STATE HORTICULTURA.L SOCIETY. 189 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 

 Wednesday, January 20, 1886. 



The meeting was called to order at 2 o'clock p. m., by President 

 Smith. 



The ad interim, or District Reports of the Vice-Presidents being in 

 order, the following reports were presented : 



REPORT FROM FIRST DISTRICT. 



WILD OR NATIVE FRUITS. 



By A. W. SiAs. Rochester. 

 Mr. President: 



You will not be surprised when I say that about thirty years ago, nearly 

 aii -lie land in my district was in just that wild state in which the Aborgines had 

 always kept it — abounding in a profusion of wild fruits, of no trifling importance 

 to the pioneer settlers. And thirty short years is too quickly passed for the horti- 

 culturists of one district to think of running ahead of "Old Dame Nature," were it 

 possible to give the real value of the wild fruits of this district, (to the settlers,) in 

 dollars and cents. And also in the value of all the cultivated sorts, it would no doubt 

 astonish you to note the balance that would stand in favor of the wildings. 



No inconsiderable number of our citizens predicted last spring, that all nature 

 had turned a sort of "winter set" and somehow during the icy operation had man- 

 aged to kill all the cultivated trees, and also the fruit buds on the wild varieties. 



Happily, this proved a great mistake, as subsequent events most clearly demon- 

 strated. The severe, cold winter (perhaps the most severe, since the settlement of 

 the country) was followed by a cool, but seasonable spring and summer, and the re- 

 sult was that we reap one of the best crops ot wild fruits known here for several 

 years. This would indicate that "Dame Nature" understands her business, and is 

 more lavish in her gifts than the majority of people are aware of. 



The wild plum crop was immense — and many fine varieties among them. Some 

 day we hope to produce from the seed, a native plum that shall astonish the horti- 

 cultural world. Some of the best named sorts are, De Soto, Rollingstone, Cotterell, 

 Waldron, Weaver, Wild Rose, and Forest Garden. James Berry, Choke Berry, 

 Black Cherry, Red Wing, Black Haw, all bore plentiful crops. Wild Strawberry 

 crop splendid, also Gooseberry, Currants, etc. High-bush Cranberry and Elderber? 

 ries abundant. The Blueberry is found here, but only to a limited extent. 



APPLES. 



Some member of this Society remarked a few years ago that "a tree is known by 

 its fruit" and not by the color of its heart-wood. And now it looks as though we 

 might advance a step farther, and say neither is it clearly known by the color of 

 its sap wood; for I can assure you that we produced thousands of bushels of as 

 fine apples as were ever set before a king last year on trees whose wood was badly 

 discolored from pith to bark. The recuperative power of our fruit trees, has taken 



