1878.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



95 



Horticultural Societies, 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



SOUTHEASTERN KANSAS HORTICUL- 

 TURAL SOCIETY. 



BY H. E. VAN DEMAN. 



The fourth annual meeting of this society was 

 hekl at Humboldt, on the 9lh and 10th of Jan., 

 1878. The attendance was good, and the speci- 

 mens of fruits and flowers upon the tables cred- 

 itable. Mr. James Truitt, of Quincy. Ky., sent 

 about ninety varieties of apples to compare with 

 those of Kansas. Owing to early gathering and 

 long transit, they did not compare favorably ; 

 but Mr. Truitt certainly deserves the thanks of 

 the people Jiere for his interest shown. 



An appropriate address of welcome was de- 

 livered by Hon. John R. Goodin, and responded 

 to by D. B. Slveeles in behalf of the society. 



The society proposes to hold a fruit show next 

 fall, in connection with one of the agriculural 

 fairs, within the district. 



The officers elect are H. E. Van Deman, of 

 Geneva, President ; D. B.Skeeles, of Galesburgh, 

 Vice-President ; G. W. Ashby, of Chanute, Sec- 

 retary; C. C. Kelsey, of Humboldt, Treasurer; 

 C. IL Graham, of Le Roy, J. B. Torbert and S. 

 B. Roth, of Chanute, Trustees. The next annual 

 meeting of the society will be held on the first 

 Wednesdaj' and Thursday of December, 1878, at 

 such place as the board of directors may direct. 

 Any person who wishes to avail himself of the 

 advantages nf a copy of the proceedings of the 

 society, which is published with those of the 

 State Horticultural Society, can do so by sending 

 his name and flft}' cents, as an annual member- 

 ship fee, to the secretar3\ 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



ADDESS OF MARSHAL P. WILDER. 



( Continued from page C-l). 



The foreign market for peaches will be very 

 great if prices can be made moderate, and when 

 our refrigerating ships shall be perfected, Eng- 

 land can take much of the surplus of our im- 

 mense crops of this fruit. The same is true of 

 pears, ])ut all sales depend on the condition of 

 the fruit. 



Formerly a large crop was not a blessing, 

 owing to limitation of the market and the ex- 

 pense of gathering the fruit, and it has been 

 estimated that a loss of several millions of dol- 

 lars has been sometimes sustained in an abun- 

 dant year by the waste of fruit. The whole 

 crop may now be saved and utilized by the new 

 methods which are being constantly invented 

 for curing and distributing this surplus. In fruit 

 districts large amounts of capital are invested 

 in establishments for the drying and canning of 

 fruits, which promise to put the surplus of abun- 

 dant seasons in condition for preservation till 

 wanted for consumption or exportation. Some 

 of these are yet to be tested, but no doubt exists 

 that we shall eventually thus utilize our fruits, 



and make them not only profitable, but a source 

 of increa.'-ing revenue to our country. 



With reference to the demand for dried fruits 

 the consumption is rapidly increasing, and if 

 dried i)»«,ches can be furnished at as low iirices 

 as apples, the demand, it is thought, will be 

 very irreat. Of dried fruits there were exported 

 for tlu' year ending June 30, 1877, 14,818,052 

 pounds. Of preserved and canned fruits, espe- 

 cially peaches, there have been exported 7()2,- 

 344 dollars' worth in the year ending June 30, 

 1877. The trade for these is well established 

 and the demand is constantly increasing. Al- 

 though the exportation of fruit has been going 

 on quietly for a long time, it was not large till 

 the year 1865 ; but since that time the trade has 

 been rapidly developed. These exports have 

 varied much in yearly amounts, occasioned by 

 scarce or abundant seasons. In 1861 the amount 

 was only 'S2(VJ,000. In 1871 it was !ir50'.),000, 

 while for the year ending June 30, 1877, it 

 amounted to S2,937.025, as kindly furnished me 

 by Dr. Young, chief of the Bureau of Statistics 

 — showing an increase of more than five-fold for 

 the last five years. 



CROSS-FERTILIZATION. 



Whatever the fruit cultivators of ancient 

 times may have known in regard to the cross- 

 impregnation of varieties for their improvement, 

 we have no evidence, if we may judge by the 

 quality of the fruits which have come down to 

 us, that they were acquainted with this process. 

 The first experiment to ascertain the possibility 

 of producing varieties by cross-fertilization ap- 

 pears to have been made in Germany, b}" Koel- 

 reuter, who published reports of hi3 proceedings 

 in the acts of the Petersburg Academy, about 

 one hundred years ago. Knight, Herbert and 

 the Lindleys commenced the work some fifty or 

 sixty years since, but it had scarcely been rec- 

 ognized by Duhainel, Noisette, or Poiteau, in 

 their writings, and Van Mons absolutely dis- 

 couraged it. Poiteau remarked that all of the 

 ameliorated and superior fruits had theii- origin 

 in woods and hedges, where superior fruits were 

 rare and unknown. Nor was it more than 

 alluded to by Coxe, Lowell, Manning, Thomas, 

 Prince and such leaders in our own land. Coxe, 

 who may be styled the first American pomolo- 

 gist, alluded to it as " a curious discovery which 

 had been made by Mr. Knight in the natural 

 history of fruit trees, by which one variety might 

 be impregnated with the farina of another, some 

 of the products partaking of the proi)erties of 

 the male, others of (he female parent." 



But with the publication of IIove)''s Magazine 

 of Horticulture, Downing's Fruit and Fi'uit 

 Trees, and the Horticulturist, the experiments 

 in hybridization became well known in our 

 country. This pi-ocess, applied to the grape, 

 said Andrew Jackson Downing, thirty years ago, 

 will give hundreds of hardy kinds, adapted to 

 every orchard and garden in the Union. How 

 full}' this prediction has been fulfilled we have 

 seen in the new varieties of hybrid grapes pro- 

 duced by Allen, Rogers, Moore, CampbelL'and 



