WINTER MEETING. 423 



Prof. Bailey: Want of care I think is the key-note to the deterioration. I 

 am not quite in sympatliy with the expectation of reaping a rich harvest by 

 crossing varieties to secure liardiness. It is a good thing to experiment on, 

 but results are slow. We have not so very many tender sorts after all. We 

 should plant more sorts. The man who plants 99 per cent Baldwins because 

 it is a good market apple will wake up some morning and fiad he is without 

 an orchard, because the Baldwin is one of the few tender sorts. We can, by 

 trying a large number of the 300 sorts grown in Michigan, get results 25 

 years quicker than by crossing to secure liardiness. 



President Lyon next gave the following paper on the 



HISTORY OF OUR HORTICULTURAL PROGRESS AS AFFECTED BY THE 

 STATE SOCIETY AND ITS BRANCHES. 



Efforts had been made to organize and maintain horticultural societies in 

 Michigan, though with but transient success, prior to the birth of this soci- 

 ety in 1871. People (and horticulturists in common with others) seem to be 

 constituted very much like the farmer's matched team, one of which was will- 

 'ing to do all the work and the other entirely willing that he should do so; 

 but when treated to a feed of grain the latter never failed to do his full duty. 



The unwritten history of Michigan horticultural associated effort is replete 

 "with illustrations of this tendency, since the meetings of the society are largely 

 attended by persons who do not hesitate to participate in its exercises and 

 exhibitions, compete for its premiums, and otherwise avail themselves of the 

 full benefits of the organization, while neglecting to contribute even the value 

 ■of a membership fee toward the unavoidable expense of conducting its 

 operations. 



The advent of our present State Horticultural Society chanced upon a time 

 when, in response to the growth of the markets of the west, the peculiar 

 advantages of the western shore had come to be dimly comprehended, and a 

 vigorous '^skirmish line " of commercial horticulturists had entered upon 

 the borders of the tempting field. 



Almost from the outset the necessity of co-operation became obvious, and 

 the pecuniary consideration sufficed to accomplish what a fondness for the 

 refining and elevating influences of horticultural pursuits had failed to do. 

 The infant society was also fortunate in being able to enlist a man as its first 

 president — J. B. Thompson — who, whatever his failings may have been in 

 other respects, was eminently successful in imbuing those with whom became 

 in contact with his own enthusiasm — with results only accomplished under 

 the impulse of a self-abnegation as rare as it is praiseworthy. 



Much as has been accomplished under the seg'is commercial horticulture, it 

 can hardly be said to be an unmixed good. Not only has the pecuniary 

 instinct which underlies it, in very many cases, crushed out the old-time gen- 

 ial courtesy of the genus horticulturist, and inbued its devotees with the sharp 

 practices and other money-grabbing tendencies of the marts of trade ; but too 

 many have been drawn into the practice of the varied frauds intended to give 

 their wares a seeming, rather than a real value, at the same time acting out 

 the practice of the average farmer of our country by drawing upon their lands 

 without commensurate return, thus entailing sterility under the hands of 

 subsequent possessors, if not, perchance, even upon themselves. 



Again, commercial considerations too often so possess the minds of those 



