370 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Wlmt is the proper method of pruning currants? 



The President: I will refer that to Mr. Thayer, if he will answer. Yon 

 have had considerable experience with currants, have you not? 



Mr. Thayer: I do not pretend to be an expert on currant-growing, but 

 I follow very much the same plan that we were given in peaches last 

 night. We keep the center of the bush trimmed, keep out the old wood, 

 keep all new wood growing, and trim out so well in the center that we get 

 suflicient sunlight. I think the principle of your peach-farming will 

 apply very nicely to currant-farming also. 



A Member: Do you shorten in? 



Mr. Thayer: I shorten in; yes, sir. I keep new wood growing all the 

 time. Fay is a complete failure in Wisconsin in all parts of which I 

 know. 



What is the cause of pear blight and what is the preventive of the same f 



The President: I think Prof. Waite of Washington has gone as far 

 into that as any man, and he has not solved the problem. Prof. Waite, 

 in a lecture, I think it was western New York two j-ears ago, went into 

 it pretty thoroughly, and he had made a discovery that he could prevent 

 the contagion of pear blight going from one tree to another so long as he 

 could keep it coated with copper sulphate, by the use of Bordeaux mix- 

 ture; but the difficulty was that the contagion took place in the blossoms 

 and at the soft terminals. He sprays everything with copper sulphate on 

 a given day, but by the next morning there are some new shoots out and 

 some new blossoms upon the tree, and they are just as open to contagion 

 as the others were, and a man would need to stand there continuously 

 with a spray pump in order to take care of the trees. That was the result 

 of his investigation. 



What is the advisability of solving cow peas the previous year to Sftting straw- 

 berries f Could they be sown early and turned under and soicn again the same 

 season ? 



Prof. Taft: You would not get much of a second crop. I would rather 

 sow, if I wanted a winter crop, either rye, which would have to be plowed 

 under early in the spring, or perhaps oats that would kill down and 

 be in good shape to turn under in the spring. Either of those. There 

 could only be one crop that amounted to anything. 



1 would like to hear named the best ten kinds of winter apple. 



The President: Mr. Sherwood, what do you find the best for your 

 business? Name the varieties in order of value to you. I suppose this 

 (juestion means from a money standpoint. 



Mr. Sherwood: I do not suppose I can name ten. I do not think the 

 ordinary Michigan orchard would warrant the setting of ten varieties; 

 I think perhaps that was the mistake with a great many of our apple 

 men. In fact, all fruit culturists set too many varieties, trying to get a 

 little of each, and I think we should confine ourselves to fewer varieties, 

 better varieties, and study the matter before we set them. From my own 

 experience I believe I would sot Greenings, Hubbardston, Northern Spy, 

 Ben Davis, Canada Red, Baldwin, and possibly Golden Russet. This 



