ANNUAL MEETING AT LEXINGTON. 331 



tliese misfortunes, and nursery men must bear at least an important 

 part, if not all, for grafting; on seedlings from cidermills, or the smallest 

 and poorest apples. Some members seem to be beyond the powers of 

 reasoning on this subject, and certainly know a great deal more about 

 pigs and colts than about the difference between a grafted tree and a 

 seedling. 



Such wide-spread disasters by cold winter_, or rather as I think by 

 the immature state of the trees, as occurred two years ago, seems 

 never to have occurred before in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, 

 and may not occur again in the same length of time, but it would be 

 fairly safe to plant orchai'ds here, expecting to market apples there 

 until they shall gather courage to plant extensively again. Undoubt- 

 edly many of their orcharcls that still hold out some promise, are suffer- 

 ing from want of cultivation and pruning, but not a word was said, or 

 seemed to be acceptable on that point. I am glad to learn that our 

 membfers are generally awake and agreed on that subject. Mr. Eiehl, 

 their delegate to your convention, gave warning that if Illinois horti- 

 culturists did not keep a sharp look out, they could not long be in the 

 lead, and I feel quite safe in staking the issue on that j)oint, before he 

 or they will suspect us. 



In discussing vegetables, one member claimed to have grown cel- 

 ery successfully by planting seed in bottouiless quart tin cans, until 

 ready for transplanting, then plunging the cans in the permanent place, 

 gradually raising the cans and drawing in soil as the plants grow. 



The society was invited to visit the asylums for the blind, the deaf 

 and dumb and the insane. The programme assigned all these for Fri- 

 day, after adjournment, but perhaps from fear thaf iiearly all would 

 leave then, it was decided to visit one each morning, and still there 

 was nearly a full attendance on Friday. It is safe to say that if a ma- 

 jority of tax-payers could visit their own institutions of this class, we 

 would all pay our taxes more cheerfully. 



The city of Jacksonville attracts admiration for having all its 

 streets and lawns planted in trees, more than any other thing. The 

 square or Central Park, embraces four good size building blocks. It 

 has five electric light towers (I think), costing probably many times as 

 much as all the trees, evergreens and shrubs, but who could entertain 

 the idea of comparing their beauty or utility I 



I think of attending the Iowa State meeting at Charles city, 18th 

 and 21st of January. If you will indicate how I could serve you better- 

 there, I will endeavor to comply. 



