WEST MICHIGAN FRUITGROWERS' SOCIETY. 351 



Committees were appointed as follows: 



Besohitions — H. Dale Adams, C. L. Whitney, W. H. Payne. 



Fruit Exhibit — J. G. Eanisdell, M. T. Smith, James Gardiner. 



The first topic on the programme was: What has science done for 

 horticulture? As will be noticed, some of the speakers wandered far from 

 the text. 



L. A. Lilly : When we offer apples to the buyer he insists that the first 

 quality shall contain no wormy fruit. Sometimes he culls out one third 

 or even one half, yet of the fruit of some growers he accepts all but, say, a 

 bushel in ten barrels. How has this difference been brought al)out? By 

 aid of science in the study of insects. Men have come to know the habits 

 of the codlin moth and have taught us how to manage the orchard 

 by spraying, and otherwise, and ])y following their directions we 

 may have apples in the old-time perfection. Science has also done much 

 for us in grafting and still more in production of varieties. Yet scientific 

 men are not alone found in colleges. There are thousands of them 

 engaged in practical horticultural work. 



Mr. Stkong recommended the keeping of hogs in orchards to devour 

 the larv£e of the codlin moth and other insects. There is great difference 

 l)etween buyers as to what constitutes No. 1 fruit. Absolutely perfect 

 apples should be classed as ''fancy" and slight blemishes should not 

 exclude from No. 1. 



James Gardiner: The main thing is to know exactly how to apply 

 science. Two years ago I sprayed my plum trees and got a big crop. 

 This year I did the same but got none. I think I did not know enough of 

 the conditions under which the spraying was done. This year I sprayed 

 with Paris green, for lice, and killed some trees and the foliage on all. A 

 neighbor thus took the foliage from five hundred trees. Two years ago I 

 had excellent results from spraying apples, but not so good last year. We 

 are not yet sufficiently educated to know exactly when and how to apply 

 what scientific knowledge we possess. 



H. Dale Adams: Scientific questions are agitating fruitgrowers every- 

 where and with beneficial results. J. J. Thomas' early studies of the 

 curculio resulted in adoption of the jarring process. The remedy was not 

 scientific but the study was. Since then no greater advance has been 

 made, for the use of spray for this insect is not yet sufficiently understood. 

 Last season, being so rainy, was unfavorable to the iise of spray, but the 

 preceding one offered the right conditions. 



J. G. Ramsdell: Few of us are scientists— we have scarcely the time 

 to be — so we certainly need scientific men to conduct investigations for us. 

 They seem to be a necessity. But science goes but a little way. There is 

 much beyond it in the practical extinguishment of the depredators. The 

 jarring process fails to make jjlum-growing profitable. Evidently the 

 future success is to lie in spraying. 



C. L. Whitney: Science has been carefully elaborated and it is the 

 duty of horticulturists to as carefully apply it. Man must not only have 

 knowledge but must know how to use it. Corrosive sublimate is a deadly 

 poison to both animal and vegetable life; yet carefully and intelligently 

 applied, it is a great aid in the pomologist's battle with insect enemies. 

 Adulterations are frequent in all these poisons, so scientific knowledge is 

 necessary in their use. No one remedy is always efficient. A thorough 

 study of methods and their application is science. 



Mr. Lilly recounted how science came to our aid against the potato bug 



