August 



THE POMOLOGIST. 



Ill 



For I he Western Pomologiet. 



lo-wa Eastern Horticultural Society. 



MEETING AT IOWA CITY. 



Friend Miller : — It is to be regretted 

 that our Society and your District Society 

 met the same wceli in June. Our appoint 

 ment was made in February and published 

 in the Homestead, and I believe in the Po- 

 UOLOGIST also. 



Now take notice: Our Constitution fixes 

 our annual meeting the third Wednesday in 

 December. If any other Society in this or 

 any adjoining States, meet in that week, we 

 do not know it. 



But as it was, we had a good meeting — so 

 all said and acted. There were about one 

 hundred present. Our Iowa City friends 

 done the gen'Tousand good part by us ; and 

 we decided to hold our ue.xt annual meeting 

 there in December. Our Illinois friends, six 

 of their best men, came over to help ub. I 

 am aware that they have plenty more at 

 home equal to tlie best. But we had Arthur 

 Bryant, Sr., Robert Douglas, Samuel Ed- 

 wards, M. L. Dunlap, Wm. Nourse, and Mr. 

 Richmond; and although Mr. McAfee of 

 Free lort was not there in person, he sent us 

 a most valuable essay on timber culture, in 

 which he suggested that its importauce re- 

 quired a special organization for its encour- 

 agement and promotion. 



Mr. Edwards also gave us some good talk 

 and an essay on the influence of trees on the 

 climate ; their usefulness as wind-breaks, 

 shade and ornament; the great value of 

 timber for our every day uses. Our sup- 

 plies are fast disappearing, and from this 

 time on, the lumber markets of the West are 

 bound to advance. 



Mr. Douglas, the king of tree propagation, 

 gave us valuable instruction in that partic- 

 ular trade. When he was pressed to give us 

 an estimate of how many trees ho had in 

 the ditlerent stages of propagation, he re- 

 luctantly told us that he had of the different 

 varieties of the Evergreens and European 

 Larch, about one million transplanted, two 

 and three years old. In the seed beds, not 

 transplanted, one and two years old, at least 

 twenty millions!! Those Illinois gentlemen 

 present, well acquainted with Mr. Douglas, 

 and with his nurseries, said no doubt his 

 estimates were under, rather than over the 

 actual quantity. 



The statement was drawn from him that 

 we might realize to some degree the magni- 

 tude of the work before us, and the amount 

 of this work already begun, of planting trues 

 i.i this c<>untry — a work entrusted to us and 

 to our cliildren, of "subduing the earth," 

 planti g it and finishing it up for the beauty 

 and comfort of the home of both man and 

 beast — the paradise of the world. 



The subject of the apple was fully dis- 

 cussed. Arthur Bryant, Sr., occupied th 

 floor more than half an hour. He has had 

 more than thirty years' experience at Prince- 



ton, III. He says we now have great advan- 

 tage of what he had when he began in 1836. 

 The greater part of the varieties that he 

 planted for several years were not adapted 

 to our climate and soil. And now, for the 

 want of care and information as to what we 

 plant, about one-half are failures. These 

 Horticultural Societies are doing great good 

 in giving information as to what varieties 

 prove profitable. 



We recommended a list for general planting 

 in this part of the State, which list I have 

 not got, but will try and furnish it for your 

 August number of the Pomoloqist. One 

 must plant .such as have succeeded in his 

 neighborhood, and cannot be confined to any 

 other list, and the number of varieties in the 

 orchard should be very few. 



Mr. Dunlap of Champaign, HI., gave us 

 some very good remarks on small fruits and 

 gardening. Every family should have plenty 

 of strawberries, currants, raspberries, black- 

 berries, and grapes, for pleasure, luxury, 

 health, and profit. We are not favored with 

 many other products of the soil that wo can 

 put to all these good uses at the same time. 

 What we want is a little more knowledge of 

 how to cultivate the small fruits, and to bring 

 the girls out into the garden to help raise 

 them. If girls would spend a portion of each 

 pleasant morning and evening in the garden 

 cultivating the soil, it would be health, 

 profit, and pleasure. 



The grape came in for a share of our dis- 

 cussion. We recommended a list— Concord 

 — and we -stojiped there, until some other 

 variety can be produced that is equal to it 

 No doubt we shall soon have other reliable 

 and higher flavored varieties to make up a 

 variety of grapes. 



Ofiicers elected to servo until the annual 

 meeting in December next:— Su el Foster, 

 President; L. KauflTman, Vice-President; 

 J. L. Budil, Secretary ; H. cjtrohm. Treasurer. 

 Also, five Directors, whose names I have not 

 at hand. Our District embraces fifteen 

 counties, namely: Jackson, Clinton, Scott, 

 Louisa, Muscatine, Cedar, Jones, Linn, 

 Johnson, Washington, Keokuk, Iowa, Ben- 

 ton, Tama, Poweshiek. 



The south-east and north-east parts of our 

 State should form a similar Society this Fall, 

 and advance the good work in their parts of 

 the State. Other districts will soon follow, 

 and all will help to build up and support the 

 State Society, rather than detract from it. 

 SuEL Foster. 



For the Westell) Pomolofi-t. 

 Meeting of the Nebraska State Horticul- 

 tural Society. 



Having been at the meeting of the Neb. 

 State Horticultural Society, held at Omaha> 

 June 15th and 16th, I made a few notes 

 which may be of interest to the readers of 

 the Piimdlogist. 



The display of green house plants in pots 

 was very fine. Messrs. Ryan & Co., and 



Mr. Aumuck, of Omaha, and Mr. P. J. 

 Hesser, of Plattsmouth, all exerted them- 

 selves to make the Fair a success. The 

 show of cut flowers and boquets was not 

 what it should have been. The amateur 

 florists of Omaha, must have been asleep to 

 the interests of the Society. Mr. T. J. Allen 

 contributed a large assortment of Rocky 

 mountain flowers, plants and evergreens. 

 Although the evergreens were dug on the 

 11th inst., they were but just commencing 

 to grow. 



'1 he collection of vegetables was credita. 

 ble. 



The amount of small fruit presented was 

 very meagre, for the reason that the crop is 

 almost a total failure in these parts. 



Three varieties of api)les were upon 

 exhibition, Rhenish May, Winesap and Mis- 

 souri Keeper; all in a perfect state of 

 preservation. The first two were grown by 

 the president of the Kociety, Mr. Masters, of 

 Nebraska City. 



We were agreeably surprised by the 

 attendance at our meeting of our fathers in 

 Pomology, Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, Mr- 

 Charles Downing, Messrs. Ellwauger and 

 Barry, and Mr. Clark, of Framingham, 

 Mass. These gentlemen, with their families, 

 are on an excursion to the land of big pears 

 and cheap grapes. 



One anecdote related at the meeting must 

 be preserved in print. 



At the first meeting of the Northwestern 

 Fruit Growers' Association, held at Burling- 

 ton several years ago, Mr. Barry presented 

 samples of New York apples, which were 

 but little more than half the size of Iowa 

 apples beside them, of the same varieties. 

 Upon his attention being called to the fact, 

 he stated that his apples were of only one 

 season's growth, and did not propose to 

 bring them in competition with two or three 

 year olds. 



Judge Mason gave the history of Mason's 

 Mountain Blackberry. He said that one 

 Thompson of blackberry fame, dug up a 

 seedling that had grown from a pile of saw- 

 dust that he had thrown from his ice house . 

 and disseminated it as valuable. The judge 

 says it is utterly worthless. 



H. C. R., Council Bluffs. 



Utility of Fruit. — Good fruit is a great 

 luxury in which all may freely indulge, not 

 only with impunity, but as to health as 

 well as pleasure. It aflbrds wholesome sus- 

 tenance and lessens the excessive use of 

 various articles of diet, the too frequent use 

 of which tends to dyspepsia and other ills 

 which flesh is heir to. In many instances 

 complaints of long standing have yielded to 

 a judicious use of fruits. It has been de- 

 clared by medical men that "apples, eaten 

 at breakfast with coarse bread and butter' 

 without meat, remove constipation, correct 

 acidities, and cool off febrile couditions more 

 effectually than the most approved medi- 



