88 GENERAL HISTORY. 



On Thursday morning ''Atmospheric Drainage " was considered by George 

 Parmelee, of Old .Mission, in a short paper, after which the report of the 

 committee on apples was received, showing eighty plates of this fruit on 

 exhibition, but betraying a lack of acquaintance with the society's recent 

 practice in the fact that every plate had at least one apple with some disqual- 

 ifying blemish. The committee add that their desire is to call attention to the 

 want of proper care in selecting perfect specimens for exhibition. But, as 

 nothing had been said previously to the meeting, the exhibitors naturally fol- 

 lowed the general practice. 



The committee previously appointed by the executive board, through its 

 chairman, T. T. Lyon, reported that great care is needful in the seleciion 

 and packing of fruits for so distant a market as that of Europe, and that it 

 was of the highest importance that, for success in such undertaking, there 

 be a direct steam communication from Michigan ports to that country. 



The committee on miscellaneous fruits reported an exhibit of five plates of 

 grapes and three of pears, also samples of sorghum molasses, apple butter, 

 apple jelly, boiled cider and prepared tomato. 



A seedling peach, said to have been of a rich yellow color, to have measur- 

 ed eleven and one-half inches in circumference and to ripen between Hale's 

 and Early Crawford, was shown preserved in alcohol. 



N. H. Bitely, president of the Lawton Pomological Society, presented a 

 comj^ilation of eight facts respecting the yellows, elicited during the discus- 

 sions, from which he deduces the necessity of a stringent law, applicable to 

 the whole State, and rigidly enforced, and requiring the destruction of all 

 diseased trees and fruit. 



C. D. Lawton suggested that we had evidently " reached the end of our 

 rope," so far as present knowledge of this disease is concerned, and that our 

 further hope must rest on the deductions of abstruse science (such as we have 

 since gained through the investigations of Professors Burrill, of Illinois, and 

 Arthur, of New York). 



The committee in charge of the framing of a yellows bill reported progress 

 and asked to be authorized to prepare a substitute and present the same to 

 the Legislature withour, the necessity of submitting the same to the society, 

 which was accordingly done. 



On the invitation of Pr'>fessor Bt^al, Lansing was fixed upon as the place 

 for the next meeting, and, after the adoption of the usual resolutions, the 

 society adjourned, subject to the call of the proper officers. 



The State Pomological Society determined to issue a State catalogue of 

 fruits at its meeting at South Haven, in June, 1877, and its first issue occur- 

 red in connection with its annual volume of transactions for the year 1878. 



In the catalogue the varieties are numbered at the extreme left, and also at 

 the left of the page occupied by the column of remarks, to avoid confusion in 

 tracing the connection. Synonyms are introduced in a few cases (mly, and 

 italicised. In the column devoted to descriptions, the distinguishing peculi- 

 arities uf the fruit, with its season and origin, are more or less fully given by 

 the use of abbreviations. In each of the columns headed use and value, the 

 figures 1 to 10 express the gradations of value for the purpose to which the 

 column is devited, the first two columns having reference strictly to the qual- 

 ity of the fruit separately considered, and the third to all the qualities, 

 whether of tree or fruit, that aifect the question of profitableness. Umler 

 the head of locality, a sub-column is assigned to each of the five districts 



