292 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETT. 



OniO STATE IIORTICULTUllAL SOCIETY. 



Secretary M. B. Bateham of the Ohio Society is known everywhere as an 

 indefatigable worker, and this Society does well to continue him so long in a 

 place where his work is rendered so effective. 



In answer to our queries, Mr. Bateham says : 



You have had our reports regularly, and understand pretty well what kind 

 of workers we horticulturists of Ohio are. 



AVe receive $500 annually from the State to pay for our running expenses. 

 Our aim and Avork, you well see, are to reach and benefit the people ; awaken 

 interest in horticultural improvement ; in embellishing country homes ; in 

 l^lanting and eating good fruit; all this aside from the promotion of fruit 

 culture as a commercial pursuit. 



Our membership varies from 150 to 200 annually. We have no central 

 abiding place, but roam around the country stopping for a little while where 

 we think we can do the most good and gather the most information. We hold 

 no fair except as we individually contribute to the State Fair, our working 

 members managing the fruit department of that Fair. We have exhibitions 

 of fruits at our annual meetins^s which we endeavor to make instructive. 



Our Society has been organized thirty years. A little over half that time as 

 the ''Ohio Pomological Society," then changed to our present name. 



Our work is gradually gaining in favor with the people and our promises for 

 the future are good. 



We have six or eight county societies as auxiliaries, and these are doing good 

 work. We aim to encourage these organizations. 



The following quotation from my circular of last January, will give you an 

 idea of our special work and the way in which we try to encourage county so- 

 cieties: 



It is desired that members of the Society shall make special efforts to learn 

 more facts about the cause and prevention of grape rot — test the various meth- 

 ods that are suggested in the report and in other publications, and see if they 

 are of practical utility. Also watch for the appearance of pear blight, noting 

 all the facts, and remember, if 3'ou can, whether the leaves fell from the trees 

 prematurely last season ; see also whether the wood appears discolored when 

 cut, from the effects of the present winter. Try the effects of mulching an- 

 nually the surface of pear and plum orchards and vineyards. Try the band 

 method of trapping codling moths, and see if the expense and labor is too 

 great for advantage in orchards where hogs cannot be kept — also whether it 

 will pay better than hogs or sheep in large orchards. This season and the 

 next, try experiments to find out whether there is any practicable way of les- 

 sening the tendency of apple trees to bear fruit only in alternate years. Come 

 to the next Annual Meeting prepared to contribute something to the general 

 stock of knowledge on these important and unsettled problems. 



Eemember there is a meeting of the Society each year on Wednesday evening 

 of the week of the State Fair, which will be September 10, but the place of 

 the fair has not yet been determined. The question where the next Annual 



