298 



THE POMOLOGIST AND GARDENER. 



1871 



Louisiana, Missouri, took the first premium for the 

 best collection of fall, and also winter apples, like- 

 wise for the best plate of winter apples, which were 

 Winesaps. Several other less premiums were 

 taken, but we were unable to find the exhibitors' 

 names. 



In the nursery stock, Blair Brothers, of Lee Sum- 

 mit, Missouri, took the first premium — a Diploma — 

 for the best display of fruit trees, and also for the 

 best display of ornamental trees and evergreens. 

 This was an excellent show of nursery stock, even 

 much better than they exhibited at St. Louis. Mr. 

 James A. Bayles, of the same place, was a close 

 competitor, and took the second premium In both 

 fruit aud ornamental trees. 



We cannot pass by without mentioning Mr. M. 

 E. McBride, of Independence, Mo., who had also 

 an excellent show of fruit and ornamental trees, 

 with the novelty of having the fruit of each kind 

 attached to its own tree. Here we saw for the first 

 time CaldwaMers' Qolden apple tree, with its fruit 

 attached to the tree. This is a new, handsome ap- 

 ple, just being introduced by E. F. Caldwalder, Pa- 

 ola, Kansas, which we have taken a drawing of, 

 and will at some other time fully illustrate and 

 describe. 



The Kansas Pacific Railroad Company had on ex- 

 hibition a large display of its various products from 

 the "Atmrican desert," which would have been an 

 honor to any State. It was evident that Elliott was 

 not there or we should have found him. The only 

 living thing we found representing the collection 

 was two young Buffaloes, wliich were about as great 

 a curiosity to the people as the Buifalo grass and ag- 

 ricultural products. The wine department was 

 well represented. Isador Bush & Son from St. Louis 

 took most of the premiums, but strange to say, that 

 the best bottle of wine of any sort which took the 

 highest premium was made from the wild grapes 

 which grew on the blufis of the Missouri river. 

 This agrees with our own judgment, as the best 

 American wine we ever tasted was made from the 

 same variety of wild grapes. We have stated this 

 feet repeatedly, and frequently reported the same, 

 but we are a slow people to believe that we are 

 blessed at home with .such fine native grapes free 

 from disease, and fully adapted to our locality ; and 

 we have also been even ridiculed in attempting to 

 show it a distinct species, heretofore confounded 

 with the i€stiivdis species. Mr. R. H. Higgins, of 

 Miania, Missouri, took the first premium for his 

 seedling peach, called "Fail Blush" — ripe from the 

 10th of October to the 20tb, and will keep a month 

 longer, good in quality for so late a peach, about 

 the size and shape of " Black's Early." 



Ro.\STED. — Ten acres of potatoes were lately 

 roasted at once, and without digging, in Wisconsin. 



Lessons of 1869 and 'TO. 



By Dr. Jameb Weed, Muscatine. 



Ed. Pomologist and Gardener. — On the 8th 

 of April, 1865, the temperature fell to 15°— 17° be- 

 low freezing, after the fruit buds had become con- 

 siderably swollen. In December preceeding, it had 

 fallen to 16° below zero — 48° below freezing, 

 which killed the germs of the flower-buds of the 

 peach and a part of those of the Early Richmond 

 and Morello cherries. 



I had previously imderstood that spring frosts 

 would not kill fruit unless the flowers were fully 

 open, which is true of ordinary light frosts. When 

 the trees came into bloom, in some varieties of the 

 apple and pear, the blossoms developed very irregu- 

 larly, some of the side flower stems elongating 

 fully, while the central one, which should be the 

 longest and others, were short and stinted ; and in 

 the cherries a large portion of the flowers had no 

 germ or pistil, while those buds which had been 

 killed by the cold in December, did not open at all. 



Last spring, 1870, was attended with similar 

 causes and results. 



7 A. M. 



April 14, 64° 



" 15, 34° 



" 16, 25° 



" 17, 25° 



Ice formed }4 '"ch thick. Although the tem- 

 perature was only 7° below freezing on the morn- 

 ing of the 16th, it was repeated on the 17th while 

 it was only a little above freezing at 2 o'clock of the 

 day intervening, the fruit-buds were much more 

 swollen than when 17° of frost occurred on the 8th 

 of April, 1865. The germs of many of the cherry 

 blossoms were again deficient and the apples show- 

 ed all the same irregularity in their development. 



In looking over this abnormal inflorescence I 

 observed an anomaly, a hlossmn mlhovt a flower. 

 Several of these were found, and investigating 

 more closely I found the flower petals still adher- 

 ing to the receptacle inside the calyx, bright color- 

 ed but only about one sixteenth of an inch in 

 diameter. Evidently these flower leaves had attain- 

 ed to this size within the largely swollen buds, 

 when 7° of frost destroyed their vitality and im- 

 paired that of the flower stems that elongated so 

 imperfectly. 



In the discussions, as reported, at the Autumn and 

 Winter meetings regarding the cause of the failure 

 of the fruit crop of '70, Mr. Foster and others 

 thought it was owing to the extraordinary and ex- 

 tremely early frosts of the Autumn of '69, but no 

 one suspected that Spring frosts had caused any 

 damage; indeed it was understood that nodam.age- 

 ing Winter or Spring frosts had occurred. It is 

 very much more easy for smart men to guess at 



