NATIVE ORNAMENTAL SHRUBS AND PLANTS. 309 



spireas and as many kinds of syringas that will do as well, besides 

 your native shrubs, and fhere is no reason why you should not make 

 your homes beautiful and adorn your grounds, and there is nothing 

 that can be of greater service to you than these things that the Lord 

 raised. I have been surprised, and it opened my eyes, to see how 

 much beauty is provided for us in the way of that little flower the 

 phlox. I used to drive across these prairies, and I saw thousands of 

 acres of this beautiful phlox. They took that native phlox over to 

 England and made it as big as a quarter of a dollar, then as big as 

 a half dollar, and now there are some as big as a dollar. There is 

 a flower of the phlox that" is larger than a dollar. What I say of 

 the phlox is also true of the peony and other perennials. God plant- 

 ed them in great profusion. When we adorn our homes we put in 

 a twenty-five dollar mirror and a fifty dollar rug, but we will not 

 pay more than twenty-five cent's to put anything in the front yard. 

 Anything we put in the front yard increases in value, but anything 

 we put in the house depreciates in value, but we put everything in 

 furniture and nothing in the beautiful things that ought to grow in 

 the front yard. (Applause.) 



The Chairman: It is a perfect delight to hear Mr. Harrison 

 talk on these matters. He has a fund of information on the sub- 

 ject that is simply marvelous, and I hope he may live to come to 

 our meetings for many, many years. 



MY SUCCESS IN CHECKING BLIGHT 



CHAS. W. SPICKERMAX, EXCELSIOR. 



It is not my intention to dwell on the cause of blight, as I do 

 not think the fruit growers in general care as much what causes 

 blight as what to do for it when it makes its appearance. I am 

 aware that a preventative would be the desirable thing, and we may 

 be able to bring such a subject before the society later, but the 

 thought to be presented in this article is, what to do for blight when 

 it makes its appearance in the orchard. 



I have observed : first, if it is ever so wet when the temperature 

 is cool there will not be much blight : second, if it is very warm 

 and is dry and has been dry for a few days previous to the heated 

 term there will be a very small percentage of blight ; but, third — 

 to the contrary of the above two points — if we have a period of wet 

 weather and then the temperature rises to 80° or 85° immediately 

 following or at the same time, the vegetable grower will say "How 

 things grow!", but the apple grower can truly say "How the apple 

 trees blight !" Plainly, in hot, dry seasons, not much blight ; in hot, 

 wet seasons, blight on nearly every variety of apple tree if in a 

 blighting locality. 



