WESTERN NEW YORK HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 399 



There was a good utfceii dance of horticulturists from the different nursery 

 and frait centers of New York, — Lockport, Rochester, Geneva, and Syracuse ; 

 those eminent, reliable pomologists, Charles Downing and John J. Thomas, 

 together with noted pomologists representing State and local societies, as fol- 

 lows: T. T. Lyons and Mr. Law, of South Haven Pomological Society, Michi- 

 gan ; Dr. J. W. Dunham and Mr. Harrison, Ohio, and Dr. D. W. Beadle, and 

 George Leslie, Jr., Ontario. 



The first subject for discussion, namely, that referring to the causes of the 



DECLIXE OF VAEIETIES, 



was taken up. The President, in announcing the topic, and by way of illus- 

 trating its purpose, said we know the Virgalieu pear was a variety which had 

 declined at the seaboard twenty years ago, was now a total failure here, and 

 still prospered at the West. The decline of varieties was attributed to various 

 causes. Some claim, as was maintained in a paper read before the American 

 Institute Farmers' Club, that it was due to a long course of p)ropagation by 

 grafting and budding; others said the cause was iu the soil, or in a change of 

 climate. It was therefore a subject capable of discussion. 



Mr. Thomas was called upon for an opinion, and began by saying that the 

 pear referred to had proved productive in some localities and not in others, 

 during the same years. Last year he had taken specimens of the Virgalieu 

 from one tree which Avere sound and handsome. He believed it w^as nseless 

 to attempt a discovery of the reasons v/hy varieties declined, if they did decline, 

 and thought the question really was whether our fruits generally were as good 

 now as when the country was new. His own opinion was that no deteriora- 

 tion had taken place, but that our tastes had become more refined and critical. 

 Those who maintained the opposite Avere misled by their imagination. The 

 cause of their preference was the same as that which led to the praises 

 bestowed npon a variety of wild grape from the Rocky Mountains, which had 

 been transplanted in Col. Carr's garden, Philadelphia. The men who first 

 tasted these grapes had just crossed the plains, and no wonder they went into 

 ecstacies over the first they had tasted for months. He himself never tasted 

 more austere or repulsive fruit than these very grapes. There might, however, 

 be a deterioration in fruit because the soil had been allowed to deteriorate. 

 Heavy soils had settled three inches or more, and vegetable matters had passed 

 out, leaving the residue compact, — a hinderance which underdrainage would 

 remove. Another cause of trouble was the increase of insects, for which our 

 orchards had offered tempting food. We had invited them in by the increase 

 of fruit culture, and mubt noAv fight them as best we may. 



Mr. Lyon, of Michigan, said the Virgalieu was still successful there. It 

 cracked slightly, however, and was not so popular as some other varieties. 

 There was already a slight indication of that decline which the variety had so 

 fatally experienced at tlie East. 



Mr. Hayward thought the Virgalieu was improving here. This year the 

 variety had been perfect, whether Irom dwarf or standard trees. 



Mr. FoAvler knew a tract, only two miles from Rochester, where the Virga- 

 lieu had never failed from scab till two seasons since. He had thought at first 

 that this was because the orchard was on the east side of a hill and therefore 

 sheltered. But as the crop had failed year before last, the reasoning fell to the 

 ground. This season the iruit had again proved sound. 



Mr. Crane thought the scab which had spoiled the Virgalieu was, like the 

 fire-blight, periodic. Both were due to atmospheric causes. 



