ANNUAL MEETING AT SAGINAW. 523 



The auditing committee having compared the reports of Secretary and 

 Treasurer and examined the vouchers aud other papers, announced that 

 everything was correct. Secretary Garfield next announced that the Execu- 

 tive Board had referred the following resolution which spoke the views of the 

 board, to the meeting of the society for action: 



Resolved, That it is the judgment of this board that the society in future place all 

 rural organizations in the State on the same basis with reference to the distribution of 

 its transactions, to wit : Any such society which will f m*nish ten memberships and $10 

 therefor, with an abstract of its transactions of a horticultural character annually to 

 aid in furthering the work of the State society, shall have sent by freight a box of 40 

 volumes of the State Horticultural Reports for the current year. 



After a very full discussion the resolution was adopted with the proviso 

 that the Secretary might, in his judgment, allow a less number of reports to 

 be sent to small organizations upon the reporting of a proportionate number 

 of memberships. 



On motion, the society announced to the Beekeepers' Association that the 

 joint meeting would be turned over so far as the State Horticultural Society 

 was concerned to the officers of the Beekeepers' Association. 



Adjourned. 



Wednesday Afternoon Session. 



The joint convention was called to order at 1:30 P. M. by President George 

 E. Hilton of the Michigan Beekeepers' association, H. D. Cutting officiating 

 as secretary. 



DO BEES INJURE MATURING FRUIT? 



Was the first question discussed. A considerable testimony was taken and 

 nearly all of it was on the side of the bees. Mr. J. A Pearce of Grand Rapids 

 made a new point in their favor. He said that birds punctured a large num- 

 ber of his early grapes and the juice ran out, disfiguring the bunches, and he 

 thought they would be entirely unmarketable. But the bees came to his 

 rescue and Sucked up all the oozing juice, cleaning out the injured grapss 

 so that a slight brush would rub off the dry skins. Thus the unpunctured 

 grapes were clean and he was able to put them on the market, securing fairly 

 remunerative prices for them. 



Prof. Cook would not say that bees could not or might not puncture grapes, 

 but as yet he had found no authenticated instances. Several gentlemen s;iid 

 that bees when once finding out a hole in the epidermis of fruits would make 

 the most of it, and thus became an annoyance to the fruit growers. In answer 

 to the query: 



WHAT TREES IrE VALUABLE FOR HONEY AND ALSO USEFUL DECORATIVE PUR- 

 POSES ? 



Prof. Cook, Prof. Bailey, Mr. Root and others placed the linden or bass- 

 wood at the head of the list. Mr. Bingham said the character of this tree 

 made it suitable to plant near dwellings. 



