REPORTS OF AUXILIARY SOCIETIES. 271 



Mr. M. T. Smith of Hopkins, showed some Early Beatrice affected with 

 yellows ; also branches of the Early Crawford, both with yellows and in the 

 healthy state. The former appeared ripe nearly two months in advance of 

 their time, while the latter were still small, green, and hard. The contrast 

 was very marked, while the opportunity to note the effects of the disease was a 

 good one. 



Tarlatan was explained to be a French-made material, Field, Leiter & Co. 

 of Chicago, having it made to order in Paris. It is sold by the piece at $1.65, 

 each piece making about 180 covers. It is made of a special color, which 

 apparently hightens the color of the peaches, both the red and the white or 

 yellow parts. Its use, except as a slight protection from spilling and from 

 thievish fingers, was admitted to be a harmless piece of rustic delusion, justifia- 

 ble on Barnum's famous assertion that the American people like to be 

 humbugged. 



Mr. LaFleur read a paper upon "High or low heading of peach trees," in 

 which he favored the latter method of growing them. He held that by nature 

 the peach is a shrub or semi-dwarf tree, and should be grown according to its 

 natural habit in order to obtain the best results. It may be pruned and made 

 to assume a different form, but, left to itself, it always throws out branches 

 from very near the ground and makes a round, uniform head having a main 

 stem, somewhat like the spruce. Trees grown with high heads — *. e., trimmed 

 free from branches up to several feet above the ground — are quite likely to 

 have crotches and consequently to split or break down ; the trunks are more 

 liable to bruises during cultivation, and are more exposed to severe weather. 

 The "black ring," which killed so many trees last winter, was caused by alter- 

 nate freezing and thawing of exposed trunks. It in nearly every case occurred 

 between the limbs and the ground. Trees with such exposed trunks are often 

 found dead and rotten on one side, from the limbs to the ground, while trunks 

 on which limbs are allowed to grow out from near the ground are found to be 

 in healthy condition. 



Mr. Smith thought heads from H to 2^- feet from the ground were 

 best. His neighbor trimmed his trees up to four feet or more, and, as a 

 result, they blew about a good deal and crowded the earth away from their 

 roots. The neighbor lost several trees, but none of Mr. Smith's low-headed 

 trees perished from that cause. Low-headed trees, he thought, had the stout- 

 est trunks. 



Mr. Buck said the peach could be trimmed into conical form as easily 

 as the spruce. He called high heads from four to five feet from the ground ; 

 low ones, anything from two feet down. Trees with low heads do not crowd the 

 earth away, as do high ones, and so are not so liable to winter-killing of the 

 roots. 



Mr. Stegeman thought from eighteen to twenty inches the right hight for 

 the beginning of the head; such trees would sway less and grow more stocky; 

 and he preferred the same method of growth for the plum and pear, his 

 experience showing ill effects from allowing these trees to head high. 



Mr. Sailor thought three feet about the right hight to keep the limbs from 

 the ground. 



Mr. Buck thought picking easier but cultivation harder among low-headed 

 trees ; that high-headed trees were more apt to fill with small branches. He 

 asked Mr. Stranahan which bore earlier, Late or Early Crawford, and was 

 answered that the latter was the earlier bearer. Mr. Buck said his Late 



