16G JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



be exemplified in each case according to circumstances. Such 

 demonstrations would furnish another reason for those occa- 

 sional meetings at Chiswick, which have been advocated in the 

 earlier part of this address, and would quickly and easily diffuse 

 information, which could not be grasped so readily by a student 

 without such aid. 



Together with these object-lessons, provision should be made 

 for research in the form of trials and experiments on all or any 

 suitable matter of horticultural interest, such as the practical 

 value of various manures, the effects of particular methods of 

 pruning, the value of particular stocks, the efficacy of root- 

 pruning, and so forth. Experiments with various " sprays " in 

 the prevention of the attacks of insects or fungi require to be 

 made with care and discrimination. There can be no doubt as to 

 their value in particular cases under appropriate conditions, but 

 it is a question whether our American friends do not attach 

 too much importance to them as a general panacea, and apply 

 them when commercially speaking there is no need to do so. 

 At any rate, one of the questions that might be determined here 

 in principle, has relation to the practical utility of spraying, to 

 the best modes of carrying it out for different purposes, in different 

 cases and in different seasons. 



Scattered through Germany, France, and other continental 

 countries, and especially in the United States, are very numerous 

 experiment stations, from some of which we might derive some 

 useful hints. Under this impression application for information 

 was addressed to Professor Bailey, of Cornell University, whose 

 answer is here given : — 



" Ithaca, N.Y., May 81, 1897. 

 " Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, London, Eng. 



" My Dear Sir, — Your request for information is at hand, 

 and in reply I may say that we do not have very large planta 

 tions of fruit at the University, but carry on investigations in 

 the large commercial orchards of western New York, of which 

 there are thousands and thousands of acres. We are especially 

 concerned in the methods of cultivating and fertilising orchard 

 lands, in spraying for insects and fungous diseases, determining 

 the very important questions of self-sterility of flowers, adapta- 



