SS6 ANNUAL. REP'ORT OF THE Off. t>oC. 



number of each method was taken up, calipered, measured as to height, 

 and root development compared. No perceptible difference in the 

 different methods could be discovered. 



The second season all the trees were cultivated alike and at its 

 end the trees were subjected to the same test as the former years, 

 with no perceptible difference of growth in either method. A com- 

 plete set of these varieties, grafted by the three different methods 

 was sent to the Experiment Stations of all the apple-growing states 

 with the request that they be planted, cultivated in similar manner 

 and to carefully note; difference of growth, vitality, time of fruitage 

 and productiveness. 



Of course years will be required to answer all of these questions 

 in such a manner as to benefit the nurseryman and orchardist. 



Mr. H. C. Suavely, whom I had the pleasure of meeting here this 

 afternoon, succeeded Mr. Cooper, and served during 1889 and 1890. 

 He is one of the most successful growers of small fruits and peaches 

 in this section of the State. 



Next come Mr. Moon, and there is no slander in saying that in 

 appearance and in fact, he was a full moon, 



I again was honored by election to the presidency from 1897 to 

 1899, and 1900 to 1904, H. A. Chase, of Philadelphia, served as 

 president — one of the most successful orchardists in the State of 

 Pennsylvania. From 1901 to 1908 your most worthy chairman has 

 filled this position. I have not only known him as president of this 

 society, but it has been my pleasure to have been with him at 

 Farmers' Institutes, and he has been an honorable and faithful laborer 

 in that capacity. 



This is the brief list of the gentlemen who have served as president. 

 We have, however, with us this evening, a gentleman who for many 

 years acted as treasurer — Mr. J. Hibbard Bartram, whom I have 

 not seen for many years. 



Of the members who have died, there is one who was to me as 

 a brother — Hiram Engle of Marietta. Now, of these soldiers who 

 have died, I wish I had the time to make up a list. Standing at 

 the head of the list was that honorable, upright, genial man, Brother 

 Sisson, whose heart was so pure and whose hands so clean that he 

 could stand up and tell a story for which I would have been hissed 

 from off the platform, and whom the State honored by having his 

 portrait in one of its reports. I was with him at Somerset when 

 he met with his accident. I was at another hotel, but I went to 

 see him, and he said to me, '^Brother Heiges, I have fought a good 

 fight, and my time has come." I have come here for the purpose 

 of telling his story and that of the other leaders, to these younger 

 members of this society, on whom will soon fall the burden of leader- 

 ship, so that they may know what the old soldiers have done. 



One of the first members from my own county was Jacob Cocklin, 

 a noble, honorable gentleman ; his son is here to-day. Then there 

 was the Hon. Gerard C. Brown ; and another known to the older 

 members of this Society — Peter Lint, who surprised us by always 

 having a basket of fine Maiden Blush ap])les on exhibition in Jan- 

 uary — fine and firm, and free from specks. He called upon me a 

 few months before his death. He said. "I will never meet the Penn- 

 sylvania Fruit Growers' Society again, so I'll tell you the secret of 

 the Maiden Blush apples; I always selected the largest, and finest 



