U. S. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 437 



to those of new varieties held under a registered trade mark, in order to disseminate 

 them without liability of legal proceedings. The originator of a new and valuable fruit 

 should receive a just remuneration for the years of care and labor required for its pro- 

 duction. But by applying for a ' 'trade mark " or " registered label " he does not always 

 retain a monopoly of the variety. This arises from the utter impossibility of indelibly 

 impressing such a mark upon anything but an inert manufactured article. The 

 "registered label" plan induces fraud and adds to the confusion of our nomenclature. 

 There are doubtless other methods to secure remuneration to the originator of a new 

 fruit which would be more effectual. 



The various Japanese fruits imported by California firms are adding a most confusing 

 and perplexing nomenclature. Local names, usually without significance, or misspelled 

 because of the difficulty of writing in English characters sounds which to any but 

 Japanese ears are mere murmurs, have increased this perplexity. Many new Japanese 

 fruits have proved of great value in several sections of the United States, but the 

 difficulty in arriving at a correct nomenclature has caused inferior sorts to be cultivated 

 and entailed failure, when better sorts offered under similar names would have yielded 

 abundant returns. This subject, I trust, will meet your careful consideration during 

 the session. 



Scientific Pomology. 



In a paper on " The Possibility of Originating a Class of Pear Trees- 

 Exempt from Blight." Prof. T. J. Burrill of Illinois stated that in his 

 opinion such a class of trees can be developed. He mentioned Tyson, 

 Seckel, and Angouleme as varieties comparatively free from blight, and 

 advocated the growing of seedlings from them in order to secure blight- 

 proof pear trees which will furnish fruit of good quality. 



Mr. E. F. Smith presented tables showing results of a three years' test 

 of various fertilizers that have been recommended as preventives of peach 

 yellows. His conclusion is that a practical test on a large scale, covering 

 a period of three years, and in one of the best possible localities for such 

 a test, has shown that chemical fertilizers (including the mixture recom- 

 mended by Goessman and Penhallow) are practically worthless as a rem- 

 edy for peach yellows, and has also shown that they have no efficacy even 

 as a preventive. 



Prof. B. T. Galloway briefly outlined the methods pursued in investi- 

 gating plant diseases and the results accomplished during the past few 

 years. He described the approved forms of apparatus for applying the 

 fungicides used to prevent pear leaf blight and apple scab, and emphasized 

 the importance of the subject to the fruitgrower. He estimated the dam- 

 age to the apple crop in 1890, by scab alone, to be $6,000,000, and said that 

 the total damage to the fruit crop of the country by such diseases as blight, 

 mildew, leaf-blight, rot, and yellows is not less than $50,000,000 annually. 

 In the investigations " a great many difficulties have been encountered, 

 and while some have been overcome, others remain to be mastered." 



Dr. C. V. Riley presented an instructive paper on " Recent Advances in 

 Dealing with Insects Affecting Fruits." In this he discussed the methods 

 of combating the plum curculio, codlin moth, red scale, fluted scale, and 

 other injurious insects, giving the result of recent experiments on those 

 insects. Contrary to the expressed opinions of many horticulturists, Dr. 

 Riley questions whether more injury is done to-day to our fruits than was 

 done fifty or one hundred years ago. In fact, it is patent that with the 

 advances made of late years in our methods of warfare against these frftit 

 pests, less injury relatively is done, but as the area of fruit culture 

 increases, so does the aggregate of injury and also the number of species 

 that we have to contend with. He warned pomologists to be on their 

 guard against two foreign insects likely soon to appear in this country — 



