6 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



THE FRUIT-GROWERS' SOCIETY. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THEIR ANNUAL SESSION 

 AT YORK. 



The animal session of the PeiniS3lvania 

 Fruit-Growers' Soeiety was held in York, 

 coniniencins; on the 2()th of the present niontli, 

 this being the lirst time the Society held an 

 annual session in that ancient borongh. The 

 following al'stiactof the proceedings, from the 

 special correspondence of the Frens, reaches 

 us just in time for this issue: 



The mission of tlie Society is to take all the 

 leading fruit-growing centres, communicating 

 winit it has gathered in otljer places, and tak- 

 ing in a new stock of ideas in turn. Inde- 

 pendently of its interest to the fruit-grower, 

 there are i)oints of interest to the gnat outer 

 world, some of whom always accompany the 

 fruit-grower on these annual expeditions. 

 The town itfelf is not large for its age. It 

 contains, perhaps, about fifteen thousand in- 

 haliitants, most of whom are engaged in or 

 in some way or another dependent" on agri- 

 culture for their support. About three thou- 

 sand are sujiported by the manufacturing in- 

 terests of the place. The old, well-built, sub- 

 stantial houses remind us more of an Euroi>ean 

 than an American town, and this allusion may 

 be the more pleasantly indulged in when the 

 names of the streets are noted. Here is the 

 Queen street and the King street. King George 

 street. Princess street and Duke street, and 

 the people just as comfortable and satisfied 

 under Iheni as though after the French — we 

 might almost say rhilade]]iliia — fashion of 

 changing the names eveiy half dozen years. 



The streets are like Philadelphia, in large 

 square blocks, and the more like Philadelphia 

 as we have a "Philadeljihia" and a "West 

 Philadelphia" in it, the Codorus creek divid- 

 ing the two. This is an innocent-looking 

 stream as we see it now, but is said to be 

 excessively wrathful at some .seasons of the 

 year. The old marshes on the west side have 

 been reclaimed, and furnish a beautiful green 

 divide between the two sections, which must 

 be excessively beautiful in summer time, 

 sepecially with the beautiful hills which form 

 a background all around the town. 



The meeting of the fruit-growers was called 

 to order by the President, S. B. lleiges, who, 

 to the very successful management of the 

 Collegiate Institute of the place, addsthe emi- 

 nence of a very successful amateur fruit-cul- 

 turist. His annual address was one of tlie 

 most eloipient and instructive ever given 

 to the Society. After briedy alluding to the 

 historical associations conijectfd with the 

 town, he referred to the fact that some of tlie 

 most valuable Iruits had originated in that 

 section. The York imperial ajijile of that sec- 

 tion was to it what tlie Baldwin was to the 

 New England States. Then there was the 

 Cheese and the Creek apple, which were famed 

 for their superior excellence, both in flavor 

 and kee|iing qualities. A famous peach (the 

 General (irant) also originated in that sec- 

 tion. Another matter of interest is the in- 

 creased attention given to cherry culture in 

 that region, mostly within the few past years. 

 It was found to be especially well suited to 

 that part of the country. He had known of 

 eases where tlie product from one cherry tree 

 had brought in more money than an acre of 

 wheat. They commenced to bear at five years 

 old. He knew of two jiersons who had sold 

 last year about four thousand bushels of cher- 

 ries for canning purposes, besides what they 

 had disposed of during four market days of 

 each week in the city. 



Keferring to the use of manures, he thought 

 that the use of stable material in a fresh or 

 nnfermented condition was often injurious to 

 fruit trees. In this connection he thoui;ht 

 there was no loss in that left behind, whence 

 saw the black, inky matter running away 

 from the mass in the barn-yard. The injur- 

 ious matter in the rough material was the 

 humic acid. He had experimented with ]iure 

 huraic acid on plants, and found it destroyed 

 all. He spoke of the theory of many, that we 



should copy nature, but showed that this was 

 hardly worth a thought; man's objects and 

 nature's objects were wide apart. Wan could 

 make Nature do what she could never do for 

 herself. The sunbeam was the hardest of all 

 known substances. It would penetrate a 

 diamond with ease, yet man with a prism 

 could turn these beams ccnip.letely round. 

 He next referred to the use of lime in soil. It 

 was silex which gave the bloim to the plum 

 and the color to the appile and the pear, but 

 lime was the agent in prejiaring it. It was 

 ])resent in all seeds, though often it was found 

 in but the minutest traces in the soil. It has 

 often a mechanical action as well as chemical 

 in lightening the character of heavy soils. 

 Lime should be used freely wherever there 

 was much undecomposi d vegetable matter in 

 the soil. The use of a.shes was dwelt on, and 

 highly recommended as one of the best means 

 of improving worn-out foil. 



The rage for large fruits came in for a share 

 of his attention. He thought laige size in 

 fruits at the expense of vital principle, and the 

 effort to produce thi.'^e had 1( d to cultivated 

 fruits being more tender and more subject to 

 disease than the smaller wild ones. He did 

 not blame nurseiymen for getting what the 

 public wanted, but it was for their best inter- 

 est to educate the people as much as possible. 

 He hoped Pennsylvania fruit-growers would 

 help the American Pomological meeting next 

 September in Chicago, and urged immediate 

 and vigorous State action in belialf of the Cen- 

 tennial. He thanketl the Legislature ibr its 

 judicious action in regard to the geological 

 survey, from which heexpeet(d immense bene- 

 fits to the agricultural and horticultural inter- 

 ests of the State. 



Among the fruits neglected in that part of 

 the State was the plum. The whole field had 

 been given over to the curculio. He exhibited 

 plie^tographs of his plums, haugiig " in rojies 

 like onions." By a hydropmlt he covered the 

 trees and fruits after every heavy rain with 

 the bitterest whale oil soap he could procure. 

 His neighbors' trees had no plums. He had 

 been charged with driving his curculios over 

 to his neighbors' trees. It might be well to 

 leave a tree or two here and there in a plum 

 orchard without the soap, as an additional in- 

 ducement for the curculio to leave the balance 

 alone. 



Mr. Thomas Meehan was invited to address 

 the convention on how to plant, cultivate and 

 prune fruit t rees. He thought much was lost by 

 too expensive modes of prejiaratii^n of thesoil. 

 He would plant fruit trees in ordinary ground 

 just as one would get it ready for a corn or 

 potato crop, and dejieud on annual to]) dress- 

 ing to maintain the ferlility. Instead of 

 spending two hundred dollars, as some had 

 done, on manure for a fruit orchard, he would 

 have tloulile the good results from twenty 

 dollars a year for ten years. He thouglit in 

 many cases it would be found more iirohtable 

 to grow hay as the acconqaninient of an 

 orchard than any fither crop; but it was 

 essential in such ca.'-es to have a top dressing 

 every year. He had found even fresh eaith 

 good enough for this top drissing, so far as 

 the trees were concerned, with aljout six or 

 eight dollars ]>er acre of supei-])hospliate for 

 the grass. The address produced a lively 

 discussion, occujiying the whole of the evening 

 session. 



The fence question was one of the most 

 interesting discus.ssed, introduced by Henry 

 M. Eiigle, of Marietta. He built his remarks 

 on the idea thatfeiices were made solely to kee^p 

 out neighbors' cattle, and thought no one 

 should be compelled to do this, and would 

 alter the whole theory' of legislation if this 

 was the basis of action. Slone fences were 

 the most ccono^nical in a long course of years 

 if one lived in a stony country, but he thiuight 

 Osage-orange hedges cheaper in anV other, 

 except in places wliere timber was a drug. It 

 cost two dollars per rod to imt up a post-and- 

 rail fence in his part of the country, and but 

 twenty-five cents iier rod for an Osage-orange 

 fence, though there was some little annual 

 cost in pruning the latter. 



A resolution was oflered and unanimously 

 adopted, that it was the sense of the meeting 

 that the Legislature sliould enact a general 

 law for the whole State, prohibitingcattleand 

 similar .stock from running at large. 



For the last year or two the Society has sub- 

 scribed to the good old doctrine that "mau 

 cannot live by bread alone," so they discuss 

 matters of taste as well as the profit and loss 

 on fruits. They propose at the next meeting 

 to change the name of the Society to that of 

 the "State General Horticultural Soeiety," 

 whose objc ct shall be the encouragement of 

 pomology and (jciwral horlimUvre. In this 

 spirit Mr. Josiali Hoojies, of West Chester, 

 made an adniiralile address on evergreens and 

 their culture, and Mr. Purple, of Columbia, 

 one on garden flowers, in which the old-fash- 

 ioned peony came in for a share of praise. 



Whether it is profitable to grow many vari- 

 eties of fruits was opiened by Casper Hiller, 

 and made an interesting topic; most speakers 

 considering that in peais the Doyenne d'Ete, 

 Manning's Elizabeth, Bartlett, Seckel, Beurre 

 d'Anjou and Lawrence, they had the cream, 

 from a thousand varieties. One speaker, how- 

 ever, thfiught that, say in a thousand trees, 

 we should have fifty or so varieties, so as to 

 know what was going on in the new fruit line. 



The blight in pear trees was discussed, and 

 various washes of the stem continuously with 

 lime, sulphur, soft soap, &c., recommended as 

 among the best preventatives. 



Drying fruits as a means of utilizing over- 

 stocks of fruits was discussed. It appears 

 there are now drying machines costing but a 

 few dollars, and by the use of which even 

 children can be usefully employed. Grafting 

 the grape was referred to as one of the best 

 methods of growing the Delaware and more 

 delicate kinds. The Clinton and the Concord 

 are the best to graft on. It is best to have them 

 growing a year or so before grafting, and to 

 do the grafting in fall or winter before the sap 

 begins to rise. The graft is set a couple of 

 inclies beneath the surface of the soil. Keeping 

 fruits made a very interesting topic. A moist 

 atmosphere was good for perserving ajiples 

 and pears, provided it was not a foul atnios- 

 jihere. One speaker had a spring running 

 through his fruit-house, which made a jiure, J 

 cool, moist atniospliere,and in which he could 1 

 keep early winter fruit in good perfection up 

 to February or March. Close barrels were . 

 not found as good as hand-made or open ones. 

 One speaker had found apples kept best when 

 gathered by the full of the moon, but another 

 speaker said that he lost more by moonlight 

 than at any other time ! Whether he lived 

 near to a theological seminary, as Mark 

 Twain's melon jiatch was, he did not state. 



It is iniiiossible to give even a brief outlfne 

 of the discussions. The secretary, E. Eiigle, 

 ofMarietta, however, made full reports, winch, 

 in connection with the reports of the State 

 Agricultural Society, will be published by the 

 Stale. 



The ofllcers for the ensuing year are : Pres- 

 ident, Edwin Sattertliwaite, of Montgomery; 

 Vice Presidents, S. W. Noble, of Montgom- 

 ery, and Tobias Martin, of Cumberland-co. ; 

 Corresponding Secretary, W^. P. Brinton, of 

 Christiana ; Treasurer, Robert Otto, of West 

 Chester. 



The next i^lace of mcetingis Doylestown, in 

 January next. 



Among the horticidturists present were 

 some from t)hio, Maryland and New York, 

 and though the attendance was, as all other 

 things are, alfected in .some degree by the 

 times, the work of the Society was never 

 better done. 



[It may be jiroper to state in this connection 

 that one of the new features of Tub Farmer 

 under its present management, will be full 

 reports of Agricultural, Horticultural and 

 similar meetings, held in Eastern Pennsyl- 

 vania, prepared expressly for these columns, 

 by one of our own rejiorters, who will have 

 .special charge of this department. The pub- 

 lishers are determined that their readers shall 

 hereafter see these reports first in their own 

 organ, The Lancaster Farmer.] 



