430 ANNUAL REPORT 



SECOND DAY. 



This for«inooii President Smith read his annual address, in 

 which he rev^iewed the workings of the society, and the lessons 

 of the season. In alluding to the great drought of last summer 

 he said that experience had demonstrated that good cultivation 

 was the best preventive to injuries to crops in times of drought. 

 He alluded to the L. L. May Nursery Company of St. Paul, and 

 said they had operated extensively in Brown County, through an 

 agent, and sold large quantities of trees and plants at prices little 

 less than robbery, and he could not see wherein their operations 

 differed very much from obtaining money under false pretenses. 

 The operations of such agents are very detrimental to horticulture 

 in the Northwest. Was much i)leased with the course taken by 

 the Minnesota Society in the matter, and did not think they 

 scored any points by appearing belore our Society. He urged 

 the dissemination of such information through the working of 

 the society as shall educate the farmers to be on their guard 

 against all suspicious tree men, and that the society exercise 

 great care in recommending varieties for general cultivation. A 

 more thorough organization of local societies would prove a par- 

 tial remedy, as this class of men were disposed to shun those who 

 were well posted on trees and plants. 



The remainder of the forenoon was occupied l)y Prof. Cook, of 

 Michigan, in delivering an illustrated lecture on "Insects In- 

 jurious to Plant Life, and Means of Destroying Them." In 

 speaking of the codling moth he says it can not be caught with 

 sweetened water, is not attracted into the house by lights, that 

 they are great respecters of prior rights, and never deposit but 

 one egg in an apple, and no matter how numerous they are, have 

 an instinct to pass by every fruit in which an egg has been de- 

 posited by another insect. In speaking of remedies he con- 

 demned the old bunch remedy as a failure. The hog remedy is 

 better, as much of the affected fruii falls to the ground before 

 the worms escape, and if at once eaten by hogs will prevent prop- 

 agation. He told of an orchardist who had about exterminated 

 them on his place by employing boys to pick all infected fruit, 

 and it paid him well to do it. He considered the best remedy 

 to be Paris Green or London Purple, applied when the fruit is 

 about the size of a pea, and said there would not be a trace of 

 the poison remaining two months afterward. To be effective 

 one pound of the poison is put into one hundred gallons of 



