me because now I know where you are. I know their names now. I have learned that much. But the question is, what am I going to do about it?

Dr. Hoy - I will ask any gentlemen present to send me any worms that they find injuring their crops or the forests about them. Put them into a little tight box. There is no necessity for any holes. Put in some of the plant or the leaves you find them on. Holes are of no use, but are injurious because of the evaporation of the plant. The insects would be very easily destroyed if they were so tender you had to furnish them air, but they are very tenacious of life.

Mr. Robbins - How are we going to kill them? That is the question.

Dr. Hoy That is a question the farmers ought to be better instructed upon. We must understand their habits before we can manage them. We see such ignorance as that "catcher," thinking the curculio climb up the tree. If that was so we would have saved our plums long ago.

Mr. Robbins He thinks he has found out how.

worms.

Dr. Hoy There is that difference between wisdom and happiness. The man that thinks himself the happiest is the happiest, but the man that thinks himself the wisest is not always so. In sending insects put them in boxes and tie with a string, and mark on the outside "Samples of Natural History." The postage only costs a cent an ounce. A cent will pay for a pretty good lot of Address "Dr. P. R. Hoy, Sr.," Racine, Wis., for there are two Dr. Hoys in Racine. I will be very happy to correspond with you and give information, and answer such questions as you may propound. I think in a great many instances people have been destroying their best friends, supposing them to be enemies. A man in Racine went to my son and told him his plum trees were overrun with a sort of bug or worm that runs upon the bark; he had killed thousands and thousands of them. He told me, and I said "They may be beneficial to your plum trees." He brought some to me, and they were the young of what is called the "lady-bug." The trees had been infested with plant-lice, and they had been up and entirely destroyed the plant-lice and came down on the body preparatory to undergoing the change to come out as those beauti16- HORT. So.

ful little beetles, our best friends. That is the way he rewarded them for their services.

Mr. Kellogg — I am glad to have this subject so well simplified as we have to-day. I think it is the finest entomological talk we have ever had. It brings the matter right before us in common language. I wish you would describe the lady-bug as it is before it gets to be a lady-bug, so we will not destroy it. As to the box. you speak of, will any little pasteboard box do to send specimens in?

Dr. Hoy - The pasteboard box is not very good. They used to make a kind of matchbox of wood which is good. The pasteboard box is apt to get mashed up. A small tin box is good.

Mr. Kellogg —I want to ask the best methods, or whether there is any way to catch the codling moth by sweetened water or vinegar, or in any way.

Dr. Hoy — A great many insects can be caught in large quantities by taking stale beer and sugar, and plastering it upon the side of the tree; just after night if you go there, the tree will be perfectly covered with them, and you can destroy them; by killing the parents you very frequently prevent the propagation of the in

sects.

Mr. Plumb The greatest terror there is to the apple tree planter, as a member of the assembly from Green county told me last evening, is the canker worm. He said they were sweeping all through the township where he lives. Said I, "Don't you know it is easier to destroy them than it is the potato bug." No, he did not know anything about it. Everywhere I go I find people who are letting the canker work sweep over their orchards, destroying thousands and tens of thousands of dollars worth of valuable property, when they are much easier destroyed with Paris green or arsenic than the potato bug is. One pound of arsenic which can be bought for five cents, will poison eighty gallons of water, that can be distributed with very little labor over an orchard. Two or three cents worth of that poisoned water thrown from a force pump will completely eradicate the canker worm, in its earliest stages, from a tree able to bear eight or ten bushels of apples. It is a practical remedy. It has been told here before, and yet people do not know it. Now the question with me is, how far can we go with these poisonous remedies. That is to me a subject of grave

inquiry. I am glad we have had so much entomology; we could easily spend the whole forenoon on this subject.

Prof. Daniells I would like to inquire if that solution would kill the curculio on the plum.

Dr. Hoy - It would be dangerous to the plum, for the poison would be on the plum. It does not hurt the tree or the foliage. Prof. Daniells-It has been suggested to sprinkle the foliage when it was wet, with Paris green and flour.

Dr. Hoy-There is no trouble about that. There is no danger whatever.

On motion of Mr. Kellogg, the thanks of the convention were given to Dr. Hoy for his able presentation of the subject of entomology.

Mr. Phillips then offered the following resolution:

WHEREAS, Destructive insects seem to be increasing throughout the state and promise to be more annoying to horticulturists in the future than in the past; and,

WHEREAS, It is desirable that information upon this subject be placed within the reach of the largest number possible the coming season; and,

WHEREAS, The press of the state is the most efficient and practical remedy for the purpose; therefore,

Resolved, That the secretary of the Horticultural Society be instructed to prepare at the proper time, short, practical directions for preventing the ravages and the increase of destructive insects, and present it to the press, with the request of the society that all state papers will copy.

The resolution was adopted.

TRAINING AND PRUNING THE GRAPE VINE.

C. H. GREENMAN, WAUWATOSA.

President Smith requested me to prepare a paper for the summer meeting, on " Grapes for the common farmer." I managed to get out of writing it by saying that I had nothing new upon that subject. In conversation with him at the State Fair, I stated that I was not quite satisfied with directions and illustrations for training and pruning the grape vine, as published in our last report. He

replied: "That is just what you want to do; write a paper for the winter meeting, and illustrate that subject to your own satisfaction." This is my apology for calling your attention to the subject at this time.

There are a number of things requisite for the successful cultivation of grapes. Training and pruning are indispensable; where this is neglected, failure is almost sure to follow. No vineyard will long continue to yield good crops of fruit without thorough cultivation. It is difficult to do this when the vines are trained upon the ordinary trellis. Staking does much better in this respect, but I find it difficult to prune them properly, and it usually

leads to the adoption of the annual renewal system of pruning. Practical grape growers do not regard this as the best system, for they find that the largest and most perfect bunches of fruit are produced on the shoots from wood of more than one year's growth. I have perfected a system of training which combines all the advantages of the stake system as well as that of the common trellis, and at the same time is not subject to the objections of either. Experience has demonstrated the necessity of cultivating the soil, keeping the surface loose and friable, with the rows arranged so that the sun may shine upon the ground to a good degree. When he vines are trained upon the common trellis, running east and west, the vines receive their share of the sunshine, while the soil

is much shaded. The system of training as shown in the accompanying engravings, has the following advantages: The vines are exposed to the light; the sun will shine upon every square foot of soil some time during the day, and the freest circulation is secured, without which mildew would be likely to follow. The angle at which the vines are placed will give them more sunlight than can be secured upon any upright trellis. This trellis is sufficiently high to enable the horse to pass under the ridge, in cultivating the vines. My own vineyard is planted in rows about eight feet apart, running north and south, and the vines six feet apart in the rows.

season.

The posts may be quite small, but should be nine feet long at least eight feet above the surface and one foot in the ground; this will be sufficient, as they are braced both ways. The ridge piece should be one inch by two, and long enough to lap on the third post. This ridge piece should run the whole length of the rows. Then commencing from the top of the post, measure off each way on the ridge piece three spaces, each one foot apart; at these three points drive a nail nearly down to the head; and then measuring down from the ridge piece on the post, divide it into three spaces of two and one-half feet each; at these points drive nails as before, then by stretching wires between these respective