348 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



from a Kalamazoo paper says : " The display of fruit was large and most 

 beautiful, one of the finest ever made in this State. Indeed, we are assured 

 that, for excellence, beauty, and variety, this collection surpassed the exhibit 

 of the New York State Horticultural Society, made at Eochester last winter, 

 said to have been one of the best ever made in that State. Over one hundred 

 different varieties of winter apples, raised in this State, were here exhibited, 

 arranged tastefully on plates spread upon a double row of tables, showing all 

 varieties of size, flavor and color, from the monstrous Pippin down to the rusty 

 Pomme Gris, or the sprightly, blushing Lady apple." 



At 3 P. M. the meeting was called to order by the President. The Secretary 

 being absent, Mr. T. T. Lyon, of Plymouth, was elected Secretary j^ro tern. 



The following ofiBcers were elected for the ensuing year : 



Preside7it — H. G. Wells, of Kalamazoo. 



Vice Presidents — E. T. Graves, of Battle Creek ; B. W. Steers, of Adrian. 



Secretary — T. T. Lyon, of Plymouth. 



Treasurer — Stephen S. Cobb, of Kalamazoo. 



The Society continued in session three days, during which time considerable 

 business was transacted. The President delivered an address upon the subject 

 <)f horticulture; several committees were appointed to report npon various 

 subjects connected with horticulture ; reports that were made by these com- 

 mittees were discussed ; a list of apples was recommended for general cultiva- 

 tion ; a list was made of apples that promise well, and a list that was, in the 

 opinion of the Society, unworthy of cultivation. 



Contributors of fruit were, A. C. Hubbard, Detroit; Jeremiah Standard, 

 Ionia; Samuel Johnson, Kalamazoo; J. T. "Wilson, Jackson; D. McKee, W. 

 Taylor, E. Merril, Geo. D. Eice, S. S. Cobb, and A. Buell, of Kalamazoo ; 

 Joshua Clemens, Leoni ; B. Hathaway, Little Prairie Eonde, and T. T. Lyon, 

 Plymouth. 



This Society held an exhibition in Detroit on the 30th of June and 1st of 

 July, 1851, The specimens of horticultural products exhibited were excellent, 

 but not so abundant as the officers of the Society had reason to expect, conse- 

 quently there were but few visitors. The exhibition seems to have been almost 

 an entire failure with regard to the number of articles exhibited, and the 

 number of visitors in attendance. 



I think this was the last efibrt the Society made to hold an exhibition of 

 horticultural products, or a meeting of any kind. It went the way of all the 

 rest, — died out. 



In those early days of which I have spoken, we had no trouble in ripening 

 peaches and plums in Detroit; but the subsequent cold winters, and the cur- 

 culio, have wrought somewhat of a change in that regard. Peach trees grow 

 stronger, and I think they are more healthy and longer lived, grown in a 

 heavy, strong soil like that of Detroit, than in light soils. I have never seen a 

 ■ case of the Yellows there; sometimes, in a cold, wet, backward spring, the 

 leaves curl and fall oflF, but the trees soon recover from this. 



The borer is not so fond of working in peach trees grown on a heavy soil, as 

 they are in trees grown on a light soil. 



I have now spoken of some of the fruit trees of olden times, and of associa- 

 tions that have had their day and retired from the field. The new Pomologi- 

 cal Association you now have before you : it is not only new, but it is strong, 

 active, and energetic. You and I are part and parcel of it. I hope it will 

 -be well sustained, so that it may accomplish the good it seeks to do. 



J. C. HOLMES. 



