26 STATE rOMOLOGTCAL SOCIETY. 



making of jelly. Nothing can excel the delicacy of jelly inixdo from the finer 

 kinds of crab>:. ]iut tlic use of tiie crab apple of Avliich the speaker thought 

 the most was for ornamental purposes, on the lawn and about the house. He 

 would use the trees for single specimens and for grouping. The crab apple 

 trees arc not half appreciated as ornamental trees. Tlie foliage is beautiful 

 and add to this the rich colors of the fruit that contrasts so exquisitely with 

 the deep green leaves, and we have a combination that for effect cannot be 

 excelled. He spoke especially of the hyslop crab as being a model of beauty, 

 Avhen the fruit began to put on the rich tint indicating a ripe condition. A 

 plantation of these, ho observed, was the most beautiful of the many beautiful 

 things he saw on Traverse peninsula. 



Following Mr. Adams' remarks Prof. Beal occupied the attention of the 

 meeting for an hour, with an address on 



nORTICULTUEAL EXPERIMENTS.* 



He spoke of the necessity of more knowledge among the people that culti- 

 vate the soil. People do not even ])racticc those which they know to be the 

 best methods. Those who are interested in our agricultural colleges enough to 

 look at their work, i)ropound a great many questions in agriculture and horti- 

 culture, regardless of the fact that when they get the solutions in very many 

 instances they do not employ the results to any advantage. As an instance the 

 fact that a rotation of crops is a great improvement in agriculture was given, 

 and still men practice it only occasionally, even although tiierc is no fact more 

 settled. 



He said discoveries Avere made by men who worked to find them out, and it 

 was a rarity to stumble upon one by chance with no effort. It is with 

 difficulty that accurate experiments can be made in horticulture on account of 

 our small control over rain, sunshine, frost, etc. For instance, we may desire 

 to test the value of certain fertilizers as used upon various trees in an orchard, 

 it is the next thing to impossible to secure any two trees that are under like 

 conditions, and the fruits and growth of two trees not dealt with at all may vary 

 as much as any two treated with different fertilizers. Some call for immediate 

 results in horticultural experiments. They know nothing of the difficulties 

 that the experimenter must encounter, nor of tlie utter worthlessness of decis- 

 ions arrived at on short notice. 



A good experimenter must be honest, patient, skillful, persevering and long 

 suffering, a good observer, and know what has already been accomplished in 

 liis line. The Professor added that farmers to be successful in any line of 

 experiment must be students, and particularly in horticultural experiments, 

 must know a good deal of botany and vegetable physiology. 



A large number of subjects were suggested as proper for original work or ex- 

 periments, of which we give a few. In the mutual infiuence of stalk and scion 

 after all that is said of it, there is very little of definite knowledge, founded on 

 exact observation and experiment. If we knew exactly how far this inllucnce 

 extended it would enable us to make very many i^ractical uses of it ; for in- 

 stance, we would know if we could in our climate make the iJaldwin apple and 

 lona grape hardy enough for safety by putting them upon hardy stocks. 



*Thc fiiU text of this address may be found in the report of the State Board of Agriculture fo- 

 1876, page 200. 



