132 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



exhibit, wliicli came chiefly from Oceana county, caused many expressions 

 of admiration, and most beholders supposed the large and brilliant fruit to 

 have come from California. 



The society's first ijrize, $50, for general collections of fruit, had four 

 competitors — the South Haven and Casco society, represented by W. C. 

 Sheffer and A. G. Galley; the Lenawee County society, the exhibit in 

 charge of D. G. Edmiston and H. C. Bradish; the Oceana County society 

 with C. A. Sessions and Benton Gebhart in charge, and S. M. Pearsall of 

 Grand Rapids. Some of these gentlemen and the South Haven society 

 also made special exhibits and collections, as well as Messrs. Emil Baur 

 of Ann Arbor, J. M. Blowers of Lawrence, N. J. Clinton of Windsor, 

 Ont., C. W. Counter, of North Toledo, O., A. A. Olds of Decatur, and G. 

 Truesdel of Whitmore Lake. There were many others who exhibited 

 single varieties. 



The Oceana county exhibits attracted deep and general attention, much 

 to the advantage of that comparatively new but excellent fruit region. 

 They were particularly full in phims and peaches. 



THE show's oddities. 



Tlie curiosities of the show were of course the fruits from the south, 

 including a small exhibit sent by the national department of agriculture — 

 a tea plant, coffee plant, mango tree, camphor tree, and a large pineapple 

 in fruit. The department also sent six varieties of Japanese persimmon. 

 S. B. Mann of Glenwood, Fla., sent a stem of banana showing buds, 

 bloom, and green fruit, lemons, limes, guavas, and several kinds of Japan- 

 ese persimmon. From Georgia came a large lot of enormous pears, the 

 Kieffer, whose rich, transparent yellow and great size secured many 

 beholders; also LeConte and Mikado pears, pomegranates, and Chinese 

 quince, all these being sent by W. W. Thomson of Smith ville. Ga. One 

 of the most attractive things was a great bunch of dates, sent by E. Wolf- 

 skill, of Winters, Cal., and grown by his brother, S. C. Wolf skill, of the 

 same place. They were from one of the very few bearing trees in the 

 United States. The bunch weighed about twenty pounds. 



Late in arrival, having been about ten days on the road, was a large 

 collection from Monticello, Jefferson county, Fla., made by George S. Van 

 Buskirk, a former Michigan man of Bay City. Much of the fruit spoiled 

 during the long delay, yet the remainder, with the accompaniments, made 

 a sensation when it was got in position Tuesday morning. It contained 

 two banana plants, six and eight feet high respectively, and a stalk from a 

 larger plant bearing green fruit, flowers, and buds in their peculiar purple 

 sheath. There were pomegranates of several varieties, larger than any 

 others on exhibition, more of the huge Kieffer pears, green oranges and 

 lemons on their branches, figs shown in the same way, Japanese persimmons 

 in variety, many cans of preserved fruits, with jellies, syrups, and wines. 

 Besides these purely horticultural products there was a bail of cotton sur- 

 mounted by bearing cotton plants and flanked with sugar cane, together 

 with corn, oats, and other grains, peanuts, fodder plants, and a lot of 

 dressed boards as samples of Florida timber. The whole was tastefully 

 arranged, and was all day surrounded by an admiring and questioning 

 crowd. 



An exhibit peculiarly interesting to pomologists was fifty-three plates of 

 named varieties of Russian apple, grow^n in Iowa and sent here by Col. 



