July 



THE POMOLOGIST. 



89 



Horticulture on the College Farm. 



Last winter a department of Pomology was 

 instituted in the Iowa Agricultural College, and 

 Capt. James Mai hews appointed professor, 

 mention of which was made in a previous No 

 of our paper. Professor Mathews entered 

 upon the duties of his ofHce early in the 

 Spring. Previous to that, little or nothing had 

 been done upon the farm pomologically. The 

 following report made by Prof. Mathews to the 

 President of the College, shows that the opera- 

 tions of his dppartment are being energetically 

 prosecuted, and from which we expect to see 

 some important results .■ 



REPOKT FOB JUNE. 



Mr. Presidini : — In compliance with the law 

 and regulations of the Colk'ge, I present you 

 herein, as the executive officer of the Institu- 

 tion, my report for the month of June, with a 

 brief statement of my operations and progress 

 during said month, together with such 

 suggestions as occur to my mind in ref- 

 erence to the future of my department, 



I will say first, that I have been daily in 

 charge of from one to three and four squads of 

 young gentlemen detailed by you for labor, and 

 am happy to say, that almost without any ex- 

 ceplion they have manifested great interest in 

 the planting and culture of fruits and fruit trees, 

 and an aptitude for acquiring a knowledge of 

 the science generally, far beyoud my most san- 

 guine expectations. I have no hesitancy at 

 this time, a;ter a practice of only a few weeks, 

 to entrust any of the squads referred to, with 

 the most dtlicate work, where I have previous- 

 ly given them instructions in the kind of labor 

 to be done, even for a single day. By the 

 time we make the round of one year in the va- 

 rious operations of the seasons, I have no 

 doubt many of the students will be fair work- 

 men, and have quite a comprehensive knowl- 

 edge of the general principles of fruit culture. 

 When I speak of the year's work, I mean, of 

 course, to embrace root grafting during the 

 winter, which, I think, absolutely necessary 

 for such students as intend to make the nurse- 

 ry business their future occupation. 



I find also by the interrogatroies propounded 

 upon every favorable opportunity, that many 

 of the young gentlemen are being deeply inter- 

 ested In my weekly lectures upon pomological 

 subjects, so that I can truly say there are many 

 anxious inquirers after knowledge in fruit cul- 

 ture, and to acquire which they only want the 

 opportunity. 



Somewhat unfortunately for us in the initia- 

 tory steps of fruit culture upon the College 

 Farm, the season here has been remarkably dry. 

 We have had only two showers in this locality 

 within the last seven weeks, and neither of 

 these wet the ground more than about one inch 

 deep, even where it has been well pulverized, 

 and is in good condition ; and still our success 

 in transplanting, as I shall state more fully at a 

 future time, has been successful beyond what 

 we could have ventured to anMcipate. Of ap- 

 ple trees, grape vines, currants, cherries, &c., I 

 have, by great care and thorough work, saved 

 about all. 



In this department, according to my estimate 

 I have not planted near enough to meet the act- 

 ual wants of those connected with the College, 

 even were all the trees, vines and plants on the 

 premises in good bearing. This I could not do 

 the present season, for several reasons. 



First. There was great difficulty in finding 



good trees, &c., of suitable kinds for this local- 

 I ity. 



Second. We had not teams enough with 

 which to perform other essential work on the 

 farm, and prepare my ground for planting. 



Lastly. And not by any means least, as you 

 are aware, was the want of funds. For some 

 reason, and perhaps for want of a formal ap- 

 plication to them, the Legislature have thus far 

 failed to make any appropriation for planting 

 orchards, vineyards, and small fruit gardens. 



The entire cost at the nurseries for what I 

 purchased this spring, including packing, is 

 about two hundred and twenty-five dollars, and 

 if all were in full bearing, they would not fur- 

 nish half enough for our yearly supply. I esti- 

 mate that about one thousand dollars, includ- 

 ing the current expenditures before named, will 

 be sufficient to stock our grounds with fruits 

 enough to supply all persons on the farm, with 

 an abundance the year round ; the small Iruits, 

 including grapes, coming into bearing in two 

 years, and the orchard trees in five to six years 

 from planting. Should it be thought advisable 

 by the constituted authorities to authorize rae 

 to start a nursery and experimental grounds, I 

 think about five hundred dollars per annum for 

 two years, besides what we can obtain by ex- 

 changes and otherwise, will be sufficient to put 

 this project in successful operation. One great 

 object in this branch will be to enable us to 

 make gratuitous distributions of cions, cut- 

 tings and plants, in small quantities, to all cit- 

 izens of the State who may desire to test in 

 their particular localities, new and popular 

 fruits which may he collected by the Pomolog- 

 ical Department here. 



Confident of success if sustained by the au- 

 thorities, I cannot doubt, that upon a proper 

 presentation of the subject, our General Assem- 

 bly will meet these small, yet important de- 

 mands. A little reflection and investigation 

 will satisfy all unbiased minds of the absolute 

 necessity of the first named appropriation, for 

 health, comfort and economy; the expenditure 

 will yield an annual return of more than one 

 hundred per cent, upon the outlay. And fur- 

 thermore, that the latter cannot only be made a 

 source of profit to the State, but an incalcula- 

 ble benefit by procuring and distributing to its 

 citizens all the best fruits known, aud which can 

 be grown in Iowa. 



I must be pardoned, Mr. President, for ma- 

 king the foregoing suggestions, because they 

 pertain to the departmeut assigned me, under 

 your general supervision, and because I am 

 sensible that without State aid, (though in com- 

 paratively very small sums,) we cannot make 

 that progress in pomological development 

 which we ought. Nor can we in any reasonable 

 time furnish the institution with an annual sup- 

 ply of our luscious fruits. 



With a comparatively small amount we can 

 be supplied with an abundance of those fascin- 

 ating and healthful luxuries which the late Mr. 

 A. J. Downing, the great American pomologist, 

 declared to be " the most perfect union of the use- 

 ful and the beautiful that the earth knows." 



Shall not our tables be richly and healthfully 



supplied, and that, too, exclusively with the 



productions of our College Farm, and by the 



labor of its students ? 



Respectfully submitted, 



James Mathews. 

 ♦*-♦- 



Fruit in benton county.— Mr. W. N. Park- 

 er, Vinton, writes us June 1.5— "Our fruit pros- 

 peclsare very .slim. Orchards blossomed finely 

 but from some cause or other but very little 

 fruit set. Raspberries are the ouly fruit that 

 promise a full crop. 



Fruit Prospects in Wisconsin. 



M.VRK Miller, Dear Sir:— TXie prospect for 



fruit in this immediate section is anything but 



liatteriug. From my own observation, as near 



as I can judge I cannot estimate the apple, Bear 



and cherry over one half of an average crop ; 



plums almost an entire failure by the circulio. 



We had an extraordinary large crop of apples, 



pears and cherries last year, and we did not 



look for full crops this The early freeze last 



October, played sad havoc with the young 



plum, and some other nursery stock. Orchard 



trees aud nursery stock growing finely. 



J. Gould. 

 Beaver Dam, Wis. 



"No 13." 



Friend Miller:— I must concur with F. R. 

 Elliott, of Cleveland, Ohio, (June No.), in refer- 

 ence to Capt. Mathews' " No. 1.3 " grape. If the 

 nomenclature is not full already, I would say 

 call it something beside "No. 13", and would 

 suggest the name of Mathews, but as the Cap- 

 tain is a modest man, i/ he objects, I would then 

 suggest the name of " Iowa." Let the Pomol- 

 OGLST and others speak on this subject, and let 

 some one " name the child," and not call it 

 " No. 13 " S. J. Comfort. 



Venison, Oi-awford Co., Iowa. 



As it Should Be.— .'i.fter repeated failures 

 on the part of the Illinois State Agricultural 

 Society to get up a creditable show of fruit at 

 its annual fairs, the Board of Control have 

 very wisely given over the supervision of the 

 fruit and floral departments to the fruit-grow- 

 ers of the State. In times past, the Horticul- 

 tural exhibitions of the society have not been 

 at ail creditable to the State— taking into ac- 

 count her^vast pomological resources. Under 

 the new order of things we predict a good show 

 of fruit at tlie next Illinois State Fair, unless 

 the crop is a bad failure. 



Grape Rot, Bug Trap.- At the May meet- 

 ing of the Montgomery (Ohio) County Horti- 

 cultural Society, the President advanced a new 

 theory on grape rot. He thought that in the 

 hot months of the year, when it rained, large 

 drops settled on the gr.apes, aud. in the hot 

 sunshine which succeeded, the raindrop acted 

 as a Zen*-, scalding the grape and intlucing the 

 rot. He had particularly noted this, and there 

 was no doubt about this rain-drop lens being 

 mainly the cause of the rot. Tlie way to avoid 

 this is to shelter the vines by placing broad 

 plauks over them. The attention of members 

 was directed to this matter. 



At the same meeting Mr. W F. Heikes pre- 

 sented a contrivance for trapping insects on the 

 wing, and upon which he remarked : " it is used 

 at nights, and by means of a lamp enclosed by 

 a glass globe, the insects are attr.acted by the 

 light, and ;striking .the glass globe, fall down 

 into a pan below which contains oil, and are 

 drowned in it. Mr. Welty has used the con- 

 trivance for a number of years, and he has 

 caught any quantity of bugs, etc. He has 

 raised plums uniformly each season since he 

 has used the " bug destroyer." 



;F.xniBiTioNS.— Spring and Summer Horticul- 

 tural and Floral exhibitions are gaining popu- 

 larity all over the country. At Charleston, S. 

 C, a grand floral exhibition was held May 3d 

 On the nth, the Agricultural Fair Association 

 of the cotton States, held a Horticultural exhi- 

 bition at Augusta, Ga. 



Cranberries.— The Cap Cod; GazeWe says the 

 severe frost on Tuesday, May 31, damaged the 

 cranberry crop of the Cape to the amount of 

 8150,000. 



