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ANNUAL MEETING, IOWA HORT, SOCIETY. 87 
ago set fifty of different kinds. Norway freezes down every winter, 
red maple fifteen years old only three feet high; brought sugar 
maples from N. Y.—they do not stand here. Some from this vicinity 
stand well. Mr. Mitchell’s native maples grow well but yield to 
_ drouth; mulberry and catalpa kill to the snow line. 
Wednesday evening the society was entertained by the citizens of 
Forest City. Music was alternated with recitations, given in an 
artistic manner to a highly pleased, large audience. Mr. Thomp- 
son, an early settler, gave an entertaining sketch of some of the inci- 
dents peculiar to pioneer life, contrasting the hardships and strug- 
gles then with present facilities for making a living. 
Thursday morning. Paper. “Some Insects Which Threaten the 
Fruit Industry of Iowa.” Prof. H. Osborne. This paper was a scien- 
tific description of various insects, and their history and habits 
The San José scale was the most important, it spreads rapidly, pro. 
ducing living young four or five generations in a season; the pro- 
geny of one inséct may reach in one season the enormous number 
of 1,608,040,200, and it feeds on a great variety of plants, and forest 
and fruit trees. 
Prof. Budd’s paper recapitulated the work of the college in prop- 
agating and distributing various fruits and shrubs which, from re- 
ports, could be shown to have been of great value over a large area 
of the country, giving the names of varieties that were particularly 
adapted to different places. 
Mr. Guilford’s paper, on result of experiment station at Dubuque 
was confined mostly to ornamentals adapted to that district, nam- 
ing successes and failures. Some of the papers on the program 
were not on file with the secretary. 
Thursday afternoon: Paper. “A Few of the Mistakes of Nursery. 
men and Patrons,” by R. P. Speer, Cedar Falls. Apples required five 
or six years for returns, and every ten or twelve years the grafted 
American apples on the drift soils have been injured by unfavora- 
ble climatic conditions. He would stop root-grafting and resort to 
top-working. Select good stocks, not Duchess nor Tetofsky, but 
Soulard, Virginia and Whitney and some Russians. These will 
stand when all root-grafts are gone. No winter varieties are grown 
as root-grafts that have good quality. 
Members that discussed this paper expressed the highest personal 
respect for Capt. Speer and credited him with doing a large work 
for the fruit interests of Iowa, and regretted the appearance of his 
paper, as the facts would not justify his statements nor his conclu- 
sions. His choice of some stocks was ridiculed as utterly worthless 
for top-working or grafting in the root, and, finally, the whole dis- 
cussion would lead one to infer that the paper was headed wrong, 
and instead of the mistakes of nurserymen, etc., should read “The 
Mistakes of Captain Speer.” 
Reports from the secretary and treasurer indicated that the 
society was ina strong, influential, healthy condition. The election 
resulted in the re-election of the old officers and board of directors, 
with one exception. The next place of meeting is to be at McGregor. 
