172 STATE POMOLOCtICAL SOCIETY. 



on every tree I want, or set a stake by it, liow easy it will be for him to beat 

 me when he disfs the trees. A man who will cheat in this business under the 

 present condition of things will cheat were we to have all the knowledge which 

 Mr. Lyon or Mr. Stearns would like to have the buyers acquire. 



R. F. Johnstone, Detroit. — We have side-tracked our discussion; let us get 

 back on the main line. Prof. Beal's investigations are scientific; they relate 

 to the acquirement of more knowledge of fruits through their flowers, and 

 as a contribution to the science of pomology I deem his paper of vast impor- 

 tance. He has started off on a new track, and let us accept his facts as he gives 

 them to us, nothing doubting. Facts will not hurt anybody. We will certain- 

 ly get to using them by and by. 



A. G. Gulley. — Some of us have misapprehended Prof. Beal's design in his 

 paper. As I understand it, he does not wish to supplant our present means of 

 detecting varieties, but add another point to helj) out on the more difficult sorts. 

 AYe do not need this help on the ordinary, common sorts ; these we know any 

 way. But there are often cases coming up, which tax our best nomenclaturists 

 to the utmost, and if by the employment of the peculiarities of flowers we can 

 make an additional point in a sort, oftentimes the decision will be made 

 with little difficulty. 



Prof. Beal. — This is exactly what I am at. 



Mr. Lyon. — I regret tlie lack of observation and thoroughness on the part of 

 nurserymen. Growers, too, are too penurious to pay the nurseryman for the 

 extra time and trouble he may expend upon a special sort. The careful, hon- 

 est painstaking nurseryman is thus placed on the same plane with the careless, 

 thriftless, often dishonest one. 



Mr. Merriman. — Li my observations, I have noted a great difference in size 

 and form of petals, which would so complicate matters as to render a decision 

 from these impossible. 



Prof. Beal. — I do not rely upon petals so much as upon styles; and, of 

 course, the same judgment must be brought to bear in the use of these as in 

 other characteristics which we commonly employ. 



Mr. Merriman. — Will it not require a good microscope, and skilled people to 

 use it, to make this means at all available? 



Prof. Beal. — An ordinary hand glass costing from fifty cents to a dollar will 

 answer every purpose ; and as to skill in its use this is as easily acquired as 

 the use of the eye properly without it. 



J. D. Baldwin. — Prof. Beal is on the right track ; we must encourage and 

 support him in this work ; it is a new departure in a direction which I am cer- 

 tain will bring back to us good returns. 



Prof. Beal. — I must confess I am astonished that my paper should have 

 called out this discussion; I thought it would be considered a dry affair and be 

 passed over without any discussion. The way it has been taken up is an 

 encouragement to me, and I will go on and will report to you my progress from 

 time to time; but I assure you it is slow business, requiring the careful inspec- 

 tion of so many flowers to establish a fact. 



The next topic, 



GRAPE yiXE THRIPS, 



was to have been led by S. B. Peck, of Muskegon; but the illness of that 

 gentleman prevented the preparation of his essay. However, he sent a short 

 article he had recently contributed to the Michigan Farmer, which was read 

 to open the discussion. 



