VOL XIX.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., SATURDAY, DEC. 13,1884.
NO. 50
Indiana State Hortienltnral Society.
AXNUAIi MEETING.
The twenty-fourth annual meeting of
the society was held last week in City
Hall, at Winchester, Kandolph county.
The attendance throughout was good,
especially at the evening sessions, when
many citizens of the place were present.
The weather was pleasant and the roads
were good, and a few of the farmers in the
vicinity dropped in occasionally, but as at
other meetings of the Society, this class,
for whose benefit mainly the meetings are
held, was but poorly represented.
The program as published in a former
number of the Farmkr was closely followed.
The cordial reception address of General
Stone, was heartily responded to by President Johnson, who then delivered his
ANNUA- ADDRESS,
from  which we  make the  following extracts: *
The past year has not been all sunshine
to the horticulturist. While he has much
to be thankful for, yet great premise and
raised expectations have been met by failure and regret.; Early spring covered apple and pear trees with bloom such as was
probably never excelled in beauty and
profusion, and as the usual danger of frost
did not threaten, it' was supposed that an
abundant fruit crop would result. But
either the abundance of rain or its low
temperature seemed in some way to affect
the bloom in such a way as to prevent the
formation of fruit germs, so that in many
parts of Indiana the crop of apples and
pears has been much under an average.
As a compensation for this failure we had
an abundant crop of some of the smaller
fruits, notably the raspberry and strawberry, the latter touching the lowest market price ever known in Indianapolis.
ORGANIZATION OF -OCA- SOCIETIES.
To a very limited extent this society is a
beneficiary of the State. This' places us
under obligations to make some corresponding return. It ought to be our endeavor to inculcate, as rapidly and widely
as possible, in the minds of the people of
the State.not only a love of the art of Horticulture but to teach t.hem the intelligent
practice of the same. To accomplish this
effectively we ought to have at least one
local society in each county of the State.
Is this society doing its duty in this respect? It is feared not. As a rule horticultural or other local organizations do not
spring into existence uncalled or unsought,
but they are rather the result of some systematic effort on the part of existing organisations, whose members, possessing
the spirit of the missionary, go forth to do
good. At two different times has this society made efforts to enlarge its influence
by the organization of local societies, and
in both instances it was reasonably successful. Some of the best local societies of
our State are the result of these efforts.
Prominent among these is the one whose
hospitalities have been this day so gracefully tendered to us, and so gladly accepted by us. Believing, therefore, that an
increase of local societies will largely add
to our facilities for usefulness, I respectfully recommend that an early stage of
this meeting a committee be appointed
whose duty it shall be to consider and report some plan by which these objects
may be obtained. •
LEGISLATION..
As the legislature of this State is to convene in a few days, it is not only the privilege but the duty of this society to direct
its attention to certain much needed laws
looking to the protection of those engaged
in horticulture and to ask for their enactment. Some laws which in my opinion
ought to be amended I here name, to-wit:
A law establishing the office of State Entomologist, the duty of whose incumbent
will be to enlighten the people on the subject of insects; teaching them which are
enemies and which friends; which to destroy and which to protect.
A law establishing the office of State
Ornithologist whose incumbent would tell
us all about birds, what their uses, and
what their abuses, if any.
A law to more certainly protect the quail
by prohibiting the killing of It for from
three to five years.
A law preventingstock of any kind running at large, thus protecting our forest
and shade trees, lawns and gardens.
An amendment to the title of the law
requiring a license fee, which goes to the
benefit of agricultural societies, ought to
be made so that according to the constitution the title shall embrace the subject
matter of the law, thereby largely increasing the revenue of these associations.
Another subject of importance to this society will be presented to the legislature
and that is the small appropriation which
has been regularly made up to 1881 but not
since, owing to the failure of the specific
appropriation bill at the session of 1883.
The approaching generally assembly ought
in justice to make such an appropriation
for the benefit of this society as will place
it upon the same footing as it would have
been in had that of 1883 not failed. It is
therefore hoped that steps will be taken at
this meeting looking to a proper presentation of these questions to tbe legislature.
The order for Tuesday evening-was the
Propagation of seeds and plants, by Allen
Furnas, Danville ;• What we owe to the
entomologist, by Prof. J. Troop, Purdue
University.
For Wednesday morning: Experiments
with fertilizers, by Prof. AV. C. Latta, Purdue University; Small fruits, Granville
Cowing, Muncie.
These and other of the papers read before
the society will appear from week to week
in our Horticultural Department.
At the opening of the afternoon session
on Wednesday the report of the committee
on the president's address was read and the
recommendations regarding the measures
suggested by the president, to increase the
usefulness of the society, the employment
by the State of an entomologist, amending
of the title of the show license fund law,
and recommending restoration of State
appropriation to aid the society, etc., were
adopted.
On motion it was resolved that all county horticultural societies be requested to
appoint and pay the expenses of at least
one delegate to the meetings of the State
society.
The paper on
THE FQTURE OF INDIANA SOILS,
by Prof. R. B. Warder, was carefully prepared and of unusual interest, showing as
it did the imperative necessity of keeping
up the fertility of our soil. The best data
obtainable shows a loss by the crops of
about 35,000 tons each of phosphoric acid
and of potash and lime from the soils of
the State yearly,while a still larger amount
is removed by the shipments of live stock.
Prof. Warder estimates the value of the
barnyard manures that are lost and wasted
yearly in the State at from ten to twenty
millions of dollars; that is to say of the
loss to our soils from failure to return the
manure and offal of animals to the soil
again is made up by commercial fertilizers,
the cost of these would be between the
enormous sums named. The subject demands serious and careful study.
E. H. AVilliams, commission dealer of
this city, gave an interesting talk on the
subject of
PREPARING FRUITS FOR THE MARKET.
In introducing his subject he complimented the society on the interest and value of
its meetings, and paid an emphatic tribute
to the aid of the Indiana| Farmer, and
other papers of its class, in building up the
great and growing business of fruit culture.
He said many crops of fruit were lost by
lack of care in putting up and shipping.
He advised against packing strawberries
while wet or when overripe. Grade your
fruit and do not mix the poor with the
good. He had made ?1 per barrel on apples sent to the commission house by emptying them out and sorting them over,
putting those of same size in same barrels.
He thought there was but little danger of
over production of choice fruit if properly
picked, packed and marketed. Of apples
for the market the principal varieties now
being shipped to Indianapolis are the
Baldwin,. Greenings and Ben Davis.
Strange to say the last named sells best
and highest, on account of its handsome
appearance. He said Indiana apples were
not so solid and good keepers as those
from Michigan and New York.
THE FIRST OROITARD IN INDIANA.
An account of what was probably the
first apple orchard orchard in the State
was sent by Daniel -Bulla of Richmond,
and read before the society by the secretary.
The account stated that in 1800 Mr.
Bulla's father arrived in Wayne county,
and in 1809 planted an orchard, mostly of
seedlings. The trees grew rapidly and the
fruit was fine and parfect. Peaches bore
abundantly. In 1825 Mr. B. set out 700
trees of grafted fruit, and in 1835 had an
abundance of the finest apples in the country, of numerous varieties, such as Newton, fall and green pippins, red winter
sweet, princess harvest, Lansingburg, etc.
In 1858 the insects began to appear and
since then the orchard has not borne
a perfect crop. The hard winters had killed
most of the trees, only the hardiest having
survived.
Mr. Ragan spoke of the changes in our
seasons and confirmed Mr. Bulla's statement that the finer varieties of fruit could
no longer be counted on to survive and
produce paying crops.
The paper by Prof. DeMolte, of DePauw
University, in the evening, on
HOW TO MAKE FARMERS OF TIIE ROYS,
was full of incident and illustration, pith,
pathos and humor, delivered in lively and
interesting manner, and was greatly enjoyed by tho large audience present. AVe
can give only a hint at his discussion, but
recommend all our readers to get a copy
of the society's proceedings when published, and read this and all the other papers entire.
He said there was danger that our boys
will become a dependent class unless they
learn to love the farm. There is danger
too of their disliking the farm if they are
allowed to spend their boyhood years with
little or nothing to do. He gave examples
of men who as boys were trained in idleness. They are idlers still. Hard work is
the price of success anywhere. Teach the
boys to do their work so well as to take
pride in .what they do; then they will
like it.
Quit grumbling at the hard lot of the
farmer.   He thinks there is not  the ster
ling stuff in the boys of to-day as in those
of 25 years ago. Not the stamina. Our
prosperous men of business In towns and
cities started in life as workers, many of
them on the farm.
The above are a few of  the topics introduced and expanded by the speaker.
. State Superintendent of Schools, J. AA*.
Holcombe, sent a statement of the
OBSERVANCE OF ARBOR DAY
among the schools of the State, which was
read before the society, and the auspicious
inauguration of the good work, suggested
at the society's meetiRg a year ago. Tho
committee appointed at that time to confer with the State School Teachers' Asso-
cirtion was reappointed to continue the
work as opportunity may offer.
On Thursday morning a very interesting
paper on the
CONFLICT BETWEEN NATURE AND CIVILIZATION
was read by Prof. E. II. Butler, superintendent of the schools at AVinchester.
The paper set forth the Importance of renewing our forests, in a new and startling
light. A brief discussion followed the
reading of the paper, after which Joseph
Ratlin', trustee of Purdue University, read
a report on the affairs of that institution
Under the head of
'■ ■    '        MISC-IXANEOtTS BUSINESS
a resolution was adopted asking for the
passage of the Holmes bill in Congress,
donating f 15,000 to each agricultural college in the country, for experimental purposes.
A resolution was adopted appropriating
?50 for making a collection of fruit to be
exhibited at the New Orleans World's
Fair,and the president and secretary were
authorized to attend to receiving, selecting
and forwarding the fruit that may be
collected.
A resolution of thanks to the railroads
for reduced rates,  and to  the citizens for
free entertainment was adopted by rising ,
vote.
A memorial to the next Legislature by
the trustees of Purdue University asking
for further appropriations was on motion
endorsed by the society. In the amount
asked for is $2,000 to be dovoted to experimental work in tbe agricultural and horticultural departments.
The election of officers resulted in the
continuance of the former incumbents,
the executive committee included.
Purdue University, at Lafayette, was
decided on as the place for next meeting.
TO THE CAKE GB0WERS' ASSOCIATION;
AVe take the liberty of suggesting to the
members of the Indiana Cane Growers'
Association that they postpone their visit .
to New Orleans till the time of the meeting of the Mississippi Valley Horticultural
Association, Jan. 14th to 17th. AVe understand that the arrangements for opening
the World's Exposition on the 16th inst.,
are far from complete, and that it will be
impossible to put the exhibits in readiness
by that time. It will be quite unsatisfactory to make a visit there while everything is in disorder and confusion. By
the time the M. V. H. Association make
their visit the exhibits will all be in place
and the fruit display will be at its best.
r ^_——._.——_^—_—_i
Benjamin Kinsley, of New Albany, has
been sentenced to two years at Jeffersonville for forgery.