118 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



He told of an orchard near Memphis, Tenn., which had made the 

 owner some money, but the blight was beginning to kill the trees and 

 the owner was discouraged. A lady offered to tell him a remedy that 

 would stop the blight. He applied the remedy an^d had no more blight 

 for seven or eight years. When it began again the same remedy 

 checked it. I saw a son of this Dr. Scruggs three years ago. He 

 said he had used the same remedy with success. This Mr. Scruggs- 

 told Bishop Payne of this remedy. I saw Mrs. Payne last summer a 

 year ago. She said that the pear orchard in Mississippi, to which thi» 

 remedy was applied in 1872, was still alive and bearing regularly every 

 year. Three years ago I was at the house of Dr. Barrett, of Spriog- 

 field. The pear-trees in his yard had the blight. We applied the 

 remedy to two of them. These two trees are now in perfect health, 

 and the dead limbs have sloughed off. The tree in which we did not 

 insert the remedy died. We tried it last year and on different trees^ 

 this year. It has been successful in every instance, in either old trees. 

 or young. I have been afraid to speak of this thing till I gave it a- 

 thorough trial. Some parties told me I could patent it and make a. 

 fortune. I told him I believed I could do more good by coming here 

 and giving the remedy to this Society. 



The remedy is calomel, a mercurial preparation well known, much 

 used, and much abased by the medical profession. It is a powerful 

 remedy. It is applied by cutting across the trunk of the tree, raising 

 the edges of the bark, inserting about ten grains of the calomel, and 

 then binding up the wound. The sap takes up the calomel and carries 

 it into the general circulation of the tree. It must be applied while 

 the sap is circulating. I am convinced of its etBcacy, and I think if 

 you will experiment in a like manner, you will have favorable results. 

 I will be glad to furnish the napes of those who have tried this rem- 

 edy successfully for 22 years. I hope we will be able to overcome this- 

 great drawback to the culture of the pear. It makes no difference on 

 which side of the tree or at what stage of the moon you insert the 

 calomel. 



WORK OF OUR EXPERIMENT STATION. 



Prof. J. W. Keffer — I will talk to you in a free way instead of read- 

 ing a paper on the work of the Station at Columbia. I will refer only 

 to the Horticultural department. The lines of work are so varied, and 

 the opportunity for work is so great, that no man can go amiss. 



I came to the Station only last January ; I came from North 

 Dakota, a very widely different country from this, as you know ; I 

 think I ought to go extremely slow ; I am carrying out lines of work 



