Meeting for Discussion Held at the State Fair. 73 



the fruit cracking this season ; the cause was deficiency in the 

 foliage ; where the fruit is affected, the cause of the trouble is 

 generally found in the leaves. "Whatever promotes their vitality 

 promotes the health and fruitfulness of the tree or vine. In 

 Europe, where the grape has suffered so severely from pbyloxera, of 

 all the remedies tried, the one which promises the best is improv- 

 ing the strength of growth, the constitution of their own vines by 

 grafting them on our hardy Concords. 



Miner Plums. — Mr. Kellogg said he had often spoken dis- 

 paringly of the Miner plum, and now he wanted to speak a good 

 word for it, for it does occasionally bear a crop. He had seen 

 trees near Beloit this season that were loaded down to breaking 

 with fruit, and they stood in poor soil at that. 



Mr. Pilgrim stated that Mr. Stickney's trees bore fruit the past 

 season for the first time since they were set out, twelve or fifteen 

 years ago. President Smith had had the same experience. A 

 number of young trees standing in the yard near his house had 

 borne good crops. He had found it necessary to prop up some of 

 the limbs, they were so heavily loaded. 



Mr. Peffer had about thirty Miner trees ; some of them were 

 set out six years ago. The trees blossomed full but the fruit did 

 not set. The De Soto, with him, was a good plum. It bears 

 while young, and well. The wet weather had injured his plums 

 this season, causing them to grow so rapidly that they burst open 

 and soon rotted. 



Judge J. G. Knapp, one of the early members of the society 

 being present, was called on for remarks, and gave a very inter- 

 esting account of the tropical fruits and climate in Florida, his 

 present home. He said he often recalled with pleasure the asso- 

 ciations of the past, the da} r s when we had labored together to 

 make horticulture a success in the rigorous climate of Wisconsin. 

 In alluding to the efforts made in days gone by to make fruit cul- 

 ture profitable by a study of nature's laws, he said he had long 

 been a close observer of nature, and had ever found her true to 

 herself. Results may appear strange and even contradictory, but 

 they are not produced by chance; they do not come without a rea- 

 son, and he who studies nature aright will find she is ever in har- 



