REPORT OF [MEETINGS. 557 



WEDNESDAY EVENING. 



The hall was crowded with a brilliant assemblage of ladies and gentlemen. 

 The Rev. Dr. ]\Iattoou, of Monroe, made a short, eloquent and humorous ad- 

 dress, "Pomology in the Line of Civilization," after which president Parmelee 

 read a paper on the connection of Pomology with Meteorology. This paper 

 was one showing great observation and a power of deduction. 



The Hon. Edward Willets gave a very interesting history of the old pear 

 trees of Monroe, showing that they were descendants of the old French pear 

 trees originally grown on the banks of the Detroit river, and they were taken 

 to Monroe by the grandson of an old French soldier and Colonel, named Fran- 

 cois Navarre in 1805. The sketch given by Mr. Willets was listened to with 

 intense pleasure. 



The session closed with very fine music. 



THURSDAY MORNING. 



John Suttle, of Grand Rapids, proposed an amendment to the constitution 

 of the society, "That hereafter the annual elections should be held at the time 

 of the annual State fair." The proposition lies over to the next meeting under 

 the rnles. 



THE ENGLISH SPARROW. 



After the assembling of the convention. Secretary Thompson introduced the 

 subject of English sparrows, saying he had been visiting in Springfield, Massa- 

 chusetts, where the sparrow had driven away the doves, and it was said they 

 would drive away other birds. He called on Mayor Redfield for his observa- 

 tions. Mr. Redfield had observed the sparrow and its habits considerably, and 

 had never seen them disturb other birds. They were effective in destroying 

 insects, but he had never seen them attack fruit. 



Mr. Leo. Weltz, of Ohio, had known the sparrow from a boy, and gave his 

 testimony that he was a great destroyer of cherries and of grains. 



Mr. Bateham, of Ohio, also testified against the sparrow, as a destroyer of 

 berries, cherries, and grain. 



Mr. G. F. Newton, of Ohio, and also Messrs. Weier and Doyle, of Monroe, 

 sj^oke in favor of the sparrows, and believed they would not attack either fruit 

 or grain until they had cleaned out the insects, and thought there was room 

 enough for them and the other birds. 



It was stated that Mr. Geo. S. Cowan is the man that first introduced the 

 sparrows to Monroe. He was the first to talk about it, and made the order for 

 the first sparrows that ever eame to Monroe ; and E. S. Sill paid 85 50 and J. 

 M. Sterling paid the same amount for said sparrows. Mr. Sterling said he 

 was induced to send for the sparrows by action of the Society. He was a little 

 surprised to see the Society "go back" on the sparrow. There are several 

 thousand of them in Monroe, and the general testimony of the citizens of that 

 place seemed to be in favor of the noisy, chattering, pugnacious, restless sparrows. 



Those who spoke against the sparrows seemed to gather their ideas from what 



