12 STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



expect with any degree of certainty to liave so long a period favorable to fruit- 

 growing as we have had for the past five years. To guard against such winters 

 as we had in '74 and '75 and the one we have just passed through, we must 

 put out hardy plants and trees. From my experience, where the location is 

 favorable, I believe we can get nearly every season a good crop of Snyder or 

 Taylor's Prolific blackberries, also of Cuthbert, Gregg, and Henrietta raspber- 

 ries; and as to peaches, the possibilities of Hill's Chili are entirely unknown 

 to us. If we can get a fair crop of them from budded trees after passing 

 through such a winter as the past, what may we not expect with this reproduc- 

 ing variety, when we run it through eight or ten generations of seedlings, 

 rendering it, as we might expect, more hardy than it now is? I have thrown 

 up mv commission as a prophet, but will venture to say that if this thing is 

 looked after as it ought to be, our children may hear of good peaches being 

 grown in northern Minnesota. Yours truly, 



J. D. BALDWIN". 



FROM HENRY HOLT, OF KENT COUNTY. 



I am now ni Lowell, Massachusetts, and have been in New England since 

 April first, and shall not be liable to get home in time for your June conven- 

 tion. I have noted some things which may be of interest to the Society. The 

 canker worm is here, and they tell me it remains several years, then disappears 

 for a time. When doing their best the fruit trees are all denuded. Tiie reme- 

 dy is a paper band a foot wide smeared with printers' ink. 



I was surprised in eastern Connecticut to see peaches that have stood perhaps 

 100 years still vigorous and blossoming with no sign of blight ; and old apple 

 orchards that flourished in my boyhood days now standing in the woods covered 

 with moss, but still struggling for life and blossoming some. 



The pear crop through Rhode Island, about Providence and so on to Boston 

 and Lowell, is very promising, but the apple crop is expected to be small, 

 it being what they call the odd year. They inquire whether this cannot be 

 remedied by thinning the fruit while the trees are young, or some other method. 

 I notice that the Baldwin, which is the apple of this section, is almost entirely 

 destitute of blossoms this year. Some other varieties are blossoming lightly. 

 I notice that peach trees, wherever there are any, are mostly killed, at least 

 last year's growth is dead. Yours, 



HENRY HOLT. 



FROM EDWARD 15RADFIELD, ADA. 



A death in my family prevents attendance with you at Benton Harbor. One 

 of the first, and certainly one of the best, meetings held by the society out of 

 Grand Rapids, was held there, and we were so very agreeably entertained by 

 the people there that I had hoped to enjoy a second edition of the whole affair. 



The first currant worm I ever saw in my life, I discovered on my bushes last 

 week. I was taken all aback, not knowing how to treat them. Had heard of 

 hellebore, but did not know how to use it. As a person "stalled" on the defini- 

 tion of an uncommon word resorts to Webster's Unabridged, so I resorted to the 

 Pomological reports of the Society and soon found what I wanted in articles 

 from President Lyon and others. Having nothing else at hand I dusted the 

 leaves with a mixture, one part Paris green to thirty of fine flour. The next 

 day not a worm was to be seen on those bushes, but plenty on some others. I 



