TWENTY-SIXTH SESSION. 
23 
first of August. He said lie thought it useless to suggest anything with 
respect to lessening the amount of cultivation that is usually given because 
there was not one man in ten thousand who would ever cultivate too much; 
the trouble was the other way; and if there was any recommendation of a 
date he thought it should be one that would cover the whole country. 
Mr. Hale: This is a broad question and one that is governed by local con- 
ditions. Our friend from Iowa (Mr. Patten) stated the point very clearly. 
You must use a little horse sense and be governed by your own locality and 
your own climatic conditions. Many a plant has failed to fruit in the fol- 
lowing year because cultivation ceased too early and the wood and fruit buds 
ripened too soon. Many a peach bud has-been killed in the winter because 
cultivation stopped early, buds ripened up in September or October, then 
were swollen by warm, wet weather in Novemeber and then killed in Decem- 
ber; while the trees that did not form their buds until later were all right. 
Up to 42° N. L. at least, on the Atlantic coast, we have been ceasing our 
cultivation too early. The question is a local one and we must all act accord- 
ing to our conditions. Only remember that early ripened wood and loss of 
foliage is not always a good omen of winter hardiness. 
Mr. Geo. E. Murrell, Virginia: I have a peach orchard on a mountain 
ridge, and all of it has had the same cultivation and care. One portion of 
that orchard is on richer land than the other portion, and the trees on the 
richer land necessarily made the more vigorous growth. Two years ago last 
Spring, while those trees were in full blossom, the temperature dropped to 
17°. Those trees on the richer land and with the most vigorous growth 
brought through a full crop, those on the thin land did not. In the Spring, a 
year ago, we had an intensely cold winter and the buds were entirely dor- 
mant; the trees on the thin land perfected the crop and those on the rich 
land did not. Thus the conditions were exactly reversed. We could not 
always depend upon cultivation or mulching to give so decided a result. 
The Secretary read an invitation from Dreer’s Nurseries for members to 
visit their place at Riverton, N. J., and the Society adjourned to meet at 2 
p. m. Immediately after adjournment a goodly number assembled in front 
of the building where a group photograph was taken. (See frontispiece). 
THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION. 
September 7, 2 o’clock, p. m. 
At the afternoon session, (President Watrous in the chair,) the presenta- 
tion of reports from committees was the first business. 
Prof. Wm. B. Alwood, Chairman of the Committee on Order of Business, 
reported that, as all the gentlemen to whom specific subjects had been 
assigned for discussion at the afternoon session were present, the program 
as previously arranged by the Secretary would be followed; also that printed 
programs, giving the business of the different sessions of the Convention in 
detail, would be promptly distributed among the delegates. He added that 
the Committee recommended that the hour of adjournment and the place of 
meeting in the evening be determined forthwith. 
Dr. E. M. Hexamer moved to hold the evening session at Wissahickon Inn, 
the hotel headquarters; but objection being made that this would interfere 
