50 
AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
•If the Society has any influence whatever it should exert that influence 
toward securing decent names for the fruits we send out. All of us are open 
to receive information regarding the best system for accomplishing this object. 
Its importance cannot be overestimated, and I believe that unless this Society 
takes some steps to reform the old methods, we are going to be placed in a 
bad way. We have all made mistakes, and it is urgently necessary that those 
mistakes be corrected. I do not want to be placed on the committee that has 
been ordered on this subject but I urge upon that committee to take up this 
question in a practical way and bring in such a report as will reflect the sen- 
timent of this Society in favor of a radical change in pomologicai nomen- 
clature. We have given such names to fruits as it was thought would help 
their sale, regardless of other considerations; but no one of us would give a 
discreditable name to a child of ours, and it is equally incumbent upon us to 
avoid giving a repulsive or unsatisfactory name to a product which we send 
out. It is our urgent duty to consider this question in the near future and take 
decisive action upon it. 
President Watrous good humoredly remarked that he desired to serve 
notice, in view of what Mr. Barry had said, that that gentleman would be 
asked to serve on the committee that had been authorized. 
Upon motion the Society adjourned to meet at 8 p. m. 
THURSDAY EVENING SESSION. 
Thursday, Sept. 27, 1899. 
The Society reassembled in Horticultural Hall at 8 o’clock p. m.; Presi- 
dent Watrous in the chair. 
The first business was the reading of a paper on the “Importance of the 
Plant Individual in Horticultural Operations,” by Prof. G. Harold Powell, of 
Delaware College, Newark, Del. 
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PLANT INDIVIDUAL IN HORTI- 
CULTURAL OPERATIONS. 
BY PROF. G. HAROLD POWELL, DELAWARE COLLEGE, NEWARK, 
DELAWARE. 
The observing fruit grower cannot walk through h'is orchard without being 
impressed with the individuality expressed by the trees of a single variety. 
The little differences that distinguish one Bartlett pear tree from every other 
one may find expression in slight variations in the form of the foliage, or in 
its resistance to fungous attacks; in the early or later blooming of the flow- 
ers; in the early tendency of the tree to fruitfulness, its prolificacy, or its 
hardiness; in the size, the color, or the quality of the fruit. 
I have been observing and recording the personal traits of a dozen Crandall 
currant bushes for a number of years. Two bloom a week in advance of the 
others; two begin to ripen their fruit in advance, some bear small berries, 
others berries twice as large, some are enormously productive, others only 
one-fourth as heavy, and one appears to have a scarcity of foliage on account 
of its long internodes. 
