SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 203 



Insects are more numerous and we cannot expect as good results from old trees, 

 but when proper care is given we can do as well as ever. 



S. D. Willard: It is well known that quicklime is in no sense a manure, 

 but like salt it sets us free and makes available certain elements. With destruc- 

 tion of the forests and other causes, fungus diseases have wonderfully increas- 

 ed. The thin-skinned sorts were first to suffer. The wheat, sheep and cattle 

 that Michigan has sent to market have carried off the phosphoric acid which 

 the fruit so much needs. The needed elements have been taken from the soil. 

 Kestore these and you will again be able to grow fine apples, even of the thin- 

 skinned kind . 



Mr. Lyon controverted the claim that the climate remains the same. Sixty 

 years ago he began to grow apples and peaches in Michigan, and winter-killing 

 was unknown. This began in the fifties and has continued. We cannot 

 expect trees to maintain vigor under such circunstances, even though the soil 

 be all right. 



Prof. W. H. Kagan of DePaau university, Indiana, said similar conditions 

 of deterioration of the apple exist in that State. The Winesap, however, had 

 once lost condition and recovered it. 



Mr. Lyon said the same had occurred to the White Doyenne pear, and 

 maintained that varieties are not of themselves losing quality. 



Prof. Bailey: We have two methods of propagation — by seeds and by scions. 

 The latter will reproduce absolutely and always, but the product of seeds often 

 deteriorates, and there is a constant tendency in that direction. This is over- 

 come by cross-fertilization, which is always going on. There are many varieties 

 of greenings, because seeds of the original and some of its product have been 

 used, instead of scions, for propagation, while the Baldwin, for opposite rea- 

 sons, remains singular and pure. Then, there is tendency toward deterioration 

 in each plant. 



There is a difference in character between apples upon the upper side and those 

 beneath upon the same tree. Scions taken from underneath make variations 

 of variety but this is not deterioration. Sorts have not gone backward, but have 

 been superseded by better kinds. Beplying to a question, Prof. Bailey said it 

 was undecided as to the effect of stocks upon the fruit of scions. There is 

 often a mechanical influence, dwarfing or magnifying the growth of the scion; 

 but there are only a few cases, and they not well authenticated, of change in 

 character of fruit. 



W. H. Parmelee, of Allegan county, said he found that apples that did 

 well in Ohio 30 years ago, were not successful here; but those he found good 

 at first he was able still to grow in perfection. 



Capt. W. L. Coffinberry showed a very small apple of a kind which is 

 found growing in the forests about Burt lake, Cheboygan county. They are 

 palatable and are good cookers. Some presume them to have sprung from 

 seeds scattered by earily French voyagers. He said he saw in 1856, in James- 

 town, Ottawa county, after a winter when the mercury went to 34 degrees 

 below, a peach orchard bending under a load of fruit. 



Discussion shifted to methods of combating the codling moth. W. A. 

 Brown, of Benton Harbor, said growers in that vicinity had for three years 

 practiced spraying the apple trees with Paris green with great success. 

 Sprayed on just after the blossoms fall, the poison seems to kill off the brood 

 of moths that survives the winter. This brood is small, comparatively, 

 the main damage being done by the later hatchings. The effect has certainly 



