WINTER MEETING, 1877. 13 



People inake great mistakes in purcliasing plants. Tlioy buy plants that are 

 in bloom, and tlie rcsnlt generally is tiiat after a few blo.'ssonis more they arc 

 done blooming for the year. It would be far better to select those that had 

 not yet come into floAver that they may have the full benefit of them. 



Mr, Garfield gave a description of 'a fern case that he had made for his Avin- 

 dow, which for a year had been a i)erfect success witli very little, care, and no 

 insect depredations. It consisted in a box the length of tiie window a foot 

 wide and live inches deep, filled with earth and covered with a framework of 

 glass, which kept in the moisture, and everything grew beautifully. To those 

 who could give but little care to plants he recommended this plan. 



Mr. Lyon said great care was required in the selection of the right plants for 

 these window cases ; that Mr. Garfield had chosen ferns and lycopods, which 

 were eminently fitted for this kind of culture. 



Prof. 13eal. — I can testify to the success of Mr. Garfield's window garden, 

 and can also testify to numbers of others that have been failures, from just the 

 want of knowledge suggested by Mr. Lyon. It requires some tact and experi- 

 ence to select the riglit kinds of plants, and have them succeed even in a 

 wardian case. 



Mr. Byron G. Stout was the next speaker, who gave an address as follows, 

 upon 



THE APPLE CROP— SHALL WE INCREASE IT AND HOW, AND WHAT 



SHALL WE DO WITH IT? 



No fruit in our temperate climate fills a more prominent place than the 

 apple. Other fruits may be more attractive, yet considered well, its uses, its 

 cajoability of preservation in its natural state, its ability to bear transportation, 

 the apple stands the first of fruits. oSTo Avondcr that according to tradition 

 Mother Eve was tempted by it, though neither theologians nor pomologists have 

 yet settled the fact whether it was a twenty ounce or a golden pippin. 



It is not my j)urpose to treat my audience as novices in fruit growing, and so 

 follow the apple through all tlie processes of seed-sowing, grafting, transplanting, 

 pruning and cultivation, but to give a few hints, the result of my own observa- 

 tion, in conjunction with well established theories upon the subject. 



To me has been assigned the duty of discussing the apple — " How to increase 

 the product." "How to save it." "How to dispose of it." "Is tlie crop 

 liable to over-production?" In considering the first question, I shall pass by 

 all consideration of expedients to increase productiveness, such as special stimu- 

 lants, root-pruning and the like, premising, however, in this connection, that 

 no tree, upon indifferent soil, can thrive without sufficient })lant-food. If our 

 soils lack lime, the means of supply are at hand. If they lack vegetable matter 

 and are too hard and compact, there are all through our State deposits of 

 muck which composted with lime and ashes afford abundance of the required 

 element. 



It is not enough, then, that we plant a tree, if leaving it unprotected, we fiud 

 it in a few years, under the action of the southwest wind, pointing, as the sail- 

 ors would say, "nor' by nor'east," and so exposing the southwest side of the 

 trunk to the action of rays of tlie sun falling vertically upon it. It is not 

 enougli that we prune or graft our trees, if through neglect, we leave suckers to 

 grow at tlie side of the graft, sapping its life and filling the center of the tree 



