332 TKANSACTIONS OF THE 



In reply to the question of the President, if confined to three 

 varieties of apples, one each summer, fall and winter, what would 

 they be? 



Mr. Gates said: Red Astrachan, Rambo and Ben Davis. 



Mr. Hammond — Sops of Wine, Porter or Maiden Blush, and 

 Ben Davis. Others preferred the Benoni for summer, but agreed 

 that Ben Davis would be the most desirable winter variety. 



Mr. Ploppe desired to impress on the Society the opportunity of 

 giving more attention to the kitchen garden, as considerations of 

 econom}^ health and comfort, demand that the farmer's family be 

 supplied with vegetables in greater variety and abundance than they 

 generally are. 



SOMETHING EAST. 

 BY EDWARD DENNIS, HAMILTON. 



I saw from the beginning of my journey that men, in the ma- 

 jority, are creatures of dissatisfaction, and I fully believe discontent 

 was nowhere more plainly visible than right at home, and no class 

 of men so generally grieved as the horticulturist and farmers. Truly, 

 there is no place like home ; and there is no other state in the United 

 States in which a man tells the truth any more fully when he repeats 

 this old adage than in Illinois. 



The home of the ordinary well-to-do farmer of this country 

 should be the place where nothing but contentment ever comes, for 

 verily he has much to make him ha})py and little to grieve compared 

 with many others, and, perhaps, the best plan for gaining content- 

 ment would be a trip like my own, and see some of the obstacles 

 which men in other localities have to overcome in order to even make 

 a living, saying nothing of the luxuries of life. Riding on a rail- 

 road is a poor way of seeing the most favorable part of the country, 

 yet in all the distance from Hamilton to the Atlantic there is not a 

 place that will compare with our own. We left Hamilton on the 

 26th of July excessively dry and dusty, thirty hours' ride landing us 

 in Buffalo. The last nine of the thirty was spent in passing from 

 Detroit to Buffalo, where, if it was possible, the drouth was more 

 severe than at home, and not a half hour of the time that we did not 

 see men, women and children fighting fire along the road. Leaving 

 Buffalo after dark we saw, comparatively, nothing of the great State 

 of New York, running the entire distance across the state in about 

 eight hours. We awoke in the morning on the border lines of 

 Massachusetts in the midst of a most excellent rain. From this 

 time on, the entire time of our absence, there was the complete re- 

 verse of Hamilton, cold and rainy, averaging one or two days of the 



