GENERAL HISTORY. 21 



cessful. The essay proceeded upon the assumption that the disease is due to 

 artificial treatment in winter storage, and proposed that a permanent seed 

 bed be maintained by heavy mulching in winter, and that seed be taken 

 therefrom in spring and immediately replanted. 



Mr. Koberts also embarked somewhat in the growing of grapes and the 

 manufacture of wine for medicinal purposes. He also did a good deal in the 

 ■culture of Spikenard (^Ira/m racemasa), for the berries. The product of 

 these he largely increased by a system of pinching, which had the effect to 

 considerably increase the number of clusters. The ripe fruit was used in 

 the manufacture of wine which attracted attention locally and received the 

 endorsement of physicians in favor of its use for medicinal purposes. 



As recently as 1848 there were very few horticultural organizations upon 

 the American continent. The only prominent ones at that time were those 

 of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. No meetings for horticultural discus- 

 sions, bringing together experts from distant localities, had been held, and 

 general knowledge of fruits and fruit culture was comparatively crude and 

 limited. 



In September, 1848, the New York State Agricultural Society's annual 

 fair was to occur at Buffalo. A convention of fruit-growers was called at 

 that city, on September 1, a few days prior to the State fair, which brought 

 together a very considerable number of the leading pomologists of the State 

 of New York, together with several from the west, among whom was A. T. 

 Prouty, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, who was one of the vice presidents. Speci- 

 mens of Michigan grown fruits attracted much attention, and in some cases 

 their identity was questioned on account of their excessive size and high 

 color. 



A simultaneous but apparently wholly independent movement had arisen 

 among eastern fruitgrowers under the auspices of the American Institute, 

 although at the call of the two horticultural societies already named, which 

 resulted in the holding of a convention in the city of New York on the 10th 

 of October, 1848, which assumed the title of the American Congress of 

 Fruit-growers. The convention included a large number of eastern pomol- 

 ogists, and was presided over by the late Marshall P. Wilder, at the time the 

 President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, who has stood so long 

 and so prominently at the head of American pomologists. 



At this meeting a special fruit committee was appointed, charged, among 

 other things, with the duty of preparing a list of fruits to be recommended 

 for general cultivation. This committee, after careful consultation, reported 

 ''that they find it impossible, in the present state of pomological informa- 

 tion to offer to the convention now assembled any extended list comprising 

 any considerable number of fruits worthy of general cultivation." The re- 

 port of this committee is believed to have been nearly, if not quite, the first 

 distinct and authoritative indication of the now well established fact that all 

 fruits are more or less locally successful, the more full realization of which 

 fact has resulted in the framing of lists for districts. States and even more 

 limited regions. 



The impolicy of continuing two distinct organizations within the same 

 territory and with the same object was at once realized, and conferences were 

 held which resulted in the consolidation of the two organizations 

 into a single body, which assumed the title of the American Pomological 

 Society, which has since come to be "known and read of all men." 



