234 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



sometimes exceedingly difficult to detect which is spurious and which "s 

 genuine, or if either is genuine. 



As an illustration, by accident rather than by intention I planted four 

 trees, instead of the usual two, under the name "Muir," two received from 

 one source and two from another. One of the varieties under that name 

 proves to be a very small, indifferent fruit; the other a large, very fine, 

 and promising fruit. Which is the correct one we can only infer because 

 one is better than the other. 



This is only one case. A great many similar ones occur. Two trees, 

 planted as the same, have proved one good and the other poor; one of one 

 class of flower, another of a different class, showing that they are either 

 partially seedlings, or that there is a mixture of varieties. 



These are some of the difficulties we have to contend with in testing 

 the varieties, for the reason that our books on pomology are all of them 

 more or less stale. Downing's last edition of "Fruit and Fruit Trees in 

 America" must be now about twenty years old. The consequence is that 

 it is only the older varieties found there described, and that is true to a 

 greater or less extent with all books on the subject, except possibly one 

 or two small ones of recent date. So there are some pretty serious diffi- 

 culties in the way of arriving at a certainty in regard to a great many 

 varieties. 



In making these descriptions we have found this difficulty, that any- 

 thing like an expression of size is hardly more than a guess. We speak 

 of two apples, if you please. One of them is large, another is small, and 

 another is medium, perhaps, and the consequence is that we are quite at 

 sea. There are hardly two persons that would call an apple "large" of 

 the same size. Some would call it medium, and some small; so there is a 

 great degree of uncertainty when expressed by the ordinary pomological 

 programme. 



For the purpose of avoiding that difficulty, and arriving at something 

 more accurate, a couple of years ago the Division of Pomology proposed 

 to adopt what they called the displacement of water as a means of meas- 

 uring the actual capacity of each variety. Of course, that would require 

 the use of a graduated vessel in which the fruit could be immersed in 

 water, and the difference in its level represented by the graduation ; but 

 the difficulty with this is that few of us will be likely to have such a grad- 

 uated vessel ready for use, whenever we wish to determine the size of the 

 variety. There are other difficulties and objections. Some have large, 

 open cores, and the size includes that core, which is worthless, and some 

 apples, on the other hand, and different classes of fruit, are dry, light, 

 and spongy, and comparatively worthless when reckoned by size. 



It is proposed then, with the concurrence of Prof. Taft, who is really 

 in charge of the station, and we have adopted the process of weighing, 

 taking an average specimen of a variety as nearly as we could arrive at it, 

 and noting the number of ounces or fractional part of an ounce; or, with 

 cherries, the number required to make an ounce, and then determining 

 the value, comparatively, by weighing, and with the idea of, ultimately, 

 if accepted by the public, dispensing entirely with the idea of size, and 

 substituting weight. But enough of this. 



In the first variety of tree fruits ripening, the cherry, there are quite a 

 number of trees obtained from Iowa which form a part of the importation 

 made by the Iowa Agricultural college from Russia. These have now 



