Discussion. 99 



Pres. Smith — The secretary informs me that he has six 

 or eight district reports on hand. It has been our custom 

 for a long time not to have them all read but to have them 

 put into the volume. We can defer them if you like and I 

 would suggest that unless there is something of special inter- 

 est in these reports that they be deferred. We have an elec- 

 tion of officers and other important business before us. 



H. C. Adams — Before taking that up I think we have a 

 little time for the discussion of this experimental work. Prof. 

 Garfield is here and I should like to hear from him and see 

 what they are doing in Michigan. 



Mr. Garfield — Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: I 

 haven't anything particular to say upon this subject, and 

 when you ask me what we have done in Michigan, I am 

 ashamed to say that our work has been somewhat imperfect 

 for lack of means. We are hoping something will come out 

 of this Hatch bill, but cannot tell. We have an agricultu- 

 ral college, and it is doing good work. When we have 

 asked Prof. Dale to experiment in matters of horticulture, 

 he has done the best he could in his locality. In the ditfer- 

 ent departments they have been ready to help us. We are in 

 hopes that we can organize in Michigan, in connection with 

 that college an experiment station, and we cannot expect the 

 best results until that station is organized. The experiments 

 that have been attempted have largely proved abortive, and 

 we have had no control over them. People get tired very 

 quickly in making experiments, and some other people get 

 results too quickly. We have failed in a great many cases 

 where we have tried. I think that experiment work done 

 by distribution of varieties, even when sent to the best men 

 we can get, without some central head to make reports 

 to, we cannot expect very good work to come of it. Wo 

 have found that fruits that do well in the southern portion 

 of the state, may not do well at all in the western or eastern 

 parts; so we need experiments to be made in different lo- 

 calities of the state so that we can get some general infor- 

 mation. The State Horticulture Society is aiming to do 

 some work of this kind. We are hoping to do some sucn 

 work as they are doing in Canada. There, in connection 



