SUMMER MEETING, 1879. 91 



REMEDY. 



By sprinkliiif; the buds in May Avitli Paris <:^reeii ami water, the beetles may 



. be killed and the evil nipped in the bud. Later the dust of lime or Paris 



green will kill the grubs. I should have no fear of sprinkling the vines so 



early, the green could not poison the grapes which do not ripen till September. 



Mr. S. B. Peck, one of the oldest members of the society in point of meni- 

 bersliip, and the oldest in years, presented the following essay upon 



MUSKEGOX AND THE STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Man is eminently gregarious ; to this fact he owes almost all that he knows ex- 

 cept to eat and to walk. But for this fact our forefathers might have plowed with 

 a hooked stick for hundreds of years longer than they did. To this fact man 

 owes almost all tliat he knows of the arts and sciences. Tlie very insects that 

 we combat are wiser by instinct than is man. The story of Casper Hauser, 

 whether fact or fiction, illustrates the condition of a man without associates. 

 He simply knew how to write what was supposed to be his name and to repeat 

 the only sentence he had been taught. Man is inventive and imitative. He 

 invented a rude shelter from the burning sun and from the storms. Nearly all 

 the rest that he knows of architecture has come to him from his association 

 with his fellows. The English, French and German speaking people seem 

 naturally progressive, and for the half century just past, have made greater 

 progress than ever before during their histories, but even now in the last half 

 of the nineteenth century, few go beyond the beaten track of their predeces- 

 sors. Whoever goes beyond this beaten track is sure to have a crowd of fol- 

 lowers, some to criticise and condemn, other to admire, follow and improve. 

 It is thus that we march on towards perfection. The man who does not asso- 

 ciate with his fellows and teach them somethina: and learn somethins: from 

 them is a hermit and a miser. Even two farmers who talk at each other from 

 their respective sides of their division fence, learn something from each other. 

 How much more can be learned from an assemblage like this, composed of 

 intelligent and experienced men, occupying different soils, devoted to different 

 branches of pomology and horticulture, and those other branches of science 

 connected with them (climatology, entomology, and vegetable physiologv), 

 when they meet and discuss questions of interest and relate their successes and 

 failures? I say to my friends who are in any way devoted to any branch of 

 agriculture, and who have not joined this society, you cannot afford to dispense 

 with the teachings it affords by its discussions at its meetings, and by its an- 

 nual reports, costing to 3^ou only an annual membership fee of one dollar, less 

 than half the price of any other book of equal value to you. Of the value of 

 these reports I quote from a letter from an enthusiastic pomologist, a working 

 member of the Western l^ew York Horticultural Society, a society fourteen 

 years older than ours. ''I am in possession of the two last reports of your 

 State Pomological Society, and they are certainly a credit to the intelligence 

 of your people. They contain more valuable and practical matter than any other 

 publications within my reach. I prize them very highly.'' He refers to the 

 reports of 18 To and 187G. Good and valuable as they are, they are certainly in 

 no way superior to that of 1878, now ready for distribution. 



MUSKEG02Sr AND ITS SUEKOU>'DIXGS. 



It may be expected that I or some one else will have something to say of our 

 city and its surroundings. The city has been derisively styled the Sawdust 



