REPORTS FROM LOCAL SOCIETIES. 80 



are a very delicate fruit to ship long distances. If left in boxes when placed on 

 exhibition, they look well, but often when taken out the clusters fall to pieces. 

 It was desirable to cut off two or three inches of wood with each stem, which 

 assists in keeping them fresh. 



Mr. Cook said at the last meeting of the State Pomological Society at Jack- 

 son Mr. Sigler, a grape grower of Adrian, showed some fine specimens of grapes 

 which hung on pieces of the vine, and placed in jars of water. He declared 

 that it is important that some one should accompany the fruit sent from Michi- 

 gan to Philadelphia, to see that it is handled carefully and properly placed on 

 exhibition. 



Mr. Suttle said his method was to place some grape leaves in the bottom of a 

 box, and wrap the clusters in cotton batting. He would also place leaves at 

 the top and sides of the box. He had packed flowers in this way, and shipped 

 them long distances, when the thermometer was forty degrees below zero. 

 Nothing kept grapes in such good order as cotton wool. 



Mr. Dickinson recommended Mr. Suttle' s plan, and President Brad field 

 declared he had used it successfully. 



Mr. Merriman said he had packed grapes successfully by placing the clus- 

 ters in paper bags, and suspending the bags from wires stretched across shal- 

 low boxes. Sufficient paper should be placed between the packages to prevent 

 bruising. 



At this meeting Mr. Dickinson gave an address on the codling moth, prefacing 

 his remarks by reading from a pamphlet prepared by Prof. Cook, of the State 

 Agricultural College, giving a description of various insects destructive to fruits 

 and vegetables, and his methods of exterminating the same. He pronounced 

 Prof. Cook's method of destroying the codling moth — i. e. by means of cloth 

 bandages on the trees, and crushing the insects with the thumbs or a ringing 

 machine — laborious, expensive, and but partially successful. 



His method Avas first to build a fence around the orchard that would hold 

 hogs ; second, to mulch the trees thoroughly in the spring ; third, to prune 

 thoroughly and burn the brush as soon as possible ; fourth, to scrape off the 

 loose bark on the body and branches, so that the moths cannot secrete them- 

 selves upon the trees. When the scraping and pruning has been done, wash the 

 trees thoroughly in a solution of weak lye and soap. The speaker had used this 

 means successfully for fifteen years to protect his trees from the borer. The 

 lye should be one-quarter the strength of that used for making soap, to which 

 should be added sufficient soap to make suds. Wash the tree thoroughly with 

 an old broom, using care not to touch the foliage. After mulching the trees 

 scatter a few oats upon the mulch, then turn in the hogs. One sow and ten 

 pigs will take care of an orchard containing one hundred trees. The hogs will 

 root up the mulching for the oats, and either chew up or trample to death all 

 the moths that secrete themselves under the trees. AVhcn the apples are half 

 grown jar the trees thoroughly until the apples infested by the moth drop off. 

 The best time to prune is when the trees are in full blossom and the sap is run- 

 ning, for the reason that the wound will heal quicker than at any other time. 



Mr, Merriman objected to the adoption of the last recommendation by the 

 Society. 



This method was discussed at considerable length. 



Mr. DeCou declared that where one sound apple is grown, twenty arc partially 

 destroyed by the codling moth. 



Mr. Dickinson said that of every bushel of apples grown, one-third are fit 



