5'2 TEANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



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The question of Horticnltiiral Experiment Stations was then 

 taken up. Mr. Smith, of Minnesota, said no money was expended 

 there in this way, except out of the funds of their State Society, 

 which distributed scions, cuttings, etc., to the different stations which 

 are established in almost every locality in the State, and they report 

 soil, location and success to the Society. These stations receive no 

 pay, but have the advantage of getting every new variety, and their 

 reports are proving of far greater advantage than a revision of the 

 fruit list for the State at large by a vote of the Society. Mr. Wat- 

 rous, of Iowa, stated that their Legislature had appropriated $1,500 

 per annum to be devoted to experimental work under the direction 

 of the State Society; that twenty stations had already been estab- 

 lished; that scions, cuttings and roots were furnished them on con- 

 dition that accounts of the growing of them shall be kept, and 

 annual reports, containing all necessar}^ information as to soil, ex- 

 posure, protection by trees, etc., be made to the Society. These re- 

 ports will be collected and the cream of them published. It was 

 urged, by members, that no delay should be permitted in this work, 

 nor any waiting for legislative appropriations. Messrs. Hatch, 

 Adams and Hoxie were then appointed a committee to work out a 

 plan of action. 



Mr. Floyd now read a paper on " How to Propagate and Grow 

 Apple Trees," in which he censured the practice of piece-root graft- 

 ing, and claimed that the only proper way was to use a whole seedling 

 root for each graft. The essayist's arguments were sharply criticized 

 by Messrs. Kellogg, Plumb, Phoenix, Tuttle and Patten, proving that 

 the whole question is one of force only, and that the scion gives 

 character to the tree far more than the root does. 



The Committee on Awards reported; twenty-eight premiums to 

 Geo. P. Peffer, of Pewaukee ; twenty-three to Geo. Jeffery, Milwau- 

 kee ; eight to Chas. Hirschinger, Baraboo ; live to Geo. J. Kellogg, 

 Janesville ; three to Wm. Reid, North Prairie ; two to J. P. Roe, 

 Oshkosh ; and one each to Wm. Springer, Fremont, and H. F. Marsh, 

 Sun Prairie. The Committee also drew attention to some plates of 

 gnarled and knotty specimens of Willow Twig, exhibited by Mr. Kel- 

 logg, which showed the work of the apple curculio, and suggested 

 that the Society offer a premium for the most efficient method of ex- 

 terminating this pest. 



In the afternoon and evening of February 4th joint meetings 

 were held with the State Agricultural Society, in the assembly cham- 

 ber. A number of able, interesting and instructive papers were read 

 and discussed, among which were the following: "The Why and 

 What to Build, or Our Bouse and Home," by B. S. Hoxie ; "Home 

 Adornment," by Mrs. Ida E. Tilson ; "How to Educate our Girls," 

 by Mrs. Vie H. Campbell ; " Raising Seedling Strawberries," by F. 

 W. Loudon ; and an address on "The Mechanical Injury to Trees by 

 Cold," by Professor T. J. Burrill, who presented his subject without 



