22 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



must change all this without further delay, and restore to the exhausted 

 soils what we have taken away, if we wish to grow more apples. It has 

 been well demonstrated that the body of the tree is the tenderest part, and 

 so we must make it short and strong. Plant strong stocks and put on the 

 tops ourselves— stocks that will withstand the increasing severity of our 

 winters. And here again we are thieves and robbers, stealing our climate 

 and selling it to saw-mills for sake of the pennies in it. 



Mr. Brown: There are some sorts of apple that will never be of any use 

 in Michigan, no matter what stocks they are put upon. 



" What effect will loss of last year's apple crop have upon the codlin 

 moth?" asked some one. 



Mr. Garfield : Are there not enough thornapples along your streams to 

 have kept up a supply? I think enough of them will survive. 



Mr. Monroe advised everybody to b© ready to fight the moths, and not 

 to depend upon anything but spraying for their destruction. 



As the evening was so far spent, the subject of "Needed Legislation 'V 

 was postponed till morning, and the meeting adjourned till nine o'clock 

 Wednesday morning. 



Wednesday Morning Session. 



At the opening of the meeting Secretary Reid read a paper upon " Some 

 Matters of Legislation," being comments upon bills pending in the 

 Michigan legislature, and embracing drafts of bills to eradicate yellows of 

 the peach and black-knot of the plum. These were referred to a com- 

 mittee (Messrs. Morrill, Sessions, and Garfield), and were by them 

 reported back with certain changes suggested by various persons. The 

 amended bills were adopted as representing the sense of the Society as to 

 what should be done in this direction by the legislature, and copies were 

 sent to the committees on horticulture of the house. The result was the 

 consolidation of the bills into the law elsewhere printed in this volume. 



A part of Mr. Reid's paper, a portion relating to means and methods 

 for society work, is here appended: 



OBSTACLES TO THE SOCIETY'S PROGRESS. 



Another piece of legislation that concerns horticulturists is a bill intro- 

 duced by Senator Barnard, but of w^iich our Mr. Garfield is the author. 

 It appropriates $3,000 per year for the expenses of farmers' institutes, and 

 has been favorably reported from the committee. 



Perhaps it has occurred to others as well as myself, that this measure 

 afPects the interests of this society to a considerable degree. I find it 



