70 



SGIENGEl 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 57G. 



THE CALIFORNIA BRANCH OP THE AMERICAN 

 FOLK-LORE SOCIETY. 



The fourth meeting of the California 

 Branch of the American Folk-Lore Society 

 was held_in Eoom 22, South Hall, IJniversity 

 of California, Berkeley, Tuesday, November 

 14, 1905, at 8 p.m. Mr. Charles Keeler pre- 

 sided. 



The minutes of the last meeting were read 

 and approved. The following persons ap- 

 proved by the council were elected to mem- 

 bership in the society, the secretary being in- 

 structed to cast the vote of the society for 

 them: Mr. E. F. Herrick, Mrs. S. C. Bigelow, 

 San Francisco; Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, Mexico; 

 and Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Maurer, Berkeley. 



The president spoke briefly on the aims of 

 the society, reviewed its history, and an- 

 nounced coming meetings. 



Professor John Fryer then delivered a lec- 

 ture, illustrated with specially prepared lan- 

 tern slides, on ' Fox Myths in Chinese Folk- 

 Lore.' Professor Fryer briefly discussed Chi- 

 nese folk-lore in general, its hold on the mind 

 of the people, the important place occupied by 

 superstitions regarding the fox, and recounted 

 a number of interesting and suggestive fox 

 tales. 



Two hundred persons attended the meeting. 



The fifth meeting of the California Branch 

 of the American Folk-Lore Society was held 

 in the Unitarian Church, Berkeley, Thurs- 

 day, December 7, 1905, at 8 p.m. Professor 

 John Fryer presided. 



The minutes of the last meeting were read 

 and approved. 



The following persons approved by the 

 council were elected to membership in the 

 society, the secretary being instructed to cast 

 the vote of the society for them: Mrs. M. S. 

 Biven, Oakland, Miss 6. E. Barnard, Oakland. 



Professor Wm. F. Bade delivered a lecture 

 on ' Hebrew Folk-Lore,' based primarily on 

 folk-lore elements in the Book of Genesis. 



At the conclusion of the lecture a vote of 

 thanks was tendered Professor Bade, as also 

 the trustees of the Unitarian Church. 



One hundred and fifty persons attended the 

 meeting. A. L. Kroeber, 



Secretary. 



DIfSCUS,^ION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 

 the soils for apples. 



In connection with the instructive article 

 of H. J. Wilder on soils suitable for the 

 production of apples (Science, December 1), 

 I call attention to one point which is only 

 casually mentioned by him. 



I think that in general we may draw very 

 useful conclusions as to the primary needs of 

 culture plants from the habitats of their wild 

 congeners or progenitors. In the case of the 

 apple, we have the wild crab apple as a pre- 

 cedent; and any one who has paid attention 

 to such matters will remember the groves of 

 fragrant crab apples on the black prairies of 

 the middle west and southwest, where they 

 sometimes form the almost exclusive tree 

 growth, though varied occasionally with 

 clumps of the large-fruited red-haw (0. coc- 

 cinea) and a honey locust here and there. 

 The soils of these prairies are all distinctly 

 "and sometimes strongly calcareous; and where 

 the latter is the case we usually find the high- 

 est color both of blossoms and of fruit of the 

 crab, and also the most abundant crop. The 

 tree at times invades adjacent hills, and here 

 we may see, by way of contrast, pale flowers 

 and fruit, on long branches with a sparse crop. 



The wild apple is distinctly a calciphile 

 plant, frequenting the heaviest as well as 

 light sandy soils, provided sufiicient lime car- 

 bonate be present. The latter condition rarely 

 exists in the humid region in very sandy soils, 

 because from these the lime is quickly leached 

 into the subsoil or subdrainage whenever they 

 are cultivated. Hence ' naturally the failure 

 of apple orchards to maintain themselves on 

 sandy soils for auy length of time, as indi- 

 cated by Wilder. For it is a priori reasonable 

 to suppose that the cultivated apple, while 

 tolerating soils poor in lime, will also prefer 

 the calcareous soils on which its ancestors 

 flourished, sometimes to the exclusion of all 

 other tree growth. 



The fact that a reasonably calcareous soil 

 is one of the prime conditions for profitable 

 apple culture will, I think, be found abun- 

 dantly verified in the apple-producing districts 

 of the United States. But it must be under- 

 stood distinctly that the current definition of 



