No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 137 



Mr. Suavely was reqnostod to cast tlui ballot of the Association 

 for the aforeiiaiiu'd candidates, and they were declared duly elected. 



After announcing the result of the election, and thanking the So- 

 ciety for the honor conferred, the President stated that the next 

 business before the Association would be the selection of a place 

 for next annual meeting. 



Mr. Creasy invited the Association to meet at Bloomsburg, and 

 promised to make special efforts to have a good meeting. It is a 

 live, enterpi'ising city, and can be reached by the Pennsylvania, 

 Philadelphia and Reading and Lackawanna Railroads. 



On motioii of Mr. INIoon, Bloomsburg, was agreed uiton by a deci- 

 sive vote. 



The following paper was tlu^n read: 



HORTICULTURE. 



W. H. STOUT, PI ve, Pa. 



It is remarkable, after devoting a lifetime to horticulture how 

 much one learns, and it is surprising how little one knows after hav- 

 ing learned so much. The allotted time of human life is too short 

 to learn more than a trifle of the mysteries of the art, and were it 

 not that we had the contributions of early investigations in various 

 countries, notably Linueus, Grey and Darwin, we would know still 

 less. The mysteries of protoplasm, the life principle of plants, the 

 color, form and flavor, are as yet imperfectly understood, and until 

 instruments of greater magnifying power than any available now 

 are devised, it remains impossible to observe the infinitesimal quan- 

 tity of the life principle of cells composing vegetation. The rapidity 

 of growth indicates the multiplication of cells, each one distinct, 

 embracing within itself a germ which, if it might be separated and 

 propagated, would reproduce a plant of the parent variety. By 

 peeling the bark from an apple tree during the season of most ac- 

 tive growth in this latitude in June, the cells composing the sap will 

 be seen to rapidly deposit on the wood and spread over the surface 

 that a film will soon be formed and the tree again covered by the 

 protecting bark, which remains **mooth for about ten years before 

 the cork or rough bark again appears on the surface. 



If we were on the summit of the Blue Ridge (Kittatinny mountain), 

 between and beyond the east branch of the Schuylkill river and the 

 Sv^'atara, we would see the second mountain to the north at about 

 the same elevation of 1,.500 feet, between which lies a valley sev- 

 eral miles wide, which forms a portion of the agricultural soil of 

 Schuylkill county. A closer examination would reveal lower ridges 

 running parallel Avith the higher mountains, sub-dividing the main 

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