August 3, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



371 



deter, and no one would wish to deter, cultivators from pro- 

 tecting; their crops by the use of insecticides so long as it is 

 profitable to do so. In suggesting that in orcharding, at least, 

 we might find an easier and better way out by the adoption of 

 species and varieties of greater resisting capacity than those 

 we at present possess, I but point out a resource which has 

 not yet attracted much attention except among the fruit-grow- 

 ers of the cold north, who have been forced for (luite other 

 reasons to become familiar with a distinct class of tree-fruits — 

 namely, those of north-eastern Europe and north-eastern Asia. 

 Primarily, these were brought to America because of their 

 hardiness against cold. E.xperience is showing us that they 

 also excel our older fruits, derived from western Europe, in 

 other important points; and among ■ these are those very 

 troubles for relief from which the orchardists of our states of 

 milder climate are resorting so extensively to fungicide and 

 insecticide spraying. 



Among the greatest difficulties encountered in our earlier 

 efforts toward orcharding in the north-east was the fact that 

 even when we got hold of tolerably hardy varieties of the old 

 stock — such as Fameuse and Mcintosh I^ed — we found them 

 falling speedy victims to fungous spotting. Growing alongside 

 of these strongest among the weaklings, however, we could 

 but notice the very different conditions of the few trees of the 

 early importation, via England, of Russian apples. Quite free 

 from fungi, and ntuch less injured by the Codlin worm, these 

 Russians attracted marked attention, in contrast with the few 

 kinds of the old stock which we grew, but only at " a poor dy- 

 ing rate." Now, I am not a monomaniac on these eastern 

 apples and pears, or on anything else, I hope ; but this I know, 

 that whereas once I despaired of our ever establishing or- 

 charding on a commercial basis in northern New England, 

 Quebec and New Brunswick, now, by the introduction of these 

 fruit-trees of Russia, we are being rapidly placed in a better 

 position than the great fruit-growing middle slates. And 

 while I am quite desirous that these iron-clads should be better 

 known and understood in that section where they are most 

 needed, I also want their good qualities to become known 

 elsewhere. I believe the time will come when their wider 

 adaptation to all of North America, east of the Rockies, will 

 be understood, and the work of replacing with them the or- 

 chards of the less well-adapted fruits of western Europe be 

 taken up. Certainly, the strongest protection of our orchards 

 must be found in the vigorous organization of the trees which 

 compose them. This is equally true as against climate, in- 

 sects and fungi. 



It was certainly an astonishment to me to read in Professor 

 Bailey's article the statement, that if every variety of Apple 

 subject to apple-scab were uprooted, " then, in western New 

 York, at least, we should have no market apples left." I can- 

 not suspect a man of scientific training of exaggeration, yet I 

 can hardly conceive of this state of things as being true. If it 

 be generally true, then the orchardists of our middle states 

 cannot too soon give their attention to the selection of better 

 varieties of apples from a more vigorous race. The apple- 

 scab fungus attacks both leaf and fruit. Its seat is, primarily, 

 upon the leaf, but the constitutional defect which admits of its 

 attacks adheres in the entire tree, and in the race of trees so 

 subject. The remedy, therefore, must be a radical one. De- 

 cadence is sure in the orchards of New York, unless such a 

 radical remedy is found. The pomologists attached to the 

 agricultural schools of the states where this disease of the 

 apple prevails should not be satisfied with palliatives, but 

 should earnestly study to understand and master the whole 

 array of facts regarding the tree-fruits of other continents and 

 their adaptation to our own. 



This is a wider field than I ever expected to enter upon in 

 my pomological studies. I can only indicate a path for 

 younger men to explore. 



Newport, V(. T. H. HoskillS. 



Recent Publications. 



The Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agrictdture. Cen- 

 tennial year (1792-1892). 



In this modest volume of 146 pages there is simply told 

 something of the history and achievements of this venerable, 

 although still active, society, which, a few weeks ago, cele- 

 brated the centennial anniversary of its organization on the 

 14th of June, 1792, although it had been incorporated by an 

 act of the Massachusetts Legislature passed on March 7th of 

 that year. John Hancock, as Governor of the Commonwealth, 

 signed the deed of corporation, and the name of Samuel 

 Adams appears at the head of the list of the incorporators. 



It is interesting to note that the Massachusetts society ante- 



dates all others in that state, and, as a corporation, all similar 

 societies in the United States, although associations for the ad- 

 vancement of agriculture had been established a few years 

 earlier in New York and Pennsylvania ; there was an earlier 

 society in Canada, while in Great Britain, to which we are ac- 

 customed to look for agricultural leadership, little had been 

 done until the beginning of the present century in organizing 

 agricultural education, although at the time the citizens of 

 Boston were engaged in this work the Dublin Agricultural 

 Society, for many years a feeble body, was in existence, and 

 the Highland Society had been incorporated in 1778. The 

 British Board of Agriculture was not established, however, 

 until 1793. 



From the beginning the Massachusetts Society has been 

 managed by a board of twelve trustees, including the presi- 

 dent, two vice-presidents, a treasurer, and recording and cor- 

 responding secretaries, and it is an interesting fact, suggestive 

 of the stability of Massachusetts families, that the same names 

 appear generation after generation in the roll of the trustees ; 

 it is pleasant, too, to note that a member of the present board, 

 a man honored for learning, integrity and public spirit, is the 

 great-grandson of the first vice-president and of the first 

 president, and the grandson of the sixth president. Tliere is, 

 perhaps, no other roll of officers of a corporate society in the 

 United States which contains the names of such a list of dis- 

 tinguished men, and, certainly, no other organization of the 

 kind has done more to promote the agricultural development 

 of the country. Thomas Russell, the first president of the so- 

 ciety, was one of the foremost and most prosperous citizens 

 of Boston, the first president of the Massachusetts Bank, organ- 

 ized in 1784, of the United States Branch Bank at its organiza- 

 tion in 1792, and of the Charles River Bridge Corporation. In 

 the list of petitioners for the society appear, too, such well- 

 known names as Martin Brimmer, John Codman, Christopher 

 Gore, a senator in Congress from 1813 to 1816 and a bene- 

 factor of Harvard College by a gift of $100,000, at that time an 

 enormous sum ; of Benjamin Guild, Steven Higginson, John 

 Lowell, Jonathan Mason, David Sears and Thomas L. Winthrop. 

 John Adams was president of the society from 1805 to 1813. 

 Among the trustees have been three generations of John 

 Lowells. John Thornton Kirkland, afterward president of 

 Harvard College, was a trustee from 1798 to 181 1. Fisher 

 Ames served on the board from 1800 to 1804, and Josiah 

 Quincy from 1805 to 1809. Daniel Webster, who took a deep 

 interest in its proceedings, was a trustee from 1833 to 1853, 

 Edward Everett from 1850 to 1855, and Robert C. Winthrop 

 from 1853 to 1862 ; and there is hardly a family that has been 

 prominent in the last hundred years m building up the ma- 

 terial prosperity of the commonwealth which has not had 

 its representative at some time or other on this board. 



This is hardly the occasion to recite all that the society has 

 accomplished for agriculture, as the term is usually under- 

 stood, in the past hundred years ; but the trustees have admin- 

 istered their trust in a broad and intelligent spirit, and we find 

 that, in addition to the improvement of live stock and the in- 

 crease of good tillage, they have been occupied from very 

 early days in developing the knowledge of botany, horticul- 

 ture and silviculture. 



At the second meeting of the society a paper on the 

 diseases of fruit-trees, that had been recently printed by 

 William Forsyth, gardener to the King of England, was 

 read and afterward reprinted in the society proceedings. 

 At the meeting held in January, 1793, the society voted 

 to offer two premiums, the first in its history, for " the 

 most satisfactory account of the natural history of the Canker- 

 worm " and "for the most effectual and cheapest method of 

 destroying these insects." The trustees, in February, 1794, 

 appointed a committee "to consider the expediency of pro- 

 curing a piece of ground for the purpose of agricultural ex- 

 periments." Finally, this project took a different shape, and 

 led to the establishment of the Botanic Garden at Cambridge. 

 In 1801, the society voted to appropriate $500 toward the foun- 

 dation at Harvard College of a professorship of natural his- 

 tory, which was finally established in 1804. The plan, so far 

 as connected with the object of the society, provided for the 

 scientific observation of the growth of plants and of the habits 

 of insects injurious to them, and for the cultivation for sale 

 and distribution of the seeds and roots of useful plants. The 

 co-operation of the society and the college in conducting the 

 Botanic Garden continued for a quarter of a century, during 

 which period the society voted annually a sum of money from 

 its own funds for carrying on the garden. The Harvard gar- 

 den was the first botanic garden connected with a public insti- 

 tution founded in the New World, the only earlier garden of 

 scientific reputation having been the so-called botanic garden 



