116 ANNUAL REPORT. 
This secures the printing of the report like any other State document, and 
not by special appropriation as in our case. 38. Besides this, the sum of 
$600 is appropriated from the State treasury to aid the society in carrying 
out the provisions of the act. 
This volume presents the same noticeable features mentioned in the last. 
‘The following are some of the subjects in which we might take particular 
interest: ‘*Production of New Varieties of Fruit,” by J. S. Stickney, in 
which the principal method suggested seems to be cross-fertilizing the 
flowers of different varieties and growing seedlings from the cross. ‘‘Con- 
serving Our Fruits,” by Mr. Plumb, is another paper of interest to others 
than Wisconsin Horticultural Society. A paper on ‘‘ Humbugs,” by Geo. 
J. Kellogg, is very easy, good-natured and interesting reading. Attention 
seems to be chiefly turned to humbugs engaged in growing and selling trees. 
‘«* Blight ” is the subject of another paper, but it seems to present a resume 
of what has been thought about the disease rather than new facts or ideas. 
Mr. Peter M. Gideon contibuted to the meeting of February, 1879, a report 
on ‘‘Propagation of New and Hardy Varieties of Apples,” covering nearly 
three printed pages, and setting forth fully the p an and theory of the Min- 
netonka Fruit Farm. At this same meeting we notice a demand for instruc- 
tion made in the following form: 
Resolved, That this convention requests the Board of Regents of the 
University to procure suitable persons to hold conventions in different parts 
of the State, for the purpose of disseminating information of value to those 
engaged in the different branches of agriculture and horticulture and other 
useful industries ” 
Werden Reynolds tells ‘‘How to Maintain Interest in Local Societies,” 
giving the history of the Brown County Horticultural Society as an illus- 
tration, and the motto, ‘‘ Duly Intermingle Work and Play,” as the key note 
of its present success. After describing an epoch of usefulness and success, 
a succeeding one of decline and another of suspension, Mr. Reynold’s 
presented a method: (p. 261.) : 
Transactions Iowa State Horticultural Society. 
Perhaps the discrimination that places Iowa Horticulture second in inter- 
est to us to that of Wisconsin is not quite just. However the point is not a 
vitally important one. The Iowa Horticultural Society, we notice, also 
makes its report directly to the Governor of the State, and we have seen 
elsewhere that the Society received an annual appropriation, besides the 
printing of this report, of $1,000. The Transactions of this Society consist 
very largely of reports from the fruit districts, the State being divided into 
twelve of these, and the reports of Standing Committees, of which there are 
a large number—no less than 37 the past year. In floriculture alone there 
were four committees having charge of, and being expected to report upon 
the following subjects respectively: ‘Greenhouse Management,” ‘ Bed- 
ding Plants and Annuals,” ‘‘ House Plants,” ‘ Our Native Flowers.” 
Among papers partaking somewhat of a scientific character we notice in 
Transactions for 1877, ‘‘ The Climatic Adaptation of Plants,” by Prof. C. E. 
Bessey, of the Agricultural College, and another from Prof. Budd, entitled 
««Qur Excessive Heats of Airand Soil a Main Source of Trouble in Our 
