306 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



power and improvement. "Without fruits the world would have seen noue of 

 the mighty results of civilization. 



The meeting then adjourned till nine o'clock Friday morning. 



FRIDAY MORNING SESSION. 



The meeting of the Society was called to order by Mr. "W. H. Gregory, of 

 Pine Grove. In answer to a question by the Secretary, Mr. Bidwell said he 

 understood news had just been received from the Vienna exhibition to the 

 effect that the first prize for dried fruit had been awaided to the Williams 

 Evaporating Company of South Haven. 



Mr. Thompson stated there was a general desire to hear some discussion as 

 to the manner of cultivating orchards, the treatment of trees injured by frost, 

 the best localities for planting, etc. 



Mr. Bort, of Niles, gave his experience with trees thus injured: He had 

 had orchards hurt by severe cold, as had been the case the last winter, when 

 it was impossible to tell in the spring whether the suffering trees would 

 recover. He had once tried late fall pruning to save them, but had lost every 

 tree so trimmed. He would not trim such a tree till a full flow of sap in 

 the spring, which w^ould save them if there was sufficient vitality left. 



Mr. D. P. Hanford, of Indiana, gave items of his experience with tree^ 

 injured by cold winters. In the very cold winter of 1856 he had 1.500 peach 

 trees injured — the thermometer standing at 36° — which he saved by cutting 

 off the tops of every tree, leaving only an unsightly collection of stumps. A 

 large growth of new shoots was made, and these, injured the succeeding 

 winter, were again cut back. On this growth another year gave him an excel- 

 lent crop of peaches, and for six years after, good crops were secured — four full 

 ones and two partial crops. 



Last spring he treated an orchard badly frozen the previous winter in the 

 same way, and has saved many, though some were too far gone. 



He thought it injurious to prune apple trees in the fall, or to cut back and 

 graft too much, to be followed by a very cold winter. 



Pears were not injured to a great extent last winter, and raspberi'ies were 

 saved by pruning in the spring. 



Mr. T. T. Lyon said his early experience had been limited in this matter, as 

 the trees in his section of the State — "Wayne county — had been protected by 

 the forests, as indeed they are to a less extent to this time. 



His experience had taught him, however, to take vigorous measures with 

 trees that have been seriously injured by cold. The discoloration of the bark 

 "was only the indication of injury to the tree, and if the sap vessels are too 

 much ruptured the tree will die. The only remedy, and one which will be 

 efficient if there is any vitality left in the tree, is a thorough pruning early in 

 the spring. In setting out a new orchard he would never buy trees in the 

 spring for his orchard, but a careful selection in the fall, heeling in and plant- 

 ing at the best and most convenient time the next spring, will insure lor that 

 year at least sound and vigorous trees. 



Upon the question of the height of trees, he would branch them very low — 



