So well convinced I am of this that I will never plant a root-grafted tree if a budded one can be secured.

THE USE OF IRON SULPHATE,

The use of green vitriol or sulphate of iron to correct malnutrition is quite generally practiced by the more scientific horticulturists of France. If a fruit tree looks unthrifty with the leaves more or less drooping and yellowish, and there is no apparent cause like lack of food or moisture, it is at once treated internally with sulphate of iron. A hole is bored in the trunk in a slightly downward direction about 15 to 18 inches above the ground. The size of the hole is % of the diameter of the tree treated. That is, if the tree is eight inches in diameter the hole should be one inch across. If the tree is four inches in diameter the hole should be one-half inch across. This hole is completely filled with the coarsely powdered iron sulphate and is then closed or coated over with a thin coat of grafting wax.

This method of treating trees had been so long associated in my mind with a species of quackery which no honest man could help but despise, that I looked upon it with suspicion. However, the testimony was so convincing, the apparent proofs of its good results so evident, that all my natural prejudices melted away. I will not say that the good effects or non-effects of this remedy have been fully demonstrated, but will say that it is a good subject for study and experiment.

In the way of spraying I think we have little to learn from European methods. It is practiced quite systematically, and is generally regarded as one of the essentials to successful horticulture. Bordeaux mixture is commonly used and the applications are made with care and thoroughness. The lime-sulphur solution is used by some. As a rule the insect enemies are less numerous and less injurious than with us. This is probably due to the more general cultivation of the soil and a certain cleanliness in all surroundings that makes conditions for insect multiplications more difficult. In most of the fruit and vegetable growing sections of Europe, birds are more abundant than here, at least more of them are seen in the open. These natural allies are of great service in the inglorious warfare that must be persistently waged against our insect pests. It would be well if our insectiverous birds could be protected and encouraged to multiply as they are in European countries.

One abiding impression made by the European market gardens is the absence of weeds. I saw gardens of 20, 50 or even 100 acres where the total bulk of weeds seen could have been placed into a bushel basket. This absence of weeds was not wholly due to thorough tillage of the crops then on the ground, but was the accumulated result of years of good cultivation and of good care in other respects. The great secret of this marvelous freedom from weeds lay in the fact that there were practically no weed seeds in

the soil.

Speaking of weeds it is very interesting to note how large a pro

portion of the weeds we know are common to this country and Europe. We may safely estimate that the number of weeds now growing in this country which are universally injurious is not less than 100. It is just a little startling when we come to realize it, that of these 100 species of the worst weeds at least 80 to 85 are emigrants from European countries.

Among the uncultivated plants found growing in Ohio today, more than 500 species have appeared since the first cutting of the forests. This constitutes nearly one-fourth of all species growing without cultivation in this state. On the other hand, barely one per cent of the wild plants of Europe have been introduced from the United States, and of this small number comparatively few are troublesome as weeds.

Why is it that so many of our pestiferous weeds are of European origin, while so few of our native species are found there? To answer in part at least this question, we must recall that much of the soil of Europe has been cleared and cultivated for hundreds of generations. During this time, along the fences and hedgerows, by the roadside and in waste corners, about buildings, farmyards and gardens, certain races of plants have developed a remarkable adaptation to surroundings. Although regarded as outcasts and vagrants in their native country, they are in a sense domesticated and have adjusted themselves to the methods of old civilizations. When the seeds of such plants find their way to this country they are at home and delight in the haunts of men. If given the slightest opportunity they thrive about the house and barn or in the vegetable gardens or the poorly kept lawns and vacant town lots. Purslane, pigeon grass, chickweed, plantain, burdock, catnip, cockle, creeping mallow and many other species are good illustrations.

Another factor should not be overlooked. Some species of animals as well as plants when once established in a new locality tend to increase in reproductive power. The English sparrow and the San José scale may be cited as examples. The gypsy moth in Massachusetts, the rabbit in Australia, and the Jew the world over, are additional illustrations. Many weeds exemplify the same principle. In some parts of Europe, France and Italy particularly, hailstorms are common and do an immense amount of damage. In many places the loss is borne by mutual insurance companies. When distributed in this way the loss is lightened to the individual, but is often calamitous to the community.

The use of bombs as a supposed preventative of local hail is quite common in parts of France. Some of the nurserymen and larger growers of fruit and vegetables keep a supply of bombs and use them whenever a serious hailstorm is threatened. These bombs are made of high explosives and are raised into the air by means of mortars or box kites, directly over the crops it is desired to save. There is a difference of opinion as to the real effect of the bombs, Some authorities unhesitatingly assert that as a local means of relief they are eminently practical. Others are quite as positive that they have little or no effect. The energetic study of air temperatures and air currents in their relation to the more efficient use of

the aeroplane will undoubtedly shed new light on this question and it may be that local hailstorms will in time be more or less under practical control.

COVERING FRUIT.

The practice of covering the better grades of fruit with paper sacks is a common and apparently growing one in French horticulture. The finer apples and pears as well as dessert grapes are often thus treated. Special sacks are manufactured for this purpose. They are tied over the fruit soon after it is well set and left on until it is picked for the market. The object of this covering is not merely to protect the fruit from insects, fungi or birds, but to give it a wax-like gloss and color and a more delicate skin. I estimated that over 16000 sacks had been used in one-half acre fruit garden near Paris that was well stocked with dwarf apples and pears. The gardener, a deft-fingered expert, told me that he had put them on at the rate of 1000 per day. Afterwards in different places I took occasion to time various workers engaged in the operation and found that the average was one sack per minute or 600 sacks in a 10-hour day. How little is known of the real influence of light upon assimilation and growth; for each species of fruit plant and for each stage of its growth there exists a certain optimum of insolation. What is it? Who can tell?

One thing is certain fruits of certain species appear to develop better in diffused light, others better in direct light. Where the system of espalier training is in vogue and where the light is too intense, artificial shading is a well based operation.

There are many other phases of the horticultural art of Europe that are more or less dependent upon, or are more or less closely related to science, but to mention these time does not suffice. It is enough to say that with all our art and science we have as yet scarcely touched the surface of an unexplored world.

THE PRESIDENT: I think the Society is to be congratulated on the increased membership during the last year, and also on the increased influence that it is bound to exert. I believe, judging from papers read at this meeting, we have come nearer to the ideal that the founders had in mind than at any previous time. One thing which pleases me very much is to see so many young men present and taking part in the program. The meeting now stands adjourned. (The following papers were read by title, but are printed in full.)

TEACHING AND LEARNING IN HORTICULTURE.
By T. V. MUNSON,

Denison. Texas.

To know how to wisely teach we must have a clear perception and comprehension of what learning is. The old notion of learning

was to take that to be knowledge or learning which authority-some one set apart to utter dogmas or declarations as oracles of truthdeclared to be the truth, without applying the test of the senses and of reason based thereon, to determine the matter through the conscious process of reasoning from cause to effect. Hence he who had committed to memory the greatest number of sayings of the seers and prophets, and could recite such sayings on the proper occasion, was most learned, whether he could give any reason or not why the sayings were true. We know better now. We have learned that such put into a method of teaching is about the surest way of training a pupil to become truly not learned, but a stuffed automaton. We have learned that the useful, practical knowledge one gets is through the keen, voluntary pursuit of fact and truth itself for the love of capturing it; as a fox pursues a hare by smell, sight and experienced knowledge of the character of the hare and the region of his range, to enjoy catching and eating it. The chasing fox would never get his hare if he went to searching his memery for what some great ancient fox had told was the best way to catch hares. To teach the dog to catch rabbits we do not pen him up in a kennel and feed him dead cold rabbits, but we take him rabbit hunting frequently, where plenty of wild rabbits live, and get him excited at sight of the routed game so that he tries to catch it, and by repeated trials he succeeds.

Now, horticulture is a very concrete science, as much so as catching rabbits, and the boys and girls learn it in the same way that dogs learn to be good hunters, that is, by engaging in its pursuit as much as possible. In teaching horticulture or any other branch of agriculture, each student should have a small plat of ground put into his charge, to prepare, plant and cultivate, in which to study soil-handling, fertilization, germination, cultivation, flowering, ripening of product for market, seeding, etc., requiring a thesis discussing every operation and why should be required, and grading should be made on results of his work and on the thesis. Besides this each student should be allowed or required to observe and note, as part of recitation work, the plats of other students. The professor of horticulture (or agriculture) should be present in the grounds always during the plat-tending to anwser questions chiefly, but occasionally to make suggestions and to require the students to demonstrate as far as possible in their plats the various principles discussed in the text book and lectures. This plat work should be as rigidly carried out as is the work with microscope and chemicals in the laboratory. The smell of fresh soil, the muscular effort, the fresh air and vivifying light of the direct sun rays would be sources of strength to budding ideas as well as vegetables. The plat work should be previously planned and mapped out by the professor so that no two plats would deal with the same problem.

This would be strictly in accord with the inductive method of teaching, which should also be used in classroom work, each student. being required to collect material for study and illustration from plats, fields and woods.

As supplementary work, class visits should be made to the best

nearby farms, vegetable and fruit gardens and orchards, private ornamental grounds, cemeteries, parks and floral establishments. The professor should always be in charge to preserve order and system in viewing and noting, and he should be as studious as his pupils, and have, by a recent previous visit, prepared himself and the proprietors for the visit. As recitations on such visits a certain number of pages of notes taken with reference to principles discussed in the text-book and classroom, should be required. Such visits would mostly be made by juniors and seniors.

From what I have said it is to be observed that the teacher should be more of a post-graduate student himself at the head of the class to lead rather than to drive as a dogmatic lecturer, for, by example, we accomplish much more than by mere lecture or authoritative statement. Lectures should always be, so far as possible, illustrated with appropriate material, well studied beforehand, and the chief and best teacher will consist in getting the respect and confidence of the students so as to induce them to be enthusiastic investigators for the love of knowledge, and that investigation should be directed to practical, useful and profitable results.

I mean to include in the profitable, appreciation and acquirement of the beautiful, the true, and the good, as well as mere food, clothing and shelter-getting.

Such open air teaching conserves the health of both teacher and student and gives much keener appetite for, and greater capability to master, the school-room studies.

From anything I have said it must not be inferred that I would eschew competent and reliable authorities in matters of scientific fact. The student should be encouraged to refer to these when making investigations, but that when any reputed authority makes at statement which seems to clash with his own well made observations, to then more carefully review his own work to find who is Slavish devotion to reputed authorities has kept many persons in ignorance of great truths that otherwise they might have known.

In order to stimulate the plat-work and furnish a model of system, order, exactness, neatness, economy, and effect in laying out and developing the plat the professor should have some plats of his own, cared for and worked by an expert to a high degree of excellence under his own directions, and the laying out of the college grounds, the avenues, the trees and shrubs, the lawns, the park-plats, the arboretum, the botanical garden, the conservatory, greenhouse. hotbeds, vegetable garden, and orchard of the college should be models, not necessarily large, under the charge of a competent superintendent and skilled workmen. Such accessories are as important in connection with agricultural colleges as are commodious, well-planned and constructed classroom buildings, and even more efficient aids to education. With such equipment and a large amount of outdoor study and practical application of principles, teaching and learning become a delightful pastime instead of the stuffy classroom humdrum to be found in many of our agricultural colleges.