STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



209 



grown in California. We doubt not that these persimmons would be a 

 delicious addition to our fruits when they can receive sufficient artificial 

 protection. 



The report was accepted as the sense of the Society. 



DISCUSSION— M ISCELLANEOUS. 



Dr. Schrceder exhibited a knife, having a stiff hooked blade and an 

 iron shank about six inches long of which the handle is an extension. 

 He showed the manner of cutting asparagus six or eight inches below the 

 surface, remarking, as in his report, that the Germans wanted their 

 asparagus white and nice ; and that the green above ground was only 

 fit for goats and rabbits. To this it was remarked that white asparagus 

 would not sell as well in Chicago now as well-grown green stalks; so the 

 Illinoisans must be classed by the Doctor among the goats. 

 Dr. Schrceder. — This comes of education. (Laughter.) 

 Dr. McGrew. — Mr. President^ this remark about rabbits reminds me 

 of a plan to prevent them from gnawing the bark from trees ; I have 

 done this by tying white rags to the lower branches or so they will come 

 near the ground. I live in Kansas, and have learned that to get good 

 crops of apples there we must allow the trees to branch near the ground ; 

 the side branches protect the trunks of the trees when young, but grow 

 more upright than branches do if the trees are trimmed to tall heads, and 

 after the trees get well into bearing the low-headed trees bear very much 

 more fruit than those which are pruned up. 



Prof. Thomas, chairman of the Committee on Entomology, to 

 whom was referred the box of insects taken from the query-box, said that 

 he found in the box some of the larvae of the imported cabbage-worm 

 and some parasites upon these larvae, a few of which were still alive ; and 

 he would take them home and breed them. He hoped for much relief 

 from the devastations of the worm next year by the parasites which have 

 been found preying upon them. He said : We should be careful, in 

 destroying the larvae and pupae of noxious insects, that we do not destroy 

 parasites also, as the parasites increase so rapidly that they will destroy 

 millions of the cabbage-worms in a short time. 



The President called for the next business in order, which was a 



REPORT UPON GRAPES AND GRAPE CULTURE— By E. C. Hatheway. 



It were well, perhaps, to preface this article with the remark — Con- 

 cord, first, last and all the time, for money ; as it is now quite indis- 

 putable that Concord, in its ability to "stand grief" of all kinds, its 



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