120 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



certain crosses, and what traces of the parents are found in the seed- 

 lings. 



The question we have long desired answered, and the one Prof. 

 Clark was experimenting upon, was : Can you breed for certain results *? 

 and if so, how can it be done ? 



We hope Prof. Keffer will not lose sight of this question, and that 

 he will watch closely the seedlings now on hand with these questions 

 always before him. 



Mr. Speer — The State of Illinois has district Experiment Stations, 

 where new plants are sent for trial and distribution. They have three 

 central stations, northern, central and southern, but I believe they have 

 a number of auxiliary stations. It seems to me we should have some- 

 thing of this kind. Send nuw plants that promise to be valuable to 

 each of these stations, so they can have more than a local test. 



J. C. Evans — The understanding between the State Society and 

 Prof. Clark was that we hoped to arrange it so that we should have 

 these stations in five or six different parts of the State, and it is a 

 shame it is not done. 



Mr. Barker — These experiments should be made under the Hatch 

 bill. They may run through many years, and be beyond the time and 

 means of individuals. "Why not make every school in the country an 

 experiment station 1 America is the only coujitry in the world that 

 does not teach its young people technical studies. 



N. F. Murray — I agree with our President in regard to the straw- 

 berries shown at Chillicothe. I was very much pleased with them. It 

 may be true that nurserymen and others are giving much time and 

 work to this subject, but it would be better for the stations to do the 

 work. They would be more likely to give us impartial opinions as to 

 the merits of their new kinds. As to the berries in question, the fruit 

 may not be superior to the old kinds, but the foliage may be superior, 

 more able to resist fungi, insects, wet and dry weather. I hope the 

 time will come when the elementary principles of horticulture will be 

 taught in the schools of our land. 



L. A. Goodman — I don't want to be one of those gray-haired men 

 who go to school and learn nothing. You and I don't want to stop 

 where we are ; we have something to do. There is no reason in the 

 world why we may not breed a certain line of apples which may be 

 much more hardy than any we now have. Some peaches are hardier 

 than others, which shows we may grow a hardier strain than we now 

 have. Our fruit-growers have made suggestions of lines of work they 

 would like to see carried on, and we can but just get one thing started, 

 when lo, it stops. 



