STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 8^ 



Mr. G. said that he deemed it important that these cions should be 

 used to the ver^' best advantage, for from them we may hope to introduce 

 a class of good fruits of so hardy a nature as to withstand our trying 

 climate. If these cions are distributed at once among the members, it 

 is quite probable that some of the varieties, and perhaps the most 

 valuable ones, would be entirely lost, since all had not the skill or facili- 

 ties for grafting them successfully ; and since there would be but a few 

 buds of any one varietv, he thought it better that soine careful person, 

 who has young, thrifty two or three year old trees on which to graft 

 them, should be requested to take the whole lot, engraft them on such 

 trees, keeping a careful record of the varieties, and in the fall cut oft" the 

 growth, except the two buds at the base of each shoot, which will 

 amply repay him for his labor, and bring the cions thus grown to the 

 next annual meeting of this Society for distribution among its members. 

 In this way it is probable that all can recei-ve at least a moiet)' of this 

 gift. But if the few now to be received are distributed at once, they 

 must necessarily fall into the hands of a few members, and thus the 

 temptation would be oftered for monopolizing them. He, therefore, 

 oftered the following resolution, and moved its adoption by the Society: 



■ Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to select some suitable per- 

 son, whose duty it shall be to receive the cions of Russian apples sent to this Society 

 from the Commissioner of Agriculture, graft them, and furnish this Society, at its 

 next annual meeting, the product of their growth. 



The resolution was seconded. 



M. L. DuNLAP said : 



jSIr. President, I trust this resolution will not pass. This State is 

 already flooded with unreliable varieties of apples. The people of 

 Michigan liave been growing apples for many }'ears, experimenting 

 with a great variety of sorts. Now, the Rhode Island Greening, the 

 Esopus Spitzenburg, the Northern Spy, the Baldwin, and the Rox- 

 bury Russet, these four varieties are the leading commercial varieties of 

 that great apple-growing country. 



What is o«r position? The Willow twig is head and shoulders 

 above all others as a long-keeping market apple. Sops-of-wine, Porter, 

 and Rambo are among those now considered as best. Shall we now 

 disseminate four hundred more untried kinds? No. Let them go 

 into the hands of those who are willing to try them. We have 

 an Industrial University in this State, in whose Experimental Hor- 

 ticultural Department fifteen hundred varieties of apples are now 

 under cultivation. This department was created partly for this very 

 purpose of testing varieties, retaining the valuable and throwing the 

 useless or unpi-ofitable away. Let these go there, and be fiirly tried at 

 the expense of the State, and for the benefit of the ^\•hole State, if, 

 indeed, any benefit may result from them. It is doubtfid, however, if 

 more than two or three out of the whole four hundred will prove ^■alu- 

 able. We have now the Duchess of Oldenburg, the Tetofsky, and Red 

 Astrachan from that country that are valuable, and may possibly find as 

 many more. But this hope is so faint, let us not, in pursuit of it, dis- 



