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THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
THE TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 
TEXAS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
By G. II. Blackmon. 
T HE Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the Texas 
State Horticultural Society was held in the Col¬ 
lege Auditorium at College Station, Texas, 
August 2 and 3, 1915. 
The meeting was called to order at 2 p. m., August 2, 
by the president, Mr. J. H. Arbenz, Sarita, and alter an 
invocation by Mr. J. M. Ramsey, Austin, the horticultur¬ 
ists of Texas were welcomed by E. J. Kyle, Dean of the 
School of Agriculture and Prof, of Horticulture, A. & M. 
College of Texas, College Station. In the course of his 
remarks, Dean Kyle spoke of the work of the Horticul¬ 
tural Department of the College, naming the different 
men in the Department, and giving briefly the educational 
training of each, showing that each is well qualified for 
the work designed for him to do. One important addi¬ 
tion to the Department is that of Landscape Art and 
Floriculture, which is being ably handled by Fritz Hen- 
sel, Jr., a graduate of Cornell University. A hearty and 
cordial welcome was extended the Society, and all were 
asked to visit the Horticultural Department and grounds 
during their short stay at the College. 
The welcome address was responded to by M. Falkner, 
Waco, Texas, who stated that we were all glad to get 
back to College Station and meet again, and assured 
Dean Kyle that the hospitality accorded the Society on 
the part of the College was greatly appreciated. 
The president, J. H. Arbenz, Sarita, Texas, in his an¬ 
nual address, spoke of the work of the Society, and 
especially the work of the Committee on Legislation, 
together with the president, in trying to get the last Texas 
Legislature to pass what was known as “The Horticul¬ 
tural Board Rill.” However, this hill did not pass. He 
spoke further of the handicap the Society was laboring 
under on account of lack of funds to work with. 
The report of the secretary-treasurer, G. II. Blackmon, 
Dallas, showed that he, with the assistant secretary-treas¬ 
urer, I. E. Cowart, College Station, had endeavored to be 
of some service to the horticultural interests of Texas, 
but owing to the lack of funds it was impossible to do 
anything more than in a very limited way. However, 
before leaving College, a plan was adapted, that it is 
thought will bring in some money. The report showed 
that the Society’s financial condition should be 
strengthened as it has been impossible for the treasurer 
to pay off all obligations and start in with a new slate for 
some time. 
Dr. W. B. Bizzell, president of the Agricultural and 
Mechanical College of Texas, in his address before the 
Society, spoke of the importance of horticulture to a 
country. He said that whether or not a state or a sec¬ 
tion of that state was adapted to commercial horticulture, 
still to follow the scheme of farming that is the most 
prosperous, each and every farmer must put into practice 
some of the things advocated by the horticulturist, 
because the successful general farmer, does, or should 
grow to a certain extent, certain horticultural crops, such 
as a home garden, home orchard, vineyard, etc., all of 
which form a part of the most complete plan of general 
farming. 
Ed. L. Ayers, Chief of the Division of Orchard and 
Nursery Inspection of Texas, discussed the citrus canker 
and how the Texas growers are handling the disease. 
In his remarks he brought out the fact that the condition 
is being successfully met with. 
At this time, Mr. Eltweed Pomeroy, Donna, Texas, 
read a paper on Commercial Bulb Growing. This paper 
treated the subject in a purely commercial way, discus¬ 
ing the methods of handling certain bulbs so as to be 
able to grow them profitably on a commercial scale in 
Texas. The marketing of these bulbs was also dis¬ 
cussed to some extent. Mr. Pomeroy is growing large 
quantities of bulbs on his place at Donna, in the Lower 
Rio Gradne Valley, with success, and reports that he finds 
a ready market for them. 
• At this point the chair appointed several committees to 
report later and adjournment was taken until the follow¬ 
ing morning. 
The session of August 3, 8 a. m., was made up largely 
of reports of standing committees and the transaction of 
business. 
• The Committee, appointed some time ago, to get up a 
list of varieties of fruits adapted to different sections of 
Texas, to be published and recommended by the Texas 
State Horticultural Society, of which J. R. Mayhew, 
Waxahachie, Texas, is Chairman, not being ready to re¬ 
port, was continued. 
Several interesting reports from standing committees 
were received. One was the report of the Standing 
Committee on Fruit Statistics, by L. J. Tackett, Fort 
Worth, giving some interesting figures on the production 
of fruit in Texas. His report showed very conclusively 
that in order to produce the best marketable fruit in 
Texas, it will be necessary to equip the orcliardists with 
spraying outfits so that they can go at the spraying in a 
systematic way. He said in part: ***“In this report 1 
shall endeavor to give you figures on peaches and apples 
only, and I believe that data I have herewith compiled is 
as nearly accurate as it is possible to obtain. In the 
year 1914 there were produced in Texas 280,000 bushels 
of apples and 1,110,000 bushels of peaches. Of the 
apple crop, 27 per cent, of this yield was unmarketable 
lor any purpose, 30 per cent, of very low grade and 
barely marketable, 38 per cent, was first class fruit, while 
5 per cent, was extra fancy fruit***. 
“As to the peach production, I wish to state that the 
1914 crop was very light in comparison to other years. 
A normal peach crop in Texas is something over 4,000,000 
bushels. Hence, from the figures above, it is evident that 
the production was scarcely over one-fourth of a normal 
crop.” 
The afternoon of the second day was given over largely 
to “Marketing” and some very able speakers discussed 
this question. Those who led in the discussions were Clar¬ 
ence Ousley, Director of Extension Service, A. & M. Col¬ 
lege of Texas, R. A. Baldwin, of the firm of Baldwin & 
Cargill, Commission merchants, Houston, and Jno. S. 
Kerr, Sherman, Texas. All of these men have made a 
long and continued study of marketing, and brought out 
some very fine points. Organizations and systematic 
packing and marketing were advocated. 
Another speaker at this session of the meeting was Dr. 
Bradford Knapp, of the Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C., who spoke on the relation of the farm 
