PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 87 



than at. any other season. " The Euranda crab is the only one bearing a 

 heavy crop of perfect fruit. It is a seedling from Transcendent, and does 

 not blight. It is of the size of Transcendent, golden yellow with red 

 cheek. Of plums the best I know is a seedling of either Weaver or 

 De Soto. Our future orchards will be of our own native varieties. Repro- 

 duce from the best two if you wish to improve. Neither the old nor the 

 young Okaberas are satisfactory." 



'* While it is evident that Mr. Brand is enthusiastic concerning a single 

 variety," said Mr. Hathaway, "he is right in his idea as to where we 

 should look for the origin of new varieties." Mr, Hathaway, in further 

 illustration of the way the earlier successful kinds of apple had failed in 

 southern Michigan, told of the Red Canadas over three inches in diameter 

 which he was at first able to produce, but the trees from which they were 

 taken have since those severe winters produced scarcely a peck. The Spy 

 went the same way, though holding out longer than any other kind. He 

 had used a row of 100 Wageners to support a wire fence, though latterlj?^ he 

 had taken some fruit from it. The Golden Russet had the same fate. On 

 one occasion he spent an hour trying to convince Director Willits of the 

 state experiment station that a sub-station for southern Michigan should 

 be established, in order to test new varieties of hardy fruits, but was wholly 

 unsuccessful. So he went home and set 200 Northern Spy for stocks, and 

 got western seedlings and Russian scions, and now has about forty varie- 

 ties in test. He also procured some southern varieties, some of which 

 prove hardier in leaf and trunk than our own old-time kinds. The Peer- 

 less, about which Mr. Brand is so confident, is promising with Mr. 

 Hathaway. " The practice of some of the western men, of getting money 

 out of such varieties, hinders progress, but the time of their adoption is 

 surely coming. In five years more I expect to be able to show valuable 

 results; but the testing of apples is necessarily a work of slow progress." 



THE SEASON AT THE EXPERIMENT STATION. 



Mr. T. T. Lyon spoke of some results and observations of work at the 

 experiment station the present season. Because of the two exceedingly 

 dry seasons, the growth of some varieties and classes of fruit are not what 

 they would otherwise have been. The extremely wet spring of two years 

 ago hurt the small fruit plantation so that it must be removed and a new 

 one made. It has been the practice for two years to spray everything 

 before the leaves start as well as later, and the results have been in all 

 respects satisfactory. The effect of spraying the peaches and plums has 

 been wholly good but the storm of March and the later bad weather, 

 prevented fruitage. The bloom of the Japan plums was ruined by frost, 



