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"KEIM"

Origin, Berks Co., Pa Tree, moderately vigorous; fruit, small to medium, oblate; skin, light waxen yellow, thickly sprinkled with light russet dots;
stalk, long and slender, in a broad, shallow cavity. Calyx closed. Flesh, white, tender and crisp, with a fine, brisk,

sub-acid flavor. Very good. Bears heavy crops alternate years, December to March.

every year. Attempts have been made to destroy them, and in one section a large sum was actually subscribed to induce fruit-growers to destroy their entire crops of apples for one year. Some employed men to destroy them every day, and in one orchard fourteen thousand were caught in a season. Hay bands and lamps or torches were also resorted to, but with all these methods, insects are rapidly multiplying. Having such disadvantages to contend with, we can see that our fruit industries in the East are not in any immediate danger from competition, and I came back from the Pacific coast fully satisfied that, all things considered, we have in Pennsylvania one of the best fruit States in the Union, and that our chances for success are superior to theirs.

Mr. D. E. LONGSDORF. I think we lack the energy and enterprise of our California fruit-growers. They are now arranging to ship their fresh fruits east by fast freight. One gentlemen at San Jose stated that he could place in our market five hundred tons of French prunes, and was only awaiting satisfactory arrangements as to freights.

Mr. H. A. LONGSDORF. There is no danger of apricots or prunes coming in competition, as we cannot raise them here.

Mr. MEEHAN. In regard to apricots, they are grown successfully there, no doubt, because of the absence of curculio; but this insect is rapidly traveling in that direction, and will soon be there. In Nevada, where the wild plum grows spontaneously, this insect is as plenty as here in the East, and it will be but a short time until they reach the Pacific coast, after which apricots will be as difficult to grow there as here.

Mr. SATTERTHWAIT. Why do codling moth and other insects increase more rapidly in California than here? Are there no birds to destroy them?

Mr. MEEHAN. The climate is more favorable, and codling moth makes continuous broods the entire year. Then it flies at night and could not be destroyed by birds. They may not have "yellows," but they have "leafcurl," which is just as bad.

Mr. D. E. LONGSDORF. I did not notice any yellows, but never saw leaf curl so bad. Notwithstanding all these drawbacks, one gentleman realized, in 1883, nineteen thousand dollars from an orchard of sixty-five acres, almost exclusively peaches.

Mr. Fox. If no essays are to be read, and there is nothing else before the meeting, I will read a letter giving a brief history of the Keim apple. This letter is from Mr. Rutter, of West Chester, and was written to President Stitzel, who could not be present at our opening sessions, and will, perhaps, not be able to get here at all.

HON. GEO. D. STITZEL,

President State Horticultural Association of Pennsylvania : DEAR SIR: In looking among some old law papers this evening for a piece of red tape to tie up a report I had just prepared for our committee on "Insectivorous Birds," to be presented at our approaching Lancaster meeting, I accidentally came across a carefully tied-up package of old letters from friends of days long past, and from it, with others, I drew two letters, of much interest to me, from my old friend, George DeB. Keim, of Reading, Pa., dated respectively 1848 and 1851. Mr. Keim was then in his seventieth year, as he incidentally informed me in his letter of the former date, and quite infirm. I had forwarded to him shortly before, perhaps the preceding year, some very fine peaches, and in the fall he returned me a basket of your noted Berks county Keim apples, with which I was so favorably impressed for its beauty and quality that I wrote for a few grafts,

which came in the spring, accompanied with a letter from him inclosing a paper containing a full history of the apple.

Mr. Keim states in his letter: "We got the grafts this evening, packed them as well as we understood, and sent them by stage, inclosing a paper how we got the apples and from whom." This is a copy of the papers here referred to, in the hand-writing of Mr. Keim: "An old gentleman by the name of Kreutz purchased a tract of land in Albany township, Penn's Manor; the Indians had formerly a town or settlement on the same. When he commenced clearing the land near a spring, he discovered an apple tree; he trimmed it, and of which came the apples you speak of. He, Kreutz, was collector of taxes, and my father, commissioner. When he came to settle his duplicate he brought some apples to father, who was pleased with them, and sent me for grafts, and distributed them in our neighborhood, from which circumstance they got the name of Keim apples."

In a former letter, Mr. Keim speaks of these apples and grafts being obtained in about 1790. At that time Mr. K. was a boy of some twelve years of age. As the old gentleman was a highly honorable and prominent citizen of Reading, beyond a mere description of so good an apple, this history may possess other interest to the citizens of Reading as a speaking relic of private history, linking the name of so good a man with the progressive cause of pomology. It may be considered well worthy of a record in your proceedings at Lancaster, and if so, present the matter in such form as you may think advisable.

Adjourned.

Very truly yours,

THURSDAY MORNING.

JNO. RUTTER.

Vice President HOOPES in the chair.

Mr. HARRISON. I should have announced last evening that the Pennsyl vania Horticultural Society of Philadelphia has appointed me a delegate to your annual meeting. We expect to hold four public exhibitions at Horticultural Hall during the coming season, to which all are cordially invited. Our programme of prizes will be ready for distribution in a few weeks, and I will be pleased to send copies to any who may apply. I have also some calendars of our society, showing the dates of our several exhibitions, and will place them upon the table for distribution.

Mr. HOOPES. It was suggested last evening that a portion of the morning session be devoted to the discussion of questions relating to floriculture and the ornamentation of homes. Anything relating to these topics will be in order.

Mr. ENGLE. Some of our members, who are specially interested in these topics, are not yet here, and I hope other business will be considered until they arrive. If in order, I offer the following:

Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to act in conjunc tion with the Executive Committee, and to examine the constitution and by-laws of this Society, and report at next annual meeting what, if any, changes are necessary; said committee to be appointed by the next Presi dent.

Mr. HARRISON. It will be well to appoint a committee of this kind, because a constitution and by-laws are apt to become superannuated and to

require changes. Some committees may be called for and appointed that are utterly useless; others may have no clearly-defined duties, and never report. New committees may be necessary, and I trust the resolution will pass and the subject have careful consideration.

Mr. ENGLE. I have no fault to find with the by-laws or any of the committees, but it may require changes and suggest improvements, and it will not be amiss to refer the matter to a committee.

The resolution was adopted as read.

Mr. ENGLE. I beg leave, also, to offer the following:

Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to represent this Association at the next biennial meeting of the American Pomological Society, to be held at Grand Rapids, Michigan, in September next.

Adopted.

Mr. ENGLE also offered the following, which was adopted :

and

Resolved, That a committee of five on exhibition be appointed, of whom the President of this society act as chairman, who shall consider and decide what exhibits shall be made, and arrange for proper display of the same. On motion of Mr. Moon, the third topic on the list, "Potatoes-Best and Earliest Varieties, and how to Grow Them" was taken up for discussion. Mr. HARRISON. I did not expect to be called upon, but as you have asked for my views, I will give a few items of my personal experience. In 1863, I took charge of a small place of nineteen acres, twelve of which were arable. Classically speaking, I was then a "horticus" not a "rusticus." It was a starved-out, worn-out place, and I hired with a view to improve it as a dwelling and a home. Being a beginner, I apprenticed myself to myself, planted the ground in sundry crops, from which I realized the first year eighteen hundred dollars. The next year I was a journeyman in the business, my sales amounted to twenty-seven hundred dollars. The following year I was "boss," and sold from the same ground sixty-one hundred dollars worth of potatoes of twenty-one varieties. They were manured with a special potato fertilizer, and grown on a different method from that usually pursued. I would say just here that I have no faith in chemical analysis of soils as usually recommended for farmers. They have no practical value, because, even if the necessary elements are present in the soil, they may be in such an elementary condition that they cannot be utilized by the growing crop. I would feed plants on the principle that "like produces like." If I were buying a fertilizer for pear trees, I would pay the highest price for ashes of that particular wood. Any ashes would be good, but pear ashes would be best for pear trees.

The little farm which I had taken charge of had been manured for fifteen to twenty years, but as I desired a special fertilizer for potatoes, I obtained several analyses of the entire potato plant, and then prepared a special compost for such crop. I bought six hundred bushels wood ashes, added twenty bushels finely-ground bone, and a liberal supply of oyster-shell lime. Having prepared the best form of fertilizer for the purpose, I selected medium sized, perfect potatoes, plowed deeply, planted them whole, three feet apart each way, putting a handful of fertilizer at each hill, and kept the entire twelve acres as clean as a garden. The vines made a remarkable growth, sometimes lapping over each other as much as eighteen inches. Three hills failed, probably owing to moles and field mice, but, notwithstanding this I had, two thousand eight hundred and eleven bushels of marketable potatoes. Had I planted all of varieties that I knew yielded best, I would have had over three thousand six hundred bushels. Flat culture is best. The hilling system is borrowed from England and is not adapted to this country. Continual cultivation is essential. One hill in the aforenamed crop had

thirty-one full-sized potatoes. Rot was bad that season, and the crop was stored in the house and barn cellars. I sprinkled all with air-slaked lime, and in spring had about two baskets of unsound potatoes. Mr. Nicols, of the Boston Journal of Chemistry, who is a practical agriculturist, and makes a thorough test of fertilizers before recommending them to his readers, says, that of all potash fertilizers he ever used, there is none so near perfect as hard wood ashes. Nitrogen and other artificial fertilizers are over-estimated. Have never tried "kainit," but think it is also rated far above its real value.

Mr. HILLER. After the able address we have just heard, but little remains to be said. However, some of us country folks try to raise potatoes, and it may be interesting to know our method. I have, therefore, prepared a brief paper, which I will read :

In successful potato-culture it is of importance to select land so level as to escape the washing of the soil by the heavy thunder-showers of the summer. The crop is frequently ruined on hill-sides by heavy rains. A clover sod is best for a potato plot; but, as it usually interferes with our corn ground, we take corn-stubble land. Deep plowing is of more importance in potato-farming than in any other crop; about eight inches is a good depth. I have been in the habit of making wide drills, five or six inches deep and three feet apart. In these drills I scattered the fertilizer, and then dropped the seed one foot apart, and then covered with the plow. By many careful experiments made by the Rural New Yorker, it appears to be preferable to drop the seed and cover lightly, then sow the fertilizer carefully in these drills, and then harrow to fill, or nearly fill, the furrows. Should rain occur before the sprouts appear, the harrow should be used again to prevent the ground from baking; if not, the harrowing may be deferred until the sprouts make their appearance, when the ground should be thoroughly harrowed. This will destroy weeds and aid the potatoes to make a good start.

The after-cultivation will be with the hoe and shovel-harrow for two purposes to destroy weeds and keep the soil mellow. If there were no weeds, and the ground would not bake after rain, it would be safe to let them alone; but, in my ground, it is necessary to hoe out weeds between the plants at least once, and to run the shovel-harrow between rows as soon after a rain as the ground becomes dry enough to work, and this can often be profitably repeated through the greater part of the growing season. Every successive cultivation should, however, be shallower. This level culture I have practiced for several years.

In my opinion, a medium potato, cut in two, is the best. If all the conditions are right, a single eye, with a small bit of potato to it, will answer very well; but, if the ground should be wet and cold, this small bit may rot, or if the ground be very dry, the plant starts weak and may not recover. We cannot afford to run the risk of having a poor set for the sake of saving a few bushels of seed to the acre.

Among the scores of varieties tried, the White Elephant stands unrivaled in quality and productiveness combined. I might say that, in my experience, commercial fertilizers are better than barn-yard manure for potatoes. Any of the complete fertilizers, viz: those that contaln potash, phosphoric acid, and nitrogen, answer a good purpose. I have been using a mixture of four hundred pounds of sulphate of potash, four hundred pounds of acid South Carolina rock, and two hundred pounds of nitrate of soda. Of this mixture I apply from six hundred to eight hundred pounds per acre I have raised, by this process, from three hundred to four hundred bushels per acre.

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