REPORTS OP DISTRICT AND LOCAL SOCIETIES. 563 



better to the details of their business. Those who had too many irons in 

 the fire would have some burnt. "The older I grow the >more I am con- 

 vinced that the man of one idea is the successful man." 



E. Baur supported these ideas, stating that in Germay itinerant teachers 

 (Wanderlehrer) of horticulture and agriculture were especially trained by 

 the government to give instruction in agriculture and its kindred branches 

 in the common schools, especially in the villages where the farmers and 

 fruitgrowers predominate. The tiller of the soil is the backbone of the 

 country. Let him be trained in his important calling as early as possible. 



Mr. Ganzhorn found some difficulties in specialties. We started out in 

 peach-culture. Three cold winters in succession killed most of our trees 

 and we have not recovered yet; started in grape-growing, which was inter- 

 rupted by rot and ended in failure. One who had means enough to bridge 

 over could carry out specialties." 



Mr. N. Farnum of North Bass Isle, O., was called upon. He said he 

 had been engaged in grape-growing thirty years but does not know how to 

 do it yet. 



Mr. Allmand stated that he had made a succcess of fruitgrowing in so 

 far that he could make ends meet, but he could not raise such crops as Mr. 

 Bird cited. He grew the first strawberries for the Ann Arbor market. 



Mr. Ganzhorn read a very interesting paper on pear blight, the leaf 

 blight and the fire blight. 



Quite a discussion followed, in which pear trees were named which are 

 not subject to blight and the reason why was demonstrated. Slow-growing 

 pear trees suffer least from blight. Tyson, Sterling, Seckel, exempt from 

 blight. Gifford, Bartlett, Anjou, Bosc, suffer least from blight. , Olapp's 

 Favorite, Flemish Beauty, Congress, suffer most. 



The February meeting was of unusual interest. President J. Austin 

 Scott, who had just returned from the inauguration of his son to the 

 presidency of Rutgers college, was in the chair, full of youthful vigor and 

 good-will toward every one. 



After the reading of the minutes of last meeting, a letter by C. F. 

 Parshall was read, containing a statement of expenses incurred by trans- 

 portation of berries by the Ann Arbor fruit car and a request by Mr. 

 Parshall to be relieved from the chairmanship of the committee on 

 transportation. 



Mr. J. C. Schenck was added to the committee and intrusted with the 

 charge to find out the shipments of those who shipped with th\s car. 



The corresponding secretary read a petition to the legislature \>f the state, 

 in which that honorable body was requested to enact such laws as will give 

 to the state a uniform system for the improvement of the highways, by the 

 appointment of a state commissioner of roads and bridges, isfao should be 

 an engineer, and by building of some roads between the large cities and 

 villages by general taxation or by any measure that honorable body may 

 devise. After a very animated discussion the petition was adopted and 

 signed by the officers and members of the society and other citizens. 



Mr. G. F. Allmendinger's address on adulteration of fruit products 

 received a very hearty response and a series of resolutions was adopted 

 asking the representatives and senator from this county to use their influ- 

 ence in the legislature to create a food commission, as Ohio, Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota, Iowa, and other states have done. The people of this state are 

 paying many thousands of dollars yearly for adulterated fruit products 



