ugly calloused wounds. I should with present experience cut back the tops and remove as many of the scars as possible. The wounds in time grew over, but there always remains a defective spot in the wood.

F. W. Hart: I hardly understand this locust question. Our last visit was in 1871.

Mr. Kretchmer: Prof. Riley has been giving very careful attention to the limits of the families or broods as they occur in the western states, which conclusions have been published in the entomological reports of the state of Missouri.

Mr. Shaw, Decatur county: There is one fact relative to the appearance of young borers on our trees during the summer not well understood. I believe the beetle deposits the eggs, as has been said, in May and June. But the eggs do not all hatch at once. I have known the young borer to hatch, and begin his bark explorations, even as late as September.

John M. Dixon: In 1856 I had a lot of trees in an orchard not as clean in trunk, and as thrifty as I could wish. I washed them two or three times with the soap solution, not specifically to kill borers, but to improve appearance. I happened to hit the right time to head off the borers. My neighbors complained that their young orchards were being eaten up by the borers. One of the sufferers assured me he was sure my trees were going in the same way. He got down and made a thorough examination and found not one. I had no borers in my orchard for the first ten years during which time I soaped them regularly every June. As soon as I quit soaping the borers came in. The eggs are usually laid about the first of June. The beetle does not deposit the eggs on the bark, as Harris says, but in a little angular slit in the bark, which one can notice before he will notice the eggs with the naked eye. The little worms as they hatch do not bore directly into the bark, but go off in an angular direction quite near to the surface. The time of egg deposit varies in different years and varied parts of the State. But the soap remedy is sure, as the little worm is destroyed even after commencing his boring operations. There is no need of digging them out with the knife if we remember to soap at the proper time.

D. W. Kauffman: Fourteen years ago I set trees intended for orchard in a young nursery. Around the orchard trees I placed early in the season a small mound of ashes. The nursery trees got borers in, but I found none where I placed the rim of ashes.

Greenbury Wood: Is there any danger of injury to the trees if new strong ashes are used in this way?

D. W. Kauffman: The small quantity needed to keep off the borers will in no case injure the trees. Aside from the benefit indicated, ashes are specially beneficial to the trees. I have found no benefit to result in using coal ashes in this way.

Mr. Case, Des Moines: I have used coal ashes in quite large quantity around fruit trees, and with apparent gain in the way of increased thrift, and preventing damage by borers.

Mr. Patten, Floyd county: In our part of the State we have little damage done by the borer on clean ground. It may be true that ashes will do good in the way indicated, but we depend on the soap application, and if a borer obtains entrance we go for him with a knife. From 20th of May to 20th of June is the time for soap washing of our trees. We seem to have three distinct species of the apple tree borer. In addition to round and flat-headed borers of the books, we have one of close-grained, wiry texture, that bores straight in for the heart of the tree, at varied distances from the ground.

The suggestions of Mr. Thatcher, as to varieties, have little value for us at the north. His Grimes' Golden would surely be worthless with us, however treated.

Mr. Thatcher: Will Ben Davis stand with you?

Mr. Patten: No sir! We are compelled to secure a class of iron clad apples, with capacity for endurance of even greater extremes than Ben Davis can stand.

D. W. Kauffman: I am reminded that the papers have noted damages done to fruit trees by application of strong ashes. It may be possible. I know a case of complaint. Upon investigation it was found the man put a wheelbarrow load of strong ashes around each tree. Of course it killed borers, and trees too. Mr. Patten says with clean culture they have little trouble with the borers. Now, I do not like clean culture, even in Polk county. I want plenty of weeds in latter part of summer to shade the ground, and help protect from deep freezing in winter. The weeds help to keep the ashes I recommend, in place.

George H. Wright, Sioux City: In talking of the borer, it is quite necessary to know which of them is meant. The flat-headed borer, I believe, also works near the crown of the tree sometimes.

J. N. Dixon : With us the flat-headed borer is not common, and the injury done by it is very limited.

H. W. Lathrop : We have, in Johnson county, the two well known varieties, and I have seen the third kind-boring right to the heart of

the tree-mentioned by Mr. Patten. If this species became numerous it would surely become the most destructive of the three. In one case I was obliged to destroy a large limb in trying to dig one of these firm, wiry fellows out.

George H. Wright: I have tried the soaping, and I have also tried the ashes around the crown. I am in favor of the latter plan, as we secure the additional advantage of supplying the tree with the potash specially needed for the perfect growth of the apple tree. I think coal ashes are also beneficial to the trees. I have used it among my currant bushes with most manifest advantage to bushes and fruit. I have not tried the ashes from bituminous coal.

D. W. Kauffman: I am ready to believe that coal ashes tend to impart high color to the fruit, and may prove advantageous in the way of loosening and disintegrating naturally firm and tenacious soils.

Mr. Case: I once applied quite a large quantity of coal ashes around some evergreens, not doing very well, as they were standing in stiff blue grass sod. I did not notice any special increase in growth, but since the trees have put out their foliage at least ten days earlier in spring than trees not so mulched.

President Lathrop: In order to give time for the arrangement of fruits and flowers upon the tables, a motion to adjourn will now be in order.

On motion, society adjourned to 2 o'clock P. M.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

Convention was called to order in pursuance with adjournment.
The annual address of the President was first in order.

ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT.

Fellow Members of the State Horticultural Society:

Permit me to congratulate you upon the return of another of our annual gatherings under such favorable auspices. We have come together laden with the experience of another year, to compare our successes, as well as our failures, and learn how best to repeat and improve upon the former, and how best to avoid a repetition of the latter. It is only by oft repeated experiments, continued for a long series of years, that we arrive at such definite results, as will be of permanent benefit to us, and these must be made upon our own soil, and in our own climate. The experience of ourselves or our fathers in other localities and under conditions of soil, climate and exposure different from ours, is of little value to us here. We must discard much of this traditional lore, and learn our lessons in the expensive school of practical experience. By actual test we must learn what trees, fruits, shrubs and plants will succeed in the widely differing localities in our State.

Though the past year has not been one of plenty with the apple crop, it was, perhaps, all that could have been expected under the circumstances surrounding and connected with it. It will be remembered that the autumn of 1875 was a moist one; the winters of 1875 and '76, was a moist and mild one, and that the spring following, was free from the dry, sweeping, scorching, southwest winds, that so often blast the crop soon after blooming, and that our apple trees had every possible condition, in favor of setting and maturing not an abundant, but a superabundant supply of fruit. After producing such an unusual abund ance, the trees needed and have taken a year of rest. They needed it all the more from the tax imposed upon them by the severity of the weather during the early part of last winter, followed as it was by the more than spring-like mildness of February.

Occupying, as our State does, the garden-spot in the great grass and cereal belt of the north temperate zone, there is no reason, unless it be the peculiarities of our climate, why it should not be as prolific in its

horticultural and pomological, as it is in its agricultural productions. It is one of the maxims in our horticultural studies, that as we cannot adapt the climate to our fruits, we must adapt our fruits to the climate.

In taking a review of the twelve years in which our society has been organized, and noting what we have accomplished by our labors, we see much upon which we may congratulate ourselves. The orchardist, the vine dresser, the gardener, and the forester, from one extreme of the State to the other, have drawn largely from our published volumes of the hints, suggestions and experience of our best workers in their varied pursuits, and our flourishing orchards, thriving vineyards, fruitful gardens, and beautiful artificial groves, are a result of the information we have imparted in regard to their planting, culture and care. When we look back to the time when our annual meeting was only an attachment, an evening side show as it were, to the State Fair, held in some obscure room, dimly lighted, unushered and unheralded, without a programme, attended by only a few practical fruit growers, when the subjects for discussion were brought on "the spur of the moment," without deliberation or forethought, and contrast the history of the first few years of our society, with that of the later ones, we cannot but come to the conclusion that, considering the time we have been organized, we have done a good work. And yet our work is but just begun.

We want an apple combining in itself a quality of fruit equal to the Jonathan, a hardiness of tree equal to the Duchess, and a keeping quality equal to the Willow Twig, and that will be equally at home in all parts of the State.

We want a grape that shall have all the characteristics of vine possessed by the Concord, and that will yield a wine having a commercial value.

We want also a grape equally as hardy, that will ripen two weeks earlier than the Concord, and one that will keep two months longer. We want from one to half a dozen varieties of pears, that in tree will endure our arctic winters, and be free from the withering sap blight of our torrid summers.

We want a cherry sufficiently sweet to be worthy a place on our tables as a desert fruit.

We want a plum that shall be equal in quality to the Gages, and yet be curculio proof, or we want to discover some feasible method of protecting it from the ravages of the curculio.

The labors before us are to supply these wants, and if in the coming