PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 97 



dozen students in the agricultural department. The rest were all in the 

 literary department. Those young men were there because they were 

 determined to obtain an education along agricultural or horticultural 

 lines, and they cared nothing about the twitting. 



I remarked that I was glad to see there, at Cornell, that the agricul- 

 tural department was recognized, and he replied, " Why shouldn't it be? 

 There isn't any other department where they would be likely to be taken 

 out for a two-days junket, where they go to Rochester and take part in 

 the meetings of the society." The point I wish to emphasize is, and it 

 seemed to me a grand thing, that they were seeking to magnify the 

 horticultural and agricultural department of that institution, and in 

 line with this, it seems to me, is the fact that we ought to give more 

 attention to getting our own young people out and interested in these 

 meetings, and in the common affairs of life; not only the farm, but the 

 orchard and garden. That was a very pleasant feature of the New York 

 meeting. 



Another feature I wish to note, is the matter of exhibits. That is some- 

 thing we have frequently talked of and sought to encourage here. There 

 they had a room about half the size of this, the tables in which were filled 

 brimful of fruit. There were grapes and pears and apples; about two- 

 thirds of the room was taken up by a general exhibit; then the experi- 

 ment station at Geneva, N. Y., occupied about one third of the room, and 

 had about eighty varieties of fruit, and the pleasant feature of that was 

 their perfection — not only of form, but their entire freedom from scab or 

 worm or defect of any kind. These teach lessons, it seems to me, and 

 lessons of very great importance; and not only has the society sought 

 to encourage it, but I think it is one of the things the people ought to 

 take up locally, and at every gathering of this kind we should bring out 

 as much of an exhibit as possible because of the value of object lessons. 



In line with this was the matter of implements. There was an excel- 

 lent exhibit of pruning shears; and to show you how much the people 

 were interested, there was hardly an hour but the president had to call 

 attention to the noise that was made in those rooms where the fruit 

 exhibits and the implements were. 



One man felt that his spray pump was not satisfactory, because it had 

 ceased to work, and when he got hold of an expert it was found that 

 sediment from the lime had gathered and stopped the pump. The men 

 who manufacture these articles arrange it so that you can have some 

 one explain every part, the various uses and the various ways of keeping 

 them in motion. The perfection of the fruit from the experiment station 

 at Geneva was caused by frequent spraying, and thereby that feature 

 was emphasized. 



There is one other matter I wish to mention. There are so many things 

 connected with a society of that kind that one hardly knows what is 

 most important, but I wish to say a word or two in regard to marketing, 

 because that follows right along and becomes specially important in view 

 of the large amount of planting that is going on all over the country. 

 Along that line, I will mention briefly that it seems to me that a very 

 large increase in the use of fruit might be encouraged at home. It is a 

 fact, and I suppose has often been mentioned here, that one has to pay 

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