THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
145 
necked bottles, where, preserved in alcohol, were numbers of 
“ apple berries ” from Russia. These have the long stem of 
the crab apple, with the bud end of the same, but they are as 
small as large blue berries. These had been brought from 
Russia by Prof. Olson, and it is claimed that these little ber¬ 
ries are the original of the apple; that these little berries were 
all the world at first knew of apples, and since that time, by 
progression, seeding and propagation, the apple has grown to 
be what it is. 
MICHIGAN. 
The Michigan Horticultural Society held its twenty-ninth 
annual meeting at Holland, December 5-7. The society took 
steps to institute village improvement societies throughout the 
state, the committee submitting a form of constitution and by¬ 
laws suitable for such organizations, and urging their estab¬ 
lishment in every Michigan town and village. Papers were 
prepared by Charles W. Garfield, Prof. L. R. Taft, C. J. Mon¬ 
roe, R. M. Kellogg, Walter Phillip and others. Among the 
subjects discussed were: Value of tree culture in rural districts, 
ornamentation of highways and school yards, science with rela¬ 
tion to horticulture. 
VERMONT. 
The fourth annual meeting of the Vermont Horticultural 
Society was held at Burlington, December 12. President 
Kinney in his address urged Vermont growers not to fear com¬ 
petition from the West in the apple business. 
Prof. Perkins of the experiment station reported the dis¬ 
covery of the San Jose scale in Vermont. 
L. M. Macomber spoke of pear culture. He said that in 
some ways pear culture is now more promising than apple. 
The great difficulty with pear-growing has been the dissemi¬ 
nation of so many varieties bearing small and early fruit. 
What we want is large late-keeping varieties, just the same as 
we have found them essential to the commercial apple busi¬ 
ness. 
Luther Putnam spoke of the northern apple, and told of the 
progress which has been made in the introduction of hardy 
varieties into the colder parts of the state. 
E. C. Brown described “The Sorrows of the Tree Peddler.” 
He told how many of the miscarriages charged to tree agents 
are really due to the carelessness, ignorance* and cupidity of 
the farmer who buys the trees. Considerable discussion fol¬ 
lowed, in which the opinion was freely expressed that profound 
and inexcusable ignorance on the part of certain farmers alone 
explains the success of the fruit agent in most of his tricks. 
County vice-presidents reported a small crop of fruit last 
year, but high prices. The prospect for small fruits next year 
is not the best, but orchard fruits promise well. 
OHIO. 
The thirty-third annual meeting of the Ohio Horticultural 
Society was held at Newark, December 6 8. There was a 
large display of fruit ; of apples 200 plates. President E. H. 
Cushman in his address said that complaints were frequently 
coming to the officers from distant points, saying that fruit-tree 
agents were claiming to work under the sanction oi the 
society, and working off spurious and over-praised varieties at 
an enormous price upon innocent and unsuspecting purchasers. 
The society should clear itself of such charges, and plainly 
make known that it was behind no tree-selling schemes of any 
party whatever. 
W. G. Farnsworth, from near Toledo, had a fine crop of 
peaches. Elberta I rought 60 cents per one-sixth bushel. 
Crosby and Salway averaged $2 per bushel. 'The Crosby is 
hardy in bud but tender in root and many trees were killed by 
the cold snap. 'They leaved out and bloomed, but soon 
withered and died. In digging them out, the collar and upper 
roots were black, with loose bark, while roots lower down were 
fresh and apparently unhurt. As communication was cut off 
between the top and roots, the tree of course died. N. H. 
Albaugh, Phoneton, said they took advantage of the fact that 
there was to be no peach crop, to cut back all their trees. 
They cut limbs of all sizes from two inches down, but those 
where the place of severing was about one-half inch did better 
than larger ones. Keiffer pears were the only variety which 
did anything in the pear line. They produced abundantly 
and sold for $1 per bushel. 
COLORADO. 
The annual meeting of the Colorado Horticultural Society 
was held in Denver, November 27—29. President Brothers 
in his address noted the scarcity of fruit during 1899, except 
in favored localities. He emphasized the importance of selec¬ 
tion of varieties and winter protection. Secretary Martha 
Shute reported that the fruit show during the Festival of 
Mountain and Plain included 700 exhibitors and 2160 square 
feet of tables. The estimated planted area of the state in fruit 
trees was 142,500 acres, with increase of 20 per cent, in 
planting and 30 per cent, in bearing, making 56,000 acres in 
bearing. The figures of last year were 8,330 acres of small 
fruits, 6,250 acres pear trees, 81,250 acres apple orchards, 
22,920 acres stone fruits; in all, 118,752. Value of fruit, 
$6,000,000. In 1893 Colorado brought back from the world’s 
fair 25 medals of award ; in 1898 she brought from Omaha 7 
gold, 20 silver and 16 bronze medals. 
ONTARIO. 
The thirty-first annual meeting of the Ontario Fruit Grow¬ 
ers’ Association was held at Whitby, December 5-6. An ex¬ 
ample of dishonestly packed apples was exhibited. Canada 
apples have acquired a bad name in England as compared with 
those sent from the United States. Prof. Saunders, superin¬ 
tendent of the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, exhibited 
some new varieties of apples, believed to be hardy enough to 
stand the climate of the Northwest, produced by cross fertiliz¬ 
ation of hardy Siberian wild crab with the best hardy apples 
under cultivation in the East. A resolution was unanimously 
carried approving the action of the department of agriculture 
in taking measures to stamp out the San Jose scale, and re¬ 
gretting that there should be any relaxation of the law. 
MARYLAND. 
The second annual meeting of the Maryland Horticultural 
Society was held at Baltimore, December 6-7. Prof. W. G. 
Johnson, state entomologist, reported that he spent nearly 
nine months of the year in field work, inspecting nurseries and 
orchards. As reported to the American Agriculturist, forty- 
eight nurseries have been inspected. These nurseries contain 
6,000,000 fruit trees, to say nothing of small fruit plants esti¬ 
mated at 28,000,000. The system of fumigation adopted has 
worked successfully, and Prof. Johnson considers it the only 
adequate protection from the San Jose scale, and of great 
value in other respects. Experiments have been made to show 
