STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 115 



THIRD DAY — AFTERNOON SESSION. 



II. D. Emery, from the Committee Ad Interim made the following 



report : 



As a member of the Ad Interim Committee, my engagements have heen such that it 

 has been Impossible for iuc to meet with the committee in the most of their visits, and 

 only to make a part of the visits assigned to the sub-committee of the northern part of 

 the State. Rather than give in detail my observations, I shall confine myself to a few 

 remarks on general observations. 



GRAPE GROWING. 



The breadth of land planted in grapes has rapidly increased, especially in the north 

 portion of the State. The Concord largely predominating. The results have in the 

 main been satisfactory, especially with the Concord in the northern section of the State, 

 although some vineyards of Concords that bore fully in 1867, have given indifferent crops 

 in 1868. There has been a disposition shown to try the newer varieties, some of them 

 giving much promise. The Ives' Seedlings and Iona especially, have attracted much at- 

 tention, and been widely disseminated. The Delaware has grown in favor with many, 

 and its superior table quality is creating a demand for it in our markets, at remunerative 

 prices. There has been but little complaint in the northern counties, of disease either 

 in fruit or vine, with the exception of mildew which attacked Delawares in a few loca- 

 tions after the fruit was well advanced. In the southern part of the State, considerable 

 complaint was made of rot in the Concord, to an extent heretofore unknown, at some 

 points estimated to reach fully fifty per cent of the crop. 



APPLES. 



The acreage in apple orchards in the whole State is rapidly increasing, and with such 

 varieties 08 are proving most profitable. The crop of fruit for 1868 has been very light, 

 and generally of indifferent quality ; the Codling moth having injured much of it. The 

 finest show of apples that I have seen the past season, were grown in north-western Mis- 

 souri, and embraced some over two hundred varieties of very fine, and good sized fruit. 

 These were shown at the St. Louis Fair, in October, and all came from Buchanan County, 

 near St. Joseph. 



PEARS. 



Notwithstanding the great drawback that the culture of the pear has received from 

 the blight, there have been some whose confidence in the future of the business has led 

 them go quite largely into the planting of this fruit. No new light has been thrown on 

 the blight subject, during the year, but some most satisfactory and practical results have 

 followed judicious and thorough root pruning, as has been so often explained to this so- 

 ciety, as adoptod by Dr. Hull. Probably the largest experiment In pear culture in the 



west, has 1 n commenced at South Pass, where Messrs. Piatt, Earle & Co., have out 



some eighteen thousand trees, from one to three years planted. The trees have made 

 a most satisfactory and rapid growth, and give general promise of health ; during the 



