174 FIRST 



intending to work in this line. He had samples of bud- 

 ding and grafting on exhibition to show the different 

 methods employed by nurserymen in growing trees. 

 His samples of three-year old apple trees were very fine 

 and caused much comment on the various modes of 

 propagating them. Prof. C. E. Bessey said he had been 

 in doubt for some time whether a perfect tree could be 

 grown from a piece-root graft, but his doubts were all 

 removed now after an examination of these trees ; that 

 there was botanically no objection to them. The sam- 

 ples showed conclusively what has been claimed from 

 time to time by the advocates of this system : that after 

 three years growth, the tree would be upon its own roots, 

 and that the short piece-root would never develop to 

 any great extent. As this subject has been much agi- 

 tated during the last two or three years, the members 

 showed a disposition to discuss it at some length. As 

 fully seventy-five per cent, of apple seedlings are tender 

 and will winter kill, it follows that any system of propa- 

 gation which exposes the seedling root to the air, and 

 consequently to the frosts of winter, is radically wrong. 

 Budding and whole-root grafting come under the head 

 of methods that expose these seedling roots, and, hence 

 are not so well adapted for producing hardy trees as the 

 piece-root system. T. T. Lyon, of South Haven, 

 Michigan, who was in attendance as a delegate from 

 the Michigan Horticultural Society, said he had been 

 quoted as an advocate of whole-root grafting, but he 

 wished to state that he is in favor of that system which 

 gets a tree on its own roots in the least possible time; 

 that the piece-root method filled these requirements 

 better than any other for nearly all varieties of apple 

 trees, and was, consequently the best method. Yet, in 

 some instances, it seemed that it is almost impossible to 

 grow such varieties as the Canada Red without resort- 

 ing to double working ; and in such cases it is advisable 

 to produce the stock by piece-root grafting. 



In a paper on Forestry, A. J. Brown, of Geneva, 

 gave a number of measurements which he had made in 

 his vicinity, which go to show how rapidly forest trees 

 will grow in this State. Space forbids our going into 

 details. Ash, box, elder, soft maple, elm, catalpa and 

 Russian mulberry had been most successful in his por- 

 tion of the State. Notwithstanding the fact, that ash is 

 considered a slow grower, he found that in trees of fif- 

 teen years of age and older it was larger by consider- 

 able than many other apparently faster growers. E. F. 

 Stephens' article, "Should the Timber Culture Law be 

 Repealed," brought out many facts worthy of note. He 

 is contracting largely to plant out timber claims for 

 eastern persons, and has planted many million trees in 

 the past three years. He says that forest trees can be 

 grown successfully where corn will fail. He is especi- 

 ally successful in the sand-hill regions, and says he 

 experiences no difficulty whatever in getting trees to 

 grow there. While there are, no doubt many persons 

 who are trying to evade the law in regard to planting 

 these timber claims, yet upon the whole, nearly every 

 one desires to have his claim set out with good trees. 

 There are, probably, not more persons trying to evade 



FR UITS. 



this law than there are trying to find the weak points in 

 the homestead and pre-emption laws. As to its work- 

 ing a hardship on the holder, by asking him to do the 

 impossible (as is told by many who are working for the 

 repeal of the law), he thinks it is not any harder to 

 plant, or cause to be planted, ten acres of trees in a 

 region of limited rain-fall, than it would be to ask the 

 settler to live on this same land and make his living by 

 farming it ; as all well-informed persons know that 

 trees will live with much less moisture than will pro- 

 duce a crop of corn. As a matter of fact, the only 

 reason why some persons wish this law repealed, is be- 

 cause they find it takes too long to obtain title to the 

 land, and consequently is not a good investment for 

 speculators. Persons who actually wish to comply with 

 the intent of the law have no objections to it and would 

 like to see it remain in force. 



Professor Charles E. Bessey gave one of his admira- 

 ble lectures on "Fertilization, Crossing and Hybridi- 

 zation of Plants." After explaining the theoretical 

 part of this subject he proceeded to show his listeners 

 the practical ways of producing crosses in plants. In 

 his opinion the day is not far distant when the practical 

 horticulturist will effect such crosses each year as the 

 necessities of his business seem to demand ; and that 

 crosses will be made from time to time with a specific 

 object in view, just as the observant breeder of cattle or 

 horses breeds for a certain purpose. In regard to the 

 effect fertilization may have upon the fruit of the sea- 

 son in which it is effected, the Professor said, it is against 

 all theories of scientific men to suppose that it would 

 have any effect, except upon the seed ; yet, recent ex- 

 periments seem to favor the belief that the fruit is some- 

 times changed a little by fertilization with the pollen 

 from a different variety. Several of the members had 

 noticed a marked change in the Crescent strawberry 

 when grown near and fertilized by some firmer variety. 

 Others had seen the Winesap apple much improved in 

 color and size by being grown alongside of the Ben 

 Davis. The Professor would not say that these appar- 

 ent changes are not real ; but he advised all the^members 

 to make such experiments as they could, and he thought 

 in the course of a few years we would be more able to 

 tell, without gutssing, whether or not there is anything in 

 the supposed effect. Many other valuable papers were 

 read. 



Of the business measures adopted at this meeting we 

 must not fail to mention the action taken in regard to 

 the proposed scheme for the horticultural exhibit at the 

 World's Columbian Exposition. It appears that a 

 scheme has been proposed, whereby the whole horti- 

 cultural exhibit is to be headed by the department of 

 viticulture with its attendant industries, wine-making, 

 etc., and that pomology is to be placed last on the list. 

 Of course, all horticulturists who have any love for 

 their profession do not care to have a liquor show at the 

 head of their exhibition, and accordingly, in conjunc- 

 tion with the Michigan Society, delegates were ap- 

 pointed to wait upon the Director General, and urge 



