart to heart with nature, believ- ing and trusting in her, taking her tiniest seed and her two-leaf sprout and placing them gently in the earth, year by year and year by year building up their strength, until at last their homes are sheltered by towering crowns of swaying larch and sturdy Arbe Vitce. The world has need of purity. Where will this be found if not among the ones who know the purity of flower as found in their choice fruits; purity of color as found upon the rose that needs no painting; purity as extended in the lily cups they handle with care. Surely where much has been given much may rightfully be looked for in return, and ye a?^e men placed upon your honor. Mrs. J. B. Day then gave a recitation, "The First Settler's 3-H. 34 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. Story," which received ethusiastic applause. Mrs. Day then responded with a second selection, entitled, " A Green Pea Story,"' The convention now adjourned until morning without transacting further business. MORNING session, Thursday, June 17, 1886. The meeting was called to order at half after nine o'clock. Mr. Phillips moved that a committee of three be appointed to report before the close of the meeting, on the experience of strawberry growers, and especially to report on the visit to Mr. Loudon's grounds yesterday afternoon, and the kind treatment received there. The motion was unanimously carried, and the president said he would appoint the com- mitte in a few moments. President Smith — The discussion with regard to varieties of strawberries will now be taken up. I understand that Mr. Loudon is not a speech maker, but a worker, but we shall be grateful if he will tell us in his own way, for in- stance, how he originated the Jessie, and how long since he originated it, and what it has done in years past compared with the condition in which we saw it yesterday, and how it has borne, and whether more or less than usual this year, and whether aftected by the drought ? Mr. Loudon — 1 am not exactly prepared to answer all these questions, but from my recollection I can give you an outline. Some thirty years ago I wrote an essay which will give the data just ;)S well as I can. I was satisfied that strawberries could be made like other fruits. Thirty years ago there wero not very many strawberries in existence, I could not raise any large ones. My real success began about fifteen years ago. I had practiced all sorts of methods, I used then some Mackavoy's Superior and one Long's Prolific, and crossed them with some other varieties, which I do not remember now. About twelve years ago I began to get some very fine and very large strawberries, but they lacked either productiveness or quality, and many Discussion. 35 points that go to make up a good strawberry. I then com- menced to use Durand Seedlings in making my crosses, but among them all, none did any good except the Great Ameri- can, and they threatened once to be a failure. I used them because of their size and beauty of form. I presume most of you have had it. Mr. Durand's strawberries are raised for prize strawberries. They are literally grown in manure. If he ever had one that grew three mches in diameter it was never seen. I have some very large ones, some that might measure nine inches around. I can tell you where to secure any original varieties is in making the crosses properly. You must have big strawberries to start with, and these big strawberries generally come from sprouts, and most of the big strawberries are non-productive. I then crossed another gentleman's seeds, who, when seventy- one years old, went into raising seedlings. I used all his seedlings. I got my best start from the Sharpless, which I have had eight or ten years. It is the mother of the Jessie, and of several other very fine varieties that I have. I have found it a very difficult matter to get quality as well size. If you could ask me questions I could answer them, I can't go to work systematically and tell you about it. Mr. Stickney — In the production of the Jessie what was the manner in which you worked ? Mr. Loudon — These people who are originating straw- berries by fertilizers are a humbug. The germ in the calyx of the strawberry is closed. A few of the first blossoms come out and they fertilize the strawberries in the germ before they open. Now it is a difficult matter to get the start of nature and help them on their way. I used to do it but you have to open the calyx to do it. Take these var- ieties I use for crosses. I set six plants of different var- ieties, each for one particular quality. By using that method of propagation they do their own fertilizing. Start them in hot beds so there is no danger from outside. The pollen can be carried sixty or eighty rods or even miles. Birds will carry the pollen. In strawberries you will not find any chance seedlings that are good for anything. By having a strawberry for size I have set the Great Amer- 36 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. ican which was designed for a large strawberry and then have used another strawberry for quality. The Great American is a beautiful shaped berry. We want good shaped berries. The shape of the Sharpless is all that can be asked for. I have had seventeen of the Sharpless that would make a quart. That is all I can ask in size. It is a very uncouth strawberry. Its size is tJie only thing that recommends it. Nobody claimed that it ever yielded over 100 bushels to the acre. The Jessie, I know, has yielded at the rate of over 400 bushels to the acre. Question — Having your seed ready for planting what is your method of procedure? Mr. Loudon — I sow it in the spring. The plants come better to sow immediately. Select those berries that have a perfect leaf. Berries should be dead ripe when preserved for the seed. They will grow by watering and shading. The seeds will come up in about 12 days and must be sowed right on top of the ground. I give them total shade and don't cover them at all. I set them in the ground just the width of the seed. Mr. Stickney — Do you any more than crush the berry? Mr. Loudon — I will tell you how I do that. Take dry sand and make it as fine as possible by running it through a fine sieve. You want it perfectly dry. Then I take the strawberry and crush it and am careful that no other variety gets with it. This is so as to know what my variety is. I am careful to keep it distinct in that way. I crush them till I see the seed in the sand. Then I sow the seeds in a small patch and in two or three weeks they come up. They can stand it there then until the next spring, but I prefer to take them up and keep them until spring. I had rather give $3 for one plant in the fall than $ } for a dozen plants in the spring. You must keep the runners down, you cannot test it unless you do. I don't care how large a berry is, if you don't keap the runners down you cannot attain the size. Don't use any manure, for if you manure a strawberry, and it requires manure to attain its size, you get fooled, for the manure is what makes the strawberry large. I use as poor soil as I can find; I put them in there without manure for Discussion. 37 several years. Then if the strawberries are large it is through nature. I tira careful to keep the runners cut. Some strawberries send out more runners than others, some send out very few, and others very many. In a patch of from two to three thousand seedlings we have to cut over them as often as once a week. I know by the habits of a plant whether it will be a large strawberry or not, from the foli- age and general habits of the plant. That is acquired by hav- ing so much experience in the business. I am rambling in my talk and I do not know as it interests you. It would take me a whole week to tell you all about it. Mr. Ring — You think, then, fall seeding is the best? Mr. Loudon — Yes. I set them out and keep the ground stirred around them. Mr. Stickney — In late fall planting, do you not get winter losses by late setting? Mr. Loudon — Some, sir; there is no strawberry I have ever raised except the Jessie, that will winter without cover- ing. This is a general failing. I don't think it is a good plan to winter strawberries anywhere in the north. The difficulty with the Sharpless does not arise from losing the plants but from losing the foliage. Something is wrong with the fruit blossoms of ihe plants, I think. I don't think there was ever over 100 bushels of them raised to the acre and possibly not over fifty bushels. Mrs, Smith — Do you mean to say that you prefer fall planting all strawberries? Mr. Loudon — No, I meant only for seedling strawberries; what I know about strawberries is not so much but what I can learn yet as far as raising them for market is con- cerned. Mr. Stickney — What proportion of the plants stand it, do you find in common ? Mr. Loudon — Just about eight per cent., never above ten and as low as five. The reason I take others up is to give the good ones room. Sometimes we find three or four with- in fifteen inches of one another. Then we have to be very careful that we don't get things mixed up. 38 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. Mrs. Smith — "When plants are set in that way are all the plants coming from one strawberry alike? Mr. Loudon — No. Yow see my seedlings Nos, 15, 12, 30 and 33; they all came from one strawberry and every one of them is distinct in its habits. They have different foli- age. Mr. Graves — Did I understand you to say that you used the Sharpless and that it was the mother of the Jessie? Mr. Loudon — I crossed the last crosses with that seed. In 1880 I used Miner's Prolific. It is hard to tell where Miner's Prolific or the Jessie leaves off and the other com- mences. That shows that the Miner's Prolific has the blood of the Jessie. The Jessie was originated in 1880; I used Miner's Prolific in '78 or '9 and used the seed of the Sharp- less and raised some plants, but the Jessie is the only one that shows any of the blood of the Miner's Prolific. I did not fertilize with Miner's Prolific at the last, but I have for- gotten just what I did use, I certainly don't use Boyden's Seedling for the strawberry would show a white tip. I used the Sharpless in the '8:2 seedlings. You see: I have some seedlings there that are ahead of the Jessie in point of size. I used the Triumph because of its fine color. The crossing of strawberries requires skill, but I could not ex- plain that to you very readily any further than I have said here, I have said it requires a long while; and you have to make many experiments and it takes quite a number of years, and requires a person when he sees strawberry plants to recognize the blood of every one of them. Often by some feature of the plant I discover whether I have succeeded in my experiment. I can tell exactly as soon as a plant has three or four leaves whether the plant is going to rust, I know it from observation, I am just as certain as I can be. For instance, there is a class of plants like the Wilson and Cumberland Triumph, most all of which show traces of rust in the seedlings. I shun all that class of plants. I never saw the least trace in Miner's Prolific of rust, that is one reason I use them in the crosses. The Green's Prolific was used on account of the peculiar quality of its leaf. That never rusts but the progeny of it does very badly. I can tell Discussion. 39 the progeny of sucli strawberries every time. When the Manchester was originated they found it growing on the sea shore in the sand and was said to be from the Wilson or There is not a dropof the Wilson or in the Man- chester, I am just as well satisfied of that as that I have planted it. It was supposed to be a cross of the and Manchester; I know that is utterly impossible. The Man- chester has the blood of the Cumberland Triumph or of the Green Prolific. There is no question of it. President Smith — The discussion may now be carried on for a few moments by other members. Mr. Stickney is called for. Mr. Stickney — I don't know as I have anything of in- terest to say to the persons present. My interest in this points towards these thoughts: The work; the necessary labor of undertaking such a work as this; the encourage- ments the discouragements that would lead a man through a series of years, from one generation to another, raising a hundred plants, transplanting them and watching them for one or two years; and then throw away ninety of them; and then, mind jou, there is to be another sifting. Suppose to- day you have on this table one hundred varieties that you have tested with some care, and this has to be done again. After sifting out ninety per cent., ten per cent, is all that will ever come back to you. Patience is pretty well illus- trated in that. Mr. Loudon said it was a labor of love. Mr. Loudon — If I was to save these plants I throw away, any of them will beat the Wilson in quality, but I never produced a berry that will carry like the Wilson. Mr. Stickney — That is very hard to do. There never has been a berry that is so hard. But to get back to the point; when a new strawberry is introduced at a dollar a plant, or five or six dollars a dozen, we never have had sight of the long continued labor necessary to produce this variety, but think that somebody is getting rich pretty rapidly. I think, you that have heard Mr. Loudon talk this morning, will change your mind a little, and think that a dollar is only a moder- ate price. The possibilities of one plant in one year are so great that the money is well expended. Anything that is 40 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. i truly valuable and has been arrived at through long con- tinued and persistent effort is worth its price. President Smith — Mr. Loudon, have you watered these \ strawberries that we looked at this season ? Have they been watered ? I Mr. Loudon — No, sir; only I watered of the Jessie about a hundred, and found it to* *auch trouble. I undertook to ■ water those you found covered over, and found the best j way was to cover them over. I covered them over and kept them shady. : President Smith — How do they compare with last year, ; larger or smaller ? ! Mr. Loudon — If there is any one here to corroborate me j I shocld like to have them do so. They were by a few ; days ago and said: They are not as large as last year. The large berries are not any more than half the size of last . year. Mr. Smith — There are about as many sets on as usual ? Mr. Loudon — There are too many sets. I don't want '■ anybody to take any stock in what I say in that respect. * I I will try and raise some strawberries next year. , Mr. Ring — Is it your opinion if you had facilities for ' watering your strawberries it would be better for you ? Mr. Loudon — Of course strawberries are ninety per cent. [ water, like other fruits. I think strawberries should not j have rain until they begin to show fruit, and then they | should have plenty of it. ; Mr. Kellogg — I move the adoption of the following resolu- tion: , i Resolved, That the showing of the Jessie upon F. W. Loudon's grounds 1 exceeds anything we have ever seen in their productiveness and quality, ' and we believe it to be better than most of the varieties under cultiva- i tion. I That last, is not strong enough; I believe it is better than | any variety we have under cultivation. j Mr. Stickney — I would suggest that the last clause be i struck out, and these words inserted: " And possesses more valuable qualities than any other berry under cultivation." | Jessie Strawberry. Discussion. 41 That will do if you want to make it strong enough, as you say. Mr. Kellogg — I will read the resolution again: Resolved, That the show of the Jessie upon F. W. Loudon's grounds ex- ceeds anything we have ever seen in size, productiveness and quality, and we believe it possesses more valuable qualities than any variety under dis- semination. Resolved, That in addition to the Jessie we are surprised at the wonder- ful success attained by F. W. Loudon in producing so very many promi- nent and valuable varieties of strawberry seedlings, many of them ex- ceeding in size and productiveness our best varieties now generally culti- vated. In addition to these resolutions the following has subse- quently been reported by the chairman of the committee having in charge the report on this subject: " This additional report is made at the close of the strawberry season by the chairman of said committee (the committee appointed to report on Mr, Loudon's seedling strawberries) and Jas. Helmes, superintendent of the June meeting, after repeated visits to Mr. Loudon's plantations; and per- mit us to say that we have no interest in thesf^ berries whatever more than all lovers of good fruit and wishing success to varieties of true merit. " After seven weeks of severe drought, I find the Jessie well loaded with fine large berries, some measuring four inches at this last picking, remark- ably firm and of unexcelled character, and judgingj from the appearance of the quantity of fruit on the matted rows, should think a good picker ■would pick a quart box in H minutes at this picking. I picked two boxes for table use and took them 3^ miles, handling them rather roughly, and some of the berries were what we consider overripe and unfit to ship, yet having a chance to send, I took one quart of Jessie and sent them to a friend in Iowa, 603 miles distant, and they arrived in fine condition, forty hours after packing, and I believe they can be safely shipped 600 to 1,000 miles to market. "I find among Mr. Loudon's seedlings, many kinds at the close of the fruiting season, that give wonderful promise of great merit, b3th in size, quality, productiveness and firmness of fruit, and vigorous plants and healthy foliage, notwithstaading the unprecedented drought. These, to- gether with the Jessie, stand side by side with Crescent, Wilson, Manches- ter, May King, Piper and many others of our best sorts, having received the same treatment and standing in matted rows, without any extra care, showing the superior qualities of these new kinds above any varieties I have ever seen, and from the variety of soil upon Mr. Loudon's grounds (some set in clean sand that came from a bank forty feet below the pur- 42 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. face produced a berry measuring 4^ inches, and from this to hard clay) I can not see why they will not open a new and successful era in straw- berry culture throughout the strawberry belt. " Respectfully, " GEORGE J. KELLOGG, " Chairman Committee. " f concur in the above. "JAMES HELMES, " Superintendent.''^ After reading the two resolutions as above given, Mr. Kellogg said: ■ "Now if you have anything to say against the variety, trot it out. I believe from the report of Presi- dent Smith, of sixty-seven berries on one plant he set last fall on his grounds, as lie reports, and with the showing of the variety we saw on the ground, and the parched condi- tion of the soil, where you could stick your hand right down in the cracks between the plants, and the small amount of manure applied, it is ahead of anything I have ever seen under cultivation. Mr. Tuttle — I am in favor of that resolution, and still it seems to me it doesn't do Mr. Loudon justice. It does not speak of a single berry. What seems to me most wonder- ful is that he should have produced such an amount of strawberries. I believe that Mr. Loudon's strawberries are of more value to the country than all the different straw- berries originated in the whole country in the last few years. President Smith — I would like to say a few words about this. I wanted to put in a few varieties last fall for a par- ticular object. My object was to try the Manchester for fall setting. Just that day I received a few plants of the Jessie, from Mr. Loudon. I set them in the same bed with the Manchester and the Wilson. The plants came in good order, and I set them just as I did the Wilson and Manchester. They grew well during the fall, and during the winter I covered them. In the spring one of them was dead from some cause, the others lived and are alive yet, but two or three of them are somewhat injured. The day be- fore I left home, I examined one, the best of the lot, and counted sixty-seven berries on it. They had moderate sized. Discussion. 43 runners when they reached me last September. They are upon as good strawberry ground as I have got. I have here some samples one the Wilson and one of the Manches- ter taken from the same bed. His plants now compare fairly well with these in size. The foliage is not quite so full, nor quite so strong. They have all the appearance of being something valuable. I can see only one thing that would seem to endanger them. It is a well-known fact that some strawberries that are very valuable where originated, are not so valuable when carried away from their original places. These have been carried so far from their original place and are doing so well that it would se©m to indicate that they are not of that character. The Boyden has been spoken of. That is one of the varieties I have experi- mented with. It does not do so well away from where it was originated. Mr. Boyden died soon after he originated them. The gentleman who purchased the blood did well with them, and made himself well off in a few years from these berries. I got some plants from him, right from the native ground, and examined the soil carefully and had a little plat in my garden that I thought of about the same character. I put some of them upon that spot, and others upon another spot. We worked at them for years and would not give up, but they would not bear and we have ever heard of a place where they have borne even reasona- bly well. The indications would seem to be that this Jessie is of a different character. I certainly never had a strawberry plant do anything like so well. As Mr. Kellogg said, I had no chance to test the quality of them before leaving there. The ripe ones had been picked off by boys running back and forth. Tbey are evidently very worthy plants and the shape is all that we can wish for at present. Mrs. Smith — Mr. Loudon, did I understand you to say that this Jessie had been tested in very distant places? Mr. Loudon — No, the only parties that have the Jessie are Mr. Smith and Matthew Crawford, of Cayuga Falls, Ohio, and the Experiment Station at Columbus. I am waiting to see if they will send me a report. I know it is utterly impossi- ble for that berry to fail wherever strawberries will grow. 44 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. I cannot explain this, but I know it. I have got soils from all countries of the world and tested this berry in them. That is one of my methods. Mr. Kellogg — This resolution I now offer is additional. [Mr. Kellogg now read the second one of the resolutions with reference to the Jessie, as above given.] The question now being put the first and second resolu- tions were unanimously carried. After some little discussion as to whether Mr. Stickney's paper or Prof. Seymour's paper should next be taken up, it was decided to listen to Mr. Stickney. Prof Seymour's pa- per treating of a topic of special importance to the city of Janesville would, so said Mr. Kellogg, be published in the city paper and afterwards in the regular report of the meet- ing. CALIFORNIA FRUITS. Mr. stickney — In response to Mr. Adams' request to pre- pare a paper for this meeting I made this answer that after a brief glance at the season when everything was still and dormant, no fruit in season except the orange and lemon, it would be impossible to get a very good look at the fruit growing in that country, and it would be impossible and pre- sumptuous to prepare a paper for publication. I should be unwilling to prepare anything that was to be published be- cause my knowledge must of necessity be so very imperfect. I should dislike to go on record as to fruit growing there, and I do not want the reporter to take notes this morning on my talk. If I should say something that is not so and if our volumes should go to California, it would be very un- pleasant. [At the request of President Smith, Mr. Stickney consented to have his remarks reported, provided he should see the proof before publication, and reserving the right to cut out any and all portions he should see fit.] Mr. Stickney — I reached California at its extreme south- ern point, and oranges of course were then in season, and all such fruits were in season and would naturally attract my attention the first of anything. Of course they are very attractive and seem very beautiful, are of very much Discussion. 45 interest to any unaccustomed eye, and to an accustomed eye as well, but a few weeks of study and careful inquiries and observation of the orange interest took away a good deal of the enchantment that distance lends to it. While it is their most attractive fruit and while the beauty and poetry of their southern homes are due to their orange orchards and ranches about their houses and all that, the fact is here that orange culture is perhaps as unprofitable and has as little of profit in it as any one fruit industry in the state. That may seem queer to one going into an orange orchard that has cost twenty years of unceasing toil to get up to its present condition and to see the trees loaded with fruit that they have been accustomed to pay from three to six cents apiece for, and to see men gathering these fruits with the utmost care and packing them in boxes. These cases have to be transported thousands of miles and if subjected to frost they are lost. You ask the price and you find that the pro- ducer gets less than a cent apiece, getting less than $5 a thousand for them, and you begin to think back on th© question and wonder where he makes his profit. This price happens sometimes but not generally. They generally get from seventy-five cents to a dollar a box for them in the boxes. There are here large amounts of oranges, one or two thousand on a tree, so that you see the product of an acre amounts to something even at these prices. The aggregate of an acre of oranges is large. This year prices were higher. I see some money in orange culture, and if I lived in south- ern California I should have an orange orchard and take the chances of its paying me. The great drawback to orange culture is this: The white scale and the red scale, which differs very little fiom the insect that is ruining your maple trees in this city. It is not as prevalent there though as it is here and they are using the most strenuous methods to fight it down. It is not in every locality. They have very strin- gent legal enactments and fines for aliowiig it to remain where it is. Every pains is taken to hold it in check, but it is a very formidable enemy and obstacle. Next to the orange orchards a new comer will be most impressed by the vineyards. When you come to that you 46 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. have reached the thing that pays the most money. The vineyards, a man who had never read about them, would not recognize at all. There are no trellises but only stakes set at a distance of a few feet from each other with ragged stumps from 1^ to 2 feet high, and four inches at the base and ending in three or four points at the top. These vines are cut back every winter to a single bud on these three or four points. They mingle the ends of the branches but I could not see but they can pass through readily. There is no entanglement of the vines. Saw many places where the vines grew within each other but not enough to become tangled. Their labor on these vines is very cheap. Almost any man who can be hired is able to set and trim these plants. Very much of it is done by piece work. Everything is simplified so as to make it cost as little as possible. Of the varieties of grapes grown in southern California the larger part is known as the mission grape and some as the raisin grape. Probably ninety per cent, of all the grapes grown in California go into wine; the other ten per cent, into raisins. The bulk of the grapes that go into wine are gathered and taken to the wine-makers. The mission grapes sell for from one-half to three-quarters of a cent a pound and many times have to have railway carriage. They are piled in just as we pile potatoes into a car and then they are shoveled out into vehicles. At a half a cent a pound a grower can hardly afford to furnish himself with boxes and take care of the grapes. In the northern part of the state they are carried in bushel boxes and in that way are handled in a more workmanlike manner and these grapes bring from a cent to a cent and a half a pound; perhaps on an average not more than a cent a pound. Most of the growers I saw rather furnish mission grapes for from a cent to three-quar- ters of a cent a pound than the other grapes at from a cent to a cent and a half a pound, and they give as a reason that all the mission grapes are ready for picking at one time and the fruit is more accessible. A man will pick about three hundred pounds of the mission grape while he would be picking one hundred pounds of the raisin grapes. They therefore scick to the mission grape notwithstanding it Discussion. 47 brings a less price. Now these are cheap rates that they get, but the compensation is better than they ever have for their other work. Four and six tons are^considered a fair amount for an acre. They have their water supply under control so that they can water them. A ton of mission grapes makes about 100 gallons of wine. I^don't know how much the other makes, but it is less. It has not as much juice as in the mission. One hundred and sixty gallons is a fair yield for the mission grape. In passing over the coun- try I constantly met new plantations going into the ground of 80, 100, 200, and occasionally 500 and semi-occasionally a thousand acres in one solid patch of this grape. The price and quality of wine is less in southern than in northern California. In northern California they go into the hills and produce a smaller quantity of fruit but a much finer quality of grapes. The money made in southern California though is as great as in northern California. I visited one wine cellar in California. There was no roof and nothing to protect it from the weather. The wine was stored in tubs. I supposed that wine had to be kept in cellars that were kept at a most even temperature. That idea I soon lost. The cellar is at an even temperature, however. The prices vary from fifty cents to a dollar and a half, according to quality and age, but the price at which it goes to the wine adulteraters at, if you please, is from twenty-five to forty cents a gallon, still affording the wine maker a good price, for he buys his grapes at from a cent to a cent and a half a pound. Their raisins interested me more than anything else. The raisins are made to be exported and they are dried in the sun right in the vineyard. They have cases like our little berry boxes, made of light lumber and of the right size to handle conveniently. They pick a layer of grapes all over this, as many as will lie in handily, and set them right down on the ground, between the rows, and leave them there. At that season they very rarely have rain or dews. They leave them there for eighteen or twenty days and then take another box, empty, and reverse them and leave them for another ten- or fifteen days. Then they are carried and these boxes go into a compact pile in a way that 48 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. gets up a little bit of a sweat. Then they go into boxes that are packed to market and are sold. The raisin product for 1885, as given by the statistican of the state, was something over a million pounds for the state. The industry is increasing. In addition to the grapes they raise themselves for raisins, they buy others. They are taken two or three hundred miles into Arizona where the climate is better for drying. Their own grape curing is most done on their own places, but what they buy is car- ried away. I met afterwards in Arizona a gentleman buying large quantities of land for raising raisin grapes. I think that the industry will spring up in Arizona. There is practic- ally no limit to that industry. They will go to any market and will also keep until prices make it advisable to sell. I have great hopes for this industry. If I was going to Cali- fornia that raisin industry would be the first thing I should look after. Of course, in the disposal of fruit in California large canning works spring up, especially in the vicinity of San Jose. Of course these canned goods find their way, but much more largely to European markets. That indus- try and the drying of fruits must be the way in which they dispose of their extra fruit. Their green fruit has been brought here at very high freight rates and has been handled here by very eager fruit dealers, and the conse- quence has been we have had to pay from 1 5 to 20 cents a pound for this fruit. A movement was made last winter to simplify that. This proposition was got from the railroad men: If they would make up full trainloads of fruit they would give them rates at $300 a car instead of $600. All fruit thus far has paid $G00 a car to get to this Mississippi Valley region. They now propose to carry it, in full train lots, at $S00 a car and also to give it fast time. They pro- pose to give it as near as possible to passenger time. Of course, this will help very much. Then the Union proposes to put some of their men on this side and see to the proper distribution of this fruit, and so we shall not have all of it go to Chicago to come through second dealers. We should have California grapes for ten cents a pound, if their best grapes do not bring them over 2 cents a pound. They get a Discussion. 49 very reasonable compensation at that rate. [A question was asked as to raisins.] The raisins of commeroe are made in just such a way as I say. We read of foreign raisins that are dipped in syrup, but there is nothing of the kind there. I have brought home several boxes of prunes and one box of figs; but on coming home and using them I do not think they are quite up to the standard of the Ger- man prunes but seem to lack the plump, fleshy body. The raisins are a little less nieaty than the foreign raisins. It may possibly be the result of the process of drying. I know one thing more, on getting three boxes of them I found too many of them that should have been strictly second class. That is of course the fault of the grower in grading them and that can be avoided. There is no doubt that it will all correct itself in time. The first picking should be graded from the second picking. Som.e of the raisins now are very fine and some are very poor. In going through their orch- ards I was struck by these points of difference from ours. I thought I would see all going on there in large dimensions. Their mode of treatment is very different from ours. In the first place theo cut their trees back very severely and every year thereafter they seem to go on thinning out everything that is intercrossing, and cutting outeverything that has too strong a tendency to reaching out. Their trees are very uniform in shape. They come into bearing very early, at* three or four years from planting, and that has one tend- ency, perhaps, to check them. They disappointed me in size. I do not know but their dry season holds them in check some. The product from the English walnut is quite liberal and is very good indeed. They do not call them profitable as compared with other things and yet they yield a fair in- come. They bear shipping and keep anywhere, and that is a great point for you can take advantage of the market with them. That is where the advantage of the dried fruit comes in. The dried prunes product of 1885 was about 2,000,000 pounds, and of the dried peach 1,500,000. Thewhol^ dried product of ^the state was something in the neighbor 4— H. 50 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. hood of 1V,000,000 pounds. I have no statistics of the can- ning industry, but it is very large, indeed. Novsr as to the question as to whether the people are satisfied with the pay they get you can best jadge by what they are continuing to do. In addition to the orchards in bearing, there are mil- ions of acres just coming into beiring and nowhere I have ever been have I ever seen such live nursery interests. Every few blocks in the city they would have a vacant lot with a supply of trees and thousands of trees were going out "for planting. You see their faith is good and there is some way of making it pay them. Everything is most carefully attended to ond we ought to pattern from them. I did not see five neglected specimens of fruit trees in the state. Prc^. Smith — Is the want of weeds in California due to the fact that they do not use barnyard fertilizers? Mr. tstickney — Very largely, probably. In fact they do not have many weeds. They have one weed though that grows very dense and is an immense thing and has to be cut and drawn away. Another weed has stalks eight or ten feet high. These are all they have to contend with in the way of weeds. Their grounds are not only kepi clean but in the growing season a,re kept very thoroughly stirred. Cultivators are going through their grounds constantly. I «was quite surprised in the northern part of the state to find 20, 30, 40 and (JO acres of currant bushes. They were mostly Red Dutch. Their currant bushes are pruned with just the same care as the apple trees and grape vines. All are kept perfectly open to the light, sunshine and air. The fruit must be perfectly nice frait. I took a lesson that I think I will appreciate now. I know I have bushes that are as high as my head. All the good fruit I get is from the out- ride. While it will cost a little more to keep them pruned I think it will pay. Jhere are in southern California no cherries nor raspberries. The market for these things is in southern California. They do not do well there. Mrs. Smith — Is pruning carried on during the growing season? Mr. Stickney — No, it is done during the dormant season Discussion. 51 and not in the growing season. I think the new growth is allowed to grow until after the crop. I do not think they have the superabundance of new growth that we do where we let it run at liberty. Mrs. Smith — How many stalks were considered as enough for a good stem? Mr. Stickney — Just enough to let the light and air come through. Three or four stalks probably. They get better currants if not more bushels in that way. Now in the way of obstacles to fruit growing, they have vastly less than we do. I do not know how it is, and they do not say how it is. There are very few insects that bother them. They do not seem to have to take the trouble that we do, with the ex- ception of thtse scales on the orange trees. The climate seems to hold them thoroughly in check. Frosts they nevei* have. Blighting winds from the ocean sometimes hurt them. One of the products, cherries, for instance, is hurt in this way, and this is a very fine product near San Fransisco. The same as on their apple trees, they get a blighting wind that troubles them. Yet these are very little things against them on their balance sheet. My attention was called to the work of a little bird called the linnet. Almost every bud, on tree after tree, was taken by these little birds. Things of that kind happen to them as well as elsewhere. The apples are the least important of anything there, but there are occasional orchards being planted there. In answer to my question, "What fruits |pay best?" the answer was, "peaches, table grapes, plums, pears, apricots and cherries." I rode by and walked by, and gathered fruit from hundreds of apple trees that had winter apples hang- ing on the tree and not a leaf on the tree. This was in the dry season. The foliage was all gone, but the apples were all hard, and about as full of flavor as a very poor white turnip. I picked a good many, and bit a good many of them, but never ate one of them up. As a matter of fact there is not much but the Bartlttt pear in the pear line, that they count on for profit there. As far as they can ship it, it does very well. Now, in thinking of California fruit grow- ing, my mind had gone out to a whole state, a thousand 53 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. miles in length, and all covered with fruits from one end to the other. That is a false impression. While in the fruit growing districts thej^ can do anything they please, and can have their thousands of acres, these districts are not so extensive as one would infer. Realy there is but a small portion of the state adapted to fruit, and further north there is something very difficult in that matter to under- stand. A man may start in one place and be very successful in grape raising, while another man may start in, five miles further and make a total failure of the whole thing. The five miles will change something, I don't know what. Either the soil or some current of air will totally blight and ruin fruits that are perfect in other localities near by. There is no certainty in anything until you test it inch by inch. It is just as unsafe as anthing can be for a man to invest, until he has tried the thing. So it goes with most everything in that state. I had always thought of Cal- ifornia is a very rich state agriculturally, as soon as its agricultural resources were developed. In southern Cal- ifornia there was herbage all over the country, for a million herd of cattle, and that was in January too; it was all choice herbage. To add to that you would see a horse or two, or a cow or two, or in riding across the country, you would see per- haps, two or three herds of sheep, with a little corral and a little hut for the shepherd. The fact was that they could put only a few cows, for that was their whole herbage for the whole year and when that was gone there vs^as nothing to keep the cattle. In riding across any part of the state that I did, outside, that is of the fruit localities, you ride across an extended stretch of it, where you do not find anything to make life enjoyable, and nothing to contribute to the real comforts of life. I came home with this feel- ing, while California is a most excellent and enjoyable place in which to spend a few of the winter months, I would very much dislike to adopt it as my home the year around, and particularly, if I had my living to get I should vastly rather stay in Wisconsin; and I think you can all adopt that conclusion without going to look, or reading, or thinking upon it. I think the people who are here to-day Discussion. 53 by staying in Wisconsin, Mr. Smith growing cabbages, I growing pickles, Kellogg growing pears, Loudon growing strawberries, I think if we all pay attention to these indus- tries, we should come out ahead of California industries. President Smith — I saw a statement not long ago to this effect: Wisconsin as compared to California had a larger aggregate of wealth, and the aggregate wealth per capita was very much greater. I think nearly double that of Cali- fornia. Mr. Stickney — I should not doubt that statement at all Mr. Smith. President Smith — I was quite surprised at it. Mr. Stickney — In point of fact is not Wisconsin very highly favored in many points? In mineral wealth she is very rich. President Smith — I have traveled many thousand miles these last few years and my impression has been that no state I have ever traveled in shows in the aggregate so pros- perous a condition of the farmers as the farmers of Wis- consin. The average condition of the farmer ^is better in Wisconsin than in any state I know of. Mr. Stickney — The matter of water supply though not perhaps horticultural may perhaps interest you. Of course they have to have water to raise anything. There is just this much raised in independent of irrigation and that is in some localities an occasional crop of grain. Most of the hay is made of grain cut in an imnature condition. That is often grown up to the point of cutting for this purpose But everything else that you want you must irrigate for. In the nrst place too hilly land must be reduced to a certain levo.l and that involves a great expense. This water supply costs on an average about $2.50 to the acre. Then you are down here ten miles on an irrigating ditch and all along the line you must take the water when it will reach you. Pos- sibly if there was an abundance of water by some especial request you could vary the time somewhat. But practically, however, you have to take the water when you can get it. When you do get it you have to be out there with your hoe and dancing around those little mud ditches, and you have 54 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. to be pretty lively about it, too. It struck me I would rather get my water from the clouds. Mr. Fisher — It struck me that the gentleman left out the greatest curse of California is that the land is owned by too few parties. It does not pay parties in the state to put any improvements on the land. This is in my oppinion the greatest curse of California. They are using up the wood land in this way. They have to let the land lie idle one year in order to get a crop next year. Soon they will have to let it lie over two years. If we could find people on their own land it would go ahead of Wisconsin. Mr. Kellogg — I think Mr. Fisher is right. When I was there the land back from the rivers was not worth a cent until you got back into the gold regions. Now they have made something of it by irrigating. It is wonderful what they have made of it. Mr. Anderson — I was going to say there are two sides to all these questions. I have a brother-in-law living there but only has a small farm, only 140 acres, and he told me he had cleared much money every year. He had lived in sev- eral different states and he says he prefers to live in Califor- nia. I asked him to tell me what kind of fruit he would recommend for profit. He said alfalfa. The land will pro- duce big crops. Mr. Stickney was close to my brother-in- law's when he was at the ostrich farms, that he omitted to tell you about. Mr. Stickney must have seen some of the best land. But he only got into one little winery. I got into one that cost $700,000. There are some advantages and some disadvantages in living in California. I don't know but I would want water where I can get it when I want it. It doesn't cost them as much for irrigation as it does me to get my manure out. They can do their work in the fall. They can begin in December. Here we have to do everything in the spring and frequently have to work the land when it is not fit to work. I for one feel satisfied that I could make money in California perhaps as well as here, but I do say that I didn't see a farm in Los .Angelos county that I would trade mine for. They haven't the facilities that we have here. But take it all in all a man of Discussion. 55 my age could enjoy life in that country pretty well. I was going to say one thing in praise of this section of the coun- try. Take Rock Island for a central point and go 150 miles in every direction or