The Canadian Horticulturist, 55 



MICHIGAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



g^HE Michigan State Horticultural Society held their annual 

 meeting at Ann Arbor on the 26th, 27th, and 28th of Decem- 

 ., ber, and as the Secretary of our Society, who was appointed 

 a delegate to their meeting, could not attend, I was easily 

 induced to be his representative, and beg leave to submit the 

 following report : The meetings were fairly well attended, 

 and the papers and discussions were very lively and full of 

 interest and instruction, though much of their discussion was 

 in relation to their coming fruit exhibit at Chicago, and of 

 no particular interest to us, farther than to show that while we have been at work 

 securing, bottling and stoning our fruit for the exhibit, they have been wrangling 

 over " ways and means," and, as yet, have done very little in that direction. I 

 incidentally learned from Mr. S. D. Willard, who was there as a delegate from the 

 Western New York Horticultural Society, that the same state of things existed 

 there. I did not arrive in time to hear the President's address, or a paper on 

 " Economy in Fruit Growing," by Mr. Kellog, of Iona, both of which were said 

 to be very practical. 



But I had the pleasure of listening to an address from Prof. Angell, of the 

 Michigan State University, which was full of suggestions and practical points, 

 the most prominent one being the necessity of teaching horticulture in country 

 schools —a subject which we have often discussed. The main difficulty there, 

 as here, seemed to be the want of proper qualification in teachers for this work. 

 He urged that it should be done at least one hour in a week, if not oftener, and 

 suggested that familiar talks, or lectures, would be of much more value than text 

 books upon this subject. Right here, may I offer this suggestion to our public 

 instructors, viz., that it might be a good idea to employ a competent person, sav 

 in each county, to visit schools weekly, and give a half hour or an hour of 

 instruction upon this and other branches of agriculture ? A live man could 

 visit four or five schools in a day, and accomplish quite a large circuit in a week. 

 Prof. Taft, of the State Agricultural College, and Prof. Smith, from the 

 Horticultural Department at Washington, and others, read and discussed papers 

 upon the fungoid diseases of fruits, and their prevention and cure. The universal 

 testimony seemed to be that " Prevention is better than cure " ; that trees kept 

 in a healthy growing condition, wen: less liable to the disease, and that the early 

 removing of all affected fruits and leaves, and everything that would retain the 

 spores of the disease, and an early and continuous spraying with the Bordeaux 

 mixture — or other mixtures of a similar nature — would prevent, in a great 

 measure, the apple scab, grape mildew and rot, and all similar diseases. 



