ANNUAL MEETING, IOWA STATE HORT. SOCIETY, 3 1 



trated with bottles containing- proper proportions of the 

 elements found in a number of different articles of food, which 

 assisted in fixing the thought presented. Without stopping to 

 say why, I simply note that she said that potatoes should be cooked 

 with their jackets on, and that breakfast foods are often under- 

 cooked — that is, not cooked until the starch is done. 



Charles G. Patten presented his report as delegate to the Amer- 

 ican Pomological Society. I note he pointedly condemned the new 

 organization created there, called the Hybridizers' Congress, and 

 intended to do a part of the work which in his judgment should 

 be done in connection with the Pomological Society. 



Mr. A. F. Parsons read a paper on "Horticulture in the Ideal 

 School," which, as its title indicates, was somewhat in the ideal 

 region. These schools must be in the center of a large enough 

 territory so that they may be divided into departments. The teach- 

 ing must be done as far as possible in connection with the illustra- 

 tion of actual things and the practical things of every-day life. 

 There should be experiment and model grounds on a suitable scale. 

 Mr. Parsons presented a very complete picture of how the thing 

 should be done, and I found it a pleasing one. 



Prof. Price spoke of the educational and experiment work of 

 the Agricultural College, and said that there are no short courses 

 at that school; all the students are four-year students. There are 

 seventy-five in the first year course this year. For ladies there 

 are special classes in floral culture and home decoration. 



In experiment work he said that the sand cherry used as a 

 plum stock was not especially encouraging. For a cover crop in 

 the nursery and fruit garden he recommended first oats, which even 

 as a heavy covering was found to be sufficiently decayed to be out 

 of the way of spring cultivation. He made a plea for an appro- 

 priation of $25,000 for the experiment station, $5,000 of which 

 should be for horticulture, especially in connection with plant- 

 breeding work to develop good apples and experiments in cold 

 storage. There was so much interesting matter in this report 

 that the writer finds it impossible to cite all of it. 



Mr. F. W. Taylor, lately in charge of the horticultural depart- 

 ment at the Buffalo Exposition, was before the meeting. He is 

 to have the same department at the St. Louis World's Fair. He 

 spoke of the probability of horticulture occupying a part of the 

 agricultural building to be erected there, containing thirty-six 

 acres and to be the largest building of its kind in the world. Con- 

 siderable sentiment developed in favor of a separate building for 



