74 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



a fine opportunity to visit and become acquainted with each other. The 

 last day an elaborate lunch was prepared at the hall by the ladies, and 

 furnished occasion for a good deal of pleasantry. 



The Michigan delegates were associated with Prof. Jarvis Troop of 

 Purdue University as a committtee to make the awards. I was delighted 

 with the completeness of the arrangements for the committee work. The 

 secretray furnished the committee with an efficient clerk, Mr. Ernest 

 Welch, who knew just what to do to expedite our work. With his list of 

 entries and his knowledge of the position of each exhibit, we were 

 enabled to make all the awards in twenty or more classes in less than an 

 hour. I mention this matter because it is quite customary for all our 

 state societies to utilize the visiting delegates for work of this character, 

 and to have the details well looked after takes the drudgery all out of 

 the labor and does not draw too largely upon the time of the visiting 

 friends. 



There were some varieties of apple shown, not common with us; and 

 others, that we consider of little value, were quite prominent in the com- 

 petitive exhibits. The Golden Sweet was used in nearly all the collec- 

 tions and was even on the list of entries for "the best single plate of 

 apples." The first and second awards in this class went to Chenango and 

 Hubbardston. The committee was quite amused to learn, after deciding 

 with unanimity upon the best basket of potatoes, that upon turning out 

 the tubers small and inferior ones were found hidden in the bottom of the 

 basket, and the report had to be amended. 



A very fine display of cut flowers ornamented the hall, and the general 

 exhibit of vegetables covered a wide range of varieties. 



There were no long papers nor tiresome speeches, and the discussions 

 were prompt and entertaining. One of the most entertaining papers, to 

 me, was contributed by a very elderly gentleman, J. W. Swaim of South 

 Bend, on ''Our Wild Flowers." It showed a keen observation among 

 our beautiful wildlings, and a zest connected with hunting them in their 

 native haunts that was refreshing. 



An unique address was given at just the close of the convention by 

 Isham Sedgwick of Richmond, who is engaged in growing coffee in Cen- 

 tral America. The capital descriptions of the habits of the coffee tree, 

 the character of the fruit, and the details of the manufacture of the seeds 

 into merchantable coffee, were all wonderfully instructive and delight- 

 fully entertaining. 



Mr. Kellogg, my associate, read a very attractive paper on "Improved 

 Management of Small Fruit," which brought about him many querists at 

 the close of the session who were loth to let him go. His address was 

 replete with valuable instruction concerning the conservation of the 

 vitality of plants by restricting the exhaustive process of shedding pollen 

 and forming seeds. He urged upon the audience the importance of thor- 

 ough and continued cultivation, as a method of circumventing drouth, 

 and emphasized the importance of shallow culture to produce and main- 

 tain an earth mulch which would prevent a waste by evaporation of the 

 soil moisture. 



Mr. J. C. Grossman of Wolcottville gave figures to show the income 

 from an acre of strawberries which were very alluring. We who listened 

 did not for a moment doubt his facts, but recalled some other acres of 



