104 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



that he had made use of it for seven or eight years and had found 

 that it improved the quaUty and increased the production of veg- 

 etables grown under glass. He used it mostly on days in which 

 there was a lack of sunshine and in the -winter season when the 

 nights were long. He estimated that it increased the growth 

 fifteen per cent and appeared to be of greater benefit to a crop of 

 cucumbers than to lettuce. 



Benjamin P. Ware, in referring to Mr. Rawson's assertion that 

 the climatic conditions of eastern Massachusetts had changed dur- 

 ing the last half century, asked what evidence he had for such a 

 beUef. 



Mr. Rawson replied that it is evidence enough when you can- 

 not grow now a crop of cucumbers and melons out of doors. 

 The sudden changes of temperature to which we are liable make 

 it impossible to do it. 



Varnum Frost ridiculed the idea of growing vegetables by elec- 

 tricity which he said was against common sense, and was only a 

 " fad " similar to the idea formerly in vogue of painting the glass 

 of a greenhouse red. 



He said that success in vegetable growing depended entirely 

 on the condition of the soil. The trouble with many crops 

 today is that the soil is sick with fertihzers. What is needed is 

 virgin soil. You cannot grow a crop of potatoes on old culti- 

 vated ground, but plow up a piece of grass land and you will 

 get a good crop. 



Samuel H. Warren remarked that Mr. Frost had touched just 

 the right point and gave an instance of the results from plowing 

 up an old huckleberry field that had never been cultivated. Go 

 back to the country he said and take wild land and subdue it and 

 good crops can be got as there were years ago. No fertilizer is so 

 good as virgin soil. 



Joshua C. Stone remarked that no one now has virgin soil. 

 What we want to know is, how to make the best of what we 

 have. 



John Ward spoke on the subject of changes in the seasons. 

 Changes do occur, but just as great changes took place fifty years 

 ago as now. 



George M. Whitaker stated that the Weather Bureau had 



