WARSAW HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 373 



profit will most surely crown your efforts, and make your lives a 

 blessing to all around you. 



The student of nature is never a villain. All nature teaches us 

 by intuition of higher, better, and nobler things. So good a piece of 

 advice has been given to us. and so a])plical)le to the present subject, 

 by the Father of our (Jountry, that I c.mnot forego the pleasure of 

 repeating it on the present occasion: "Promote, then, as an object 

 of primary im])ortance. institutions for the general diffusion of 

 knowledge. * * Tn proportion as the structure of a government 

 gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should 

 be enlightened.'' 



OCTOBER MEETING. 



The October meeting was held in the Society Rooms, on the 

 17th, with all the othcers present. 



The reports of Standing Committees being in order. Mr. Rock- 

 well, from tliiit on vegetables, said the season had been favorable for 

 the growth of garden vegetables. He had grown and exhibited at 

 the Warsaw Fair sixty-nine varieties. 



In response to a call for a report on orchards, Mr. Hammond 

 presented the following: 



ORCHARD REPORT. 



The record of another season is nearly completed, and to the 

 great majority of fruit-growers it is extremely unsatisfactory. The 

 year IbSO was the great fruit year, and we expected that one season 

 would be recjuired to recuperate the trees after that enormous crop, 

 and were therefore not sur])rised to find our orchards bare in 1881. 

 But the failure of 1882 was unex])ected, as the trees were in good 

 condition and well supported with fruit buds, and can only be attrib- 

 uted to late spring frosts. 



After two successive failures we looked forward with the confi- 

 dent expectation of a bountiful crop in 1888. But when in Janu- 

 uary the mercury sank to Hd'^ below zero. s[)litting our trees and 

 loosening the bark, we began to have forebodings of evil. I)ut failed 

 to realize the extent of flu- injury. Tn the sjjriug nearly all our 

 orchard trees leaved out. and bloome(l to a reasoual)le extent, but 

 soon after the fornuition of the fruit it began to fall, and by mid- 

 summer many of oui- orchards were perfectly bare. AV'hen the hot 

 weather set in many of the injured trees began to show the yellow 



