STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 355 



cause decay of the fruit. While New Mexico is reported as free 

 from insect depredations or diseases affecting the fruit interest, 

 yet the March and April frosts are noted as an obstacle to fruit- 

 culture. 



Many interesting and higlily instructive suggestions are noticed in 

 the various reports of transactions and discussions of other Horti- 

 cultural societies. The veteran poinologist, William C. Strong of 

 Brighton, Mass., in an address delivered before the State Horticul- 

 tural Society, laments the " sore evil" which has afllicted every sec- 

 tion of the land in the matter of numerous varieties of inferior fruits. 

 He feelingly exclaims: "What immense injury has been done to 

 pear-culture, for example, by the dissemination of second, third 

 and fourth rate kinds which come to be onl}- a vexation and a nuisance 

 to the producer !" He makes a noteworthy confession in the declara- 

 tion that '' the nurserymen are answerable for this state of things." 

 He furthermore condemns emphaticall}', the practice of "offering 

 prizes for long lists of kinds ;" and sa3-s to the societ}', " now let us 

 publish the simple truth, that there are but few kinds worth}' of 

 general culture." In this expression of disapprobation of multiply- 

 ing inferior kinds of fruits, the speaker was joined by Hon. Mar- 

 shall P. Wilder, who said that in testing new varieties of fruits for 

 many years past, he had expended twenty or thirty thousand dollars. 

 ]Mr Wilder said, — referring to apples for exporting: " of all the 

 apples exported from Boston, ninety per cent, are Baldwins " 



The wide range of topics which are legitimate subjects of discussion 

 and properly within the sphere of labor belonging to horticultural 

 societies is worthy of the attention of this society. We find kindred 

 organizations in other States working vigorously to promote other 

 interests than those belonging merely to fruit growing. For instance, 

 the subject of arboriculture — the planting of trees in forests or 

 groves, or for the adornment of lawns, parks, streets and common 

 highways, forms a prominent theme for discussion and treatment 

 by original essays in several societies which are the largest and most 

 influential on the continent. 



The rai)id destruction of our native forests and the increasing 

 demand for timber and fuel in our country is a cause for much alarm 

 to the industrial economist, and nowhere is the subject receiving 

 more earnest attention than in the Dominion of Canada. The 

 Government, seconded by the efforts of influential local societies, 

 and by the arguments of some of the most intelligent citizens, is 



