364 



FIRST FRUITS. 



the finance committee : J. Pierpont Morgan, Andrew 

 Carnegie, William C. Schermerhorn, John S. Kennedy, 

 Morris K. Jessup, Richard T. Auchmuty, D. O. Mills, 

 James R. Pitcher, Jesse Seligman, Edward Cooper, 

 Samuel Sloan, Louis Fitzgerald, William E. Dodge, 

 Robert Macaly, Eugene Kelly, Jr., James A. Scrymser, 

 Timothy F. Allen, Percy R. Pyne, Charles F. Cox and 

 Charles P. Daly. The committee on constitution and 

 by-laws was as follows : Seth Low, Charles A. Dana, 

 Stephen P. Nash, Parke Godwin, Samuel W. Fairchild, 

 William G. Choate, William H. S. Wood, Nelson Smith, 

 George M. Olcutt and Addison Brown. 



A Great Plant Show will be held at Madison 

 Square Garden, New York, next November. An ex- 

 tended premium list is offered, and it is expected that 

 heating and ventilating apparatus will be well repre- 

 sented. The following are the ' ' rules and regulations ; ' ' 



1. The exhibition will be open to the public Novem- 

 ber 2d to 8th. 



2. The gardens will .be open for the reception of ex- 

 hibits on November ist. 



3. All exhibits, of whatever kind, must be in position 

 by 2 p. M., November 2d. 



4. Intending exhibitors will please correspond with 

 the secretary for information regarding entries and de- 

 tails. 



5. Except where stated, one or more stems or plants 

 are admissible in chrysanthemum bush specimens. 



6. Correspondence and suggestions are desired from 

 all those who are interested in the progress of horticul- 

 ture. 



It is expected that this will be the " greatest floral ex- 

 hibition ever held in America." J. W. Morrissey is sec- 

 retary. 



Oregon Fruit Prospects. — With one exception, re- 

 ports are all favorable to Oregon's fruit crop this year. 

 The exception is hardly to be considered, since it relates 

 to peach growing in the Willamette valley. Only a few 

 very favorable sections in this valley will, so far as ex- 

 perience goes, allow of successful peach culture, and 

 these favorable sections have an area of only a few 

 score acres. 



Southern Oregon promises an abundance of peaches, 

 plums, prunes, pears and apples, and all kinds of small 

 fruits. Eastern Oregon expects a fair crop of peaches, 

 although these are not counted on, save in the Snake River 

 valley ; plums and prunes will be abundant ; pears and 

 apples full crop, unless orchardists neglect to do their 

 duty by the codlin moth. The strawberry crop will be 

 exceptionally large in the Hood River valley, while the 

 outlook for other fruits in that section is very good. 



In the Willamette valley, including the many little off- 

 shoots, the prospects for full fruit crops were never 

 better. The orchards have been one mass of bloom — 

 for a time it literally covered the moss ('tis unfortunate 

 that our fruit trees are not quite everblooming). Though 

 the season has been backward (about two weeks), we 



have had no late frosts. A few cool rains, falling dur- 

 ing the early part of this month, have checked the 

 strawberry crop somewhat. 



The pestiferous little codlin moth has put in her ap- 

 pearance, some of them being on the wing as early as 

 May ist. At the rate we have been progressing during 

 the last three years, it will take a quarter of a century 

 for our otherwise progressive orchardists to learn that 

 the codlin moth does not "perish from the earth " in 

 this web-foot climate. Many orchardists, last year, in- 

 sisted on waiting till some apples were affected before 

 they decided to spray. They wanted to see if the moth 

 was really on hand. They found out to their own loss. 

 Still, some will try the same thing this year ; they don't 

 want to appear over-credulous. 



Though the outlook for small fruits is good, the out- 

 put will not be as large, relatively speaking, as of the 

 larger fruits. During the past few years, the plantings 

 of small fruits have not kept pace with the orchard 

 plantings. Around the larger cities, where have been 

 our largest small fruit gardens, real estate has been held 

 so high, and so much has been put upon the market as 

 "corner lots," that these gardens have been abandoned 

 and, with two exceptions, Hood River valley and Grand 

 Ronde valley, out-lying sections have not planted a 

 corresponding area. This condition of affairs will not 

 last long, however, for the present spring witnessed 

 great activity in small fruit planting in several locali- 

 ties. All told, Oregon's fruit prospects have not been so 

 bright in years, nor have her horticulturists manifested 

 such a progressive spirit as we are able to note to-day. — 

 E. B. Lake. 



California State Floral Society — Semi-Annual 

 Exhibition, May 6 to g.— Would you had all been there 

 to see and feast upon the delicious fragrance and rare 

 beauty of the scene by day and by electric light at 

 night, in the large auditorium of the new Academy of 

 Sciences ! The galleries and balconies were adorned 

 with ferns, fan-palms, graceful bamboos, red-wood 

 sprays, gay bunting, lanterns and Japanese umbrellas 

 up to the high dome ; masses of roses, sweet peas and 

 carnations stood on every side; young "Norfolk-Island 

 pines '' grew here and there, and there were tall palms 

 in the center. The first to strike the attention was 

 Phcenix Canariensis , surrounded by a hundred or more 

 pure white chrysanthemums. 



A twenty-five dollar prize went to Mrs. C. H. Hoh- 

 meisner for foliage, flowering and decorative plants from 

 her greenhouse, arranged under a tree-fern bearing a 

 bunch of big snow-balls tied with wide white ribbon ; 

 roses and largest of pansies, among Polystichum angidare 

 and other rare ferns ; heliotropes with broad ribbon 

 bows of same color and handsome begonias. Second 

 premium went to Mrs. L. O. Hodgkins, whose display 

 was one of the handsomest in the hall, choice ferns, 

 begonias, large Liliitin tigridiiim and several specimens of 

 the long white racemes of Xenophylhim tcnax or ' ' bear- 

 grass," a wild-flower related to the asphodel. 



