we have 7,000 ourselves. A great many of the trees planted here will not be profitable to the planter for the simple reason that they have not been properly pruned. The cultivation as the borer has been neglected, they having been poorly planted, &c., and the result is obvious. Any one of the above reasons is sufficient to mar the success of the grower.

We shipped last season over four thousand crates of peaches, we ship in seven-eighth bushel crates, generally shipping west by freight and east by express, those shipped west are generally sold to dealers. About one month before the first ripening we make an estimate of the number of crates we will have of each variety, then we go to Altoona for instance, and find out who the responsible parties are that handle fruit in that place, we sell them a certain number of crates of each variety, to be delivered as they ripen, and in this manner we proceed until they are all sold. In small towns we sell to one party, agreeing to sell to no one else in the place. Persons inquiring for peaches from such places are simply referred to the party handling our fruit in the place.

We shipped peaches to the following places last season: Lewistown, Milroy, McVeytown, Newton Hamilton, Tyrone, Huntingdon, Altoona, Johnstown, Uniontown, Huntingdale, Phillipsburg, Clearfield, Bellefonte, Newport, Harrisburg, Pine Grove, Tremort, Pottsville and Philadelphia.

Our mode of selling may not prove interesting at all, but we have been asked quite frequently in regard to it by different members of the association, and we take this opportunity of giving them the desired information. From the above you will observe that we have shipped to a few of the large cities only, and to but a small number of the smaller towns that we could reach with our fruit; we have not shipped as far west as Pittsburgh, a market that would consume thousands of crates of peaches. We present this to your minds merely in order to confirm our belief that the business is not so easily overdone as a great many suppose. That some growers fail in getting their fruit to market in good condition is an undisputable fact, and one of no rare occurrence, yet this is no proof that there is a deficiency in the market for good salable peaches. It is our belief that there can be a market found for all the peaches that we can raise for a number of years yet. Not all at fancy prices, but at prices that will be profitable to the grower. Looking up the market and getting the fruit there in good condition is a very important feature in the peach business. Peaches being a perishable and delicate fruit, it is important that they be handled with the greatest care and reach a market in the least possible time in order to bring the best price.

A MEMBER. How deep do you usually plant?

Mr. SMITH. About three inches deeper than the tree stood in the nursery. I usually plant deep enough to get the point where bud and stock unite, under ground.

Mr. MEECH. I am much pleased with the essay, which is a very practical one. I agree with his views as to planting deeper than the trees stood in the nursery. This is a good idea with trees that are grown from cuttings, so as to get a new set of roots. I have made quince culture a specialty, and have always found it an advantage to plant deep. I know of an instance where a yard in which a quince tree stood, was filled up three feet, and two years ago the tree bore

fifteen bushels of fruit. Peach trees are being largely planted in New Jersey, and are proving a profitable crop.

Colonel MCFARLAND. I would like to ask Mr. Smith what trimming he recommends after the third or fourth year.

Mr. SMITH. We cut back only the leading branches. When eight or nine years old we cut back into the old wood, so as to force a young growth of wood for bearing.

Mr. MEECH. Cutting back the branches year after year is the cheapest method of thinning the fruit.

Mr. SMITH. I think deep planting offers some advantage in keeping out borers. We usually hunt them in May and October.

Mr. SATTERTHWAIT. The egg which produces the borer is never laid earlier than June 1. From then to August 1, and they never hatch before August. It is best to examine the trees two or three times from August to November. If not removed they will do some injury during the winter.

Mr. VAN DEMAN. The best plan is to "bank up" the trees several inches in the spring, so as to compel the insect to deposit its eggs higher up. By digging the soil in the fall the borers can easily be found.

Mr. ENGLE. There are methods said to be just as effective that are less trouble. Mr. Hiller's method is to apply a wash of lime and cow manure. It is claimed the eggs will not develop where lime is applied.

Mr. SATTERTHWAIT. I doubt the efficacy of this remedy. The insect will make a hole and deposit its eggs under the whitewash.

Mr. VAN DEMAN. Professor Riley says homemade soft soap is the best preventive of all kinds of borers. The same has been my experience. It should be made as stiff as possible and applied in the branches, where the rains can wash it down.

Mr. ENGLE. Would not whale oil soap do?

Mr. VAN DEMAN. Professor Riley says whale oil soap is no better than homemade.

Mr. SMITH. I have applied all these remedies and still have a few borers.

Mr. SATTERTHWAIT. These remedies no doubt do some good, but they take more time than is required to take out the borers.

Mr. ENGLE. I think at a former meeting Mr. Smith said he had cured a case of yellows. Would like to hear from him on that subject.

Mr. SMITH. I believe I never succeeded in effecting a cure.

Professor SCRIBNER. As to "peach yellows," Commissioner Colman has the subject under consideration, and if an appropriation is granted, the matter will receive the attention it deserves. The range of the disease is a wide one, and the question is now before Congress.

Mr. VAN DEMAN. Colonel Colman and self have frequently discussed this subject, and he is deeply interested in it. Prof. Scribner is the micologist of the department, and if the necessary funds are provided. the matter will be carefully investigated. There can be but little done in the way of a preventive or cure for yellows until the predisposing cause is discovered.

Mr. ENGLE. One of the first evidences of the disease is premature ripening of the fruit, and when it has reached this stage the tree will never recover. There are doubtless earlier symptoms, but I have never noticed them. When premature ripening of fruit occurs, the cambium

is always more or less colored. Prof. Penhallow claims he can tell the first symptoms.

Mr. MEECH. The first visible symptoms are premature ripening of fruit on one or more branches of the tree. The following year several other branches, or the entire tree may be thus affected, and by another season a number of trees may have the disease. There is also a peculiar calico-like mottling on the surface of the peach, that is an unmistakable sign of yellows. I think the only cure is to dig them out and make a bonfire of the trees, root and branch. Some three years ago a writer in the Maryland Farmer claimed that yellows was caused by an insect on the tips of the branches.

Mr. SATTERTHWAIT. While we are much in the dark as to the cause of the disease, there is no doubt as to the symptoms. We would like to know just what this poison is, how developed and transmitted from tree to tree, and how to prevent it.

Mr. ENGLE. I am still pursuing the experiment I referred to at our last annual meeting, to ascertain whether peach when budded on plum, will take yellows. I have, for the fourth time, budded from peach trees infected with yellows, on a tree of Blackman Plum, but thus far neither buds nor tree upon which they are growing show any symptoms of the disease. I propose to still further experiment in this direction.

Mr. COMFORT. Can peach be grafted on plum?

Mr. ENGLE. They can easily be budded, and I suppose, can also be grafted.

Col. MCFARLAND. These are valuable facts that would scarcely have have been brought out through set speeches.

Mr. MEECH. I wonder how many of our members know the moths of the peach and apple borer when they see them?

The peach borer resembles the wasp in general appearance, and has two bands around its abdomen.

Mr. SATTERTHWAIT. I have never seen the beetle of the apple borer, or moth of the peach borer, except when about ready to come out. Mr. VAN DEMAN. I have caught both on trees.

At this juncture President Cooper arrived, and was called to the chair. After a brief apology for not getting to the meeting earlier, he announced that he was ready to go on with the business before the society. He stated that he had a communication bearing on the question under discussion from Mr. Hiller, which it might be well to have read now.

The following paper was read by the society:

PEACH TREES ON PLUM STOCKS.

By CASPER HILLER.

Can the State Horticultural Society endorse the claim that has been advocated within a few years, "that peach trees grown on plum stocks of the wild goose type, are free from the attacks of the borer and exempt from the yellows?"

Should this claim prove correct it would revolutionize peach growing. As far as the borer is concerned, I think the claim will hold nearly or quite good. To claim that they will be yellows-proof,

smacks a little of the tree agent. There appears to be no philosophy in it. Shakespeare puts it into the mouth of one of his characters: "There is more in heaven and earth, Horatio, than is dreamt in your philosophy." I laid philosophy aside and last spring planted one hundred and fifty one-year-old trees that were grown in Alabama. These gave as much satisfaction in health and vigor of growth as any peach I grew in my forty years' experience. That's all there is of it so far. Will from time to time report progress. Should there be any gain in using these plum stocks, it will be important that we have a strong growing type. Wild-goose seedlings are not all equally strong growers. The Blackman is the ideal. As I never saw or heard of any one that saw the fruit, we cannot depend on raising seedlings from it. The Blackman is an enormous grower-out growing the peach. Can it be grown from cuttings?" A Mr. McLendon, of Thomasville, Ga., offers to grow plums from cuttings. He claims to have grown from ten-inch cuttings, planted 15th of last March, plants from three to eight feet high, and that seventy or more per cent. grew.

President COOPER. If we can use plum stocks on which to work the peach, we may be able to get rid of "yellows." Would like to know whether anyone has had experience in this direction.

Mr. SATTERTHWAIT. The plum is not safe from borers and I doubt whether it will be free from yellows.

Mr. VAN DEMAN. I fear anyone expecting to grow fruit on a Blackman, will be diappointed. It is said to be a cross between peach and plum, and is probably a thoroughbred "mule."

Col. MCFARLAND. Would not peaches budded on Blackman plum be longer lived? I have plum trees that are twenty-five years old. President COOPER. Mr. Engle's experience thus far proves that peach budded on Blackman plum will not take yellows.

Col. MCFARLAND. Probably the tree is not so liable to disease and may live longer. The peach does not often live longer than fifteen

years.

Mr. ENGLE. I have heard of peach trees fifty years old.

Mr. SATTERTHWAIT. It seems the older trees get the less liable they are to take yellows.

Mr. CULLEN. At what age do they usually take the disease? Mr. SATTERTHWAIT. Generally two or three years after planting. Col. McFarland moved that the usual hours for meeting, 9 A. M., 2 and 7:30 P. M. be agreed upon.

Adopted.

On motion adjourned.

EVENING SESSION.

Quite a number of members arrived on the evening trains, and, the meeting was not called to order until 7:45, after which President Cooper read his annual address.

To the Members and Friends of the State Horticultural Association of Pennsylvania:

Once more it becomes my duty to address you. Not from any aspirations of my own do I assume the responsible task, but from an established custom it seems to be expected that your chairman, no matter how incompetent he may be to prepare the manuscript, should have his annual address; and since you have again assigned the duty to me, I shall endeavor to fulfil the mission to the best of my ability, hoping to have your kind indulgence and assistance in presiding at this, the twenty-eighth anniversary since the organization of the association.

To say that we have made a corresponding progress with the other trades of life, in the now more than quarter of a century since the formation of the little band that organized the Fruit Growers' Society, would be presumptious on my part; and yet, with all the horticultural science that has been disseminated, are we to-day any better able to successfully battle the enemies of fruit culture than we were twentyfive years ago? Are our orchards more productive than in days of yore? Can we devise the means to successfully grow a crop with insect enemies and climatic influences against us? Has the hybridization of fruits been any advantage except in the multiplication of varieties? Are our fruit-houses stocked with luscious, home-grown fruit, as when we were boys? Then it was no uncommon sight to see fine Smokehouse, Bellefleur and Fallawater apples in perfection long after the holidays. Where are they now? These were followed later with fine, crisp Winesap and Gray and Red Romanite from the hole in the garden, to the delight of the small boy and the health and pleasure of the older people. I do not wish to be understood that we have been retrograding, but wish to make the comparison with the present time. Some of you will doubtless say the sorts referred to have been supplanted by others of greater merit. Perhaps they have, but when we want them the worst they are not there. I do not wish to put a gloomy aspect on fruit growing. We have much to be grateful for; we are, notwithstanding the many enemies encountered, blessed with bountiful crops. Some may fail, but the almost endless variety of small, as well as the larger fruits, fill the supply to the gratification of every palate.

We meet this year in one of the oldest towns of the American republic, its history dating back to the foundation of the country. With its extensive iron and other manufacturing industries, its rich agricultural district and the seat of the Lehigh University, the highly intelligent community who have grown high in the art of cultivating fruits and flowers by artificial means. We have great cause to be thankful that our lot has not been "cast among thorns." Although I did not have the pleasure of being present at the meeting here in 1880, there