erties, were considered indispensable. Further, when we came to compare notes with those who had been for years endeavoring to make out these lists, we were surprised to find that many of our well known varieties, some of which are found in almost every county, were not named, even in the lists that "promise well."

The National Society, with its reports from so many sections of the country, had superior advantages to any local societies in an investigation of this kind, but to pursue the matter and bring out the best possible results, a large committee was appointed to collate and compare lists of varieties, which were tabulated for the several States, and sent out for further amendments, which it was hoped would bring out the most valuable information.

Our own society, as well as those of some other States, have been engaged in similar investigations, with excellent results, for our own regions, and, in view of the importance of considering the influence of different geological formations upon the sev eral varieties of fruits, our members attempted an analysis of these lists by sub-dividing our State according to the different rock formations, into five regions. This was the commencement of a great work-only the beginning, of valuable conclusions, which we hope yet to reach, after long continued observations and repeated consultations-we have recorded our conclusions, the report is before the society, and it may form an important part of the work of this session to revise and amend it.

It may be well for us to ask whether there may not be something else for us to know, something for us to study and to investigate, beyond the knowledge of external and inherent qualities of the fruits which are furnished by our favorite trees. Pomologists should know all about their trees, not merely how to produce them from the seed, how to propagate them, how to ingraft and thus multiply favorite varieties. They should not only understand the most perfect methods of culture and treatment of their pets, but they should study to know the laws of vegetable physiology to which their trees are subject-they must master the mysteries of plant-life. Upon these topies many erroneous views bave existed among orchardists, and too much ignorance still prevails among us. Thus it has been seriously questioned whether grafting and budding our trees does not diminish their vitality, or at least their hardiness, as in the case of the peach, among which we sometimes find that the most inferior seedling varieties escape the rigors of our climate, while the choice fruits are all destroyed in the bud, and fail to blossom. Now this only shows that there are differences in the power of withstanding frost, and that the trees producing the luscious fruits which we prefer for our tables, are more susceptible to cold and to sudden changes of temperature than the miserable seedings that have a tendency to run back to the original type.

Now it is clear, that as a general proposition, the grafting or inocculation can have no effect in making the tree tender, since the growth, resulting from the inserted bud, partakes of all the peculiar properties of the plant whence it was removed-it is only transplanted into a new stock, and like a cutting or a seed placed in the ground, its growth is modified only by the amount of crude sap furnished by the roots; it matters not whether these be original or adapted; and this crude sap is transformed into the respective products of the variety, within its own limits, above the insertion of the

graft. The influence of the stock is confined to the amount of sap it is able to furnish to the branches above, rather than to the nature and qualities of the products there generated. The leaves, the flowers, and the fruit, are always those peculiar to the scion, and in nowise influenced by the stock, except as above stated, by the amount and condition of the supply furnished from the soil. The variations often observed in the qualities of a single variety of fruit, grown upon a similar soil, perhaps in the same orchard row, and which have been attributed to the influence of the stocks upon which the different trees were grafted, should rather be referred to the existence of sports in the variety; such sports are known to exist in many cultivated plants, and are even observed to some extent in those that are still in a state of nature. That certain fruits are sometimes found to be a little more or less sweet or acid in different trees, has been attributed to their having been grafted upon stocks that would have furnished sweet or sour fruits;-this is all a mere assumption, and should rather be referred to the influence of the soil in which they are situated, or to some other cause. I am aware that there are several statements that would appear confirmatory of the theory that stocks do influence the graft in this way; that the Bellefleur apple grafted upon the Sweet Bough was less acid than usual; that the Prior's Red apple grafted upon the Janetting, was more prolific, etc., but the conclusions are not justified, and at least need further confirmation before we can adopt them as safe conclusions. If any one desires to convince the pomological world, which, like the rest of mankind is but too credulous, let him institute a series of experiments, and report the results. In the mean time, some of us will treat all these reports of isolated cases as at least of a very doubtful character, or we shall refer them to other well known causes.

That the stock may affect the fruit is admitted, but not in the way generally claimed." The influence must depend, as above stated, upon the amount of sap furnished, and the freedom with which it is handed over to the scion; and also to the freedom or restriction with which it is returned from the scion, in descending, as proper juice, to make up the tissues of the tree. We hear of stocks that are congenial, and otherwise; to take a very strong case of uncongeniality, look at the result of inserting a pear scion upon a thorn or apple tree stock. If it has been well established in the ground when cut off and grafted, a large supply of the crude sap will be furnished to the growth of the scion, which will appear very satisfactory, but the descending sap, in the graft, when it meets the stock, is uncongenial to it—the union of the two kinds of wood is imperfect; the new growth below the graft is very small, especially in the thorn; the scion soon overgrows the stock, and there is an interrupted descent of the sap. This is an unnatural state of affairs-the union does not make a unit-the new limb has an interrupted connexion with the soil below, since its buds do not have their new layer of woody fibers in free communication with it; there is a constriction placed upon them at the junction of the two different kinds wood; the life of the new tree is threatened, and the universal law of vitality com into play, which provides for the procreation of the species as a compensation for the tailing vitality of the individual; the responsibility of maintaining its existence is thrown upon it, and morphology comes in to transform the wood buds into blossoms and fruit, that seeds may be produced to

perpetuate the plant, which has thus had its existence threatened by this interruption of its reflex circulation. Hence we always find a tendency to early fruitage or premature productiveness in grafts that have been inserted upon uncongenial stocks. We also find an influence is exerted by this uncongeniality upon the character of the fruit itself, which is often larger and more luscious under such circumstances than where the scion and the stock are more nearly alike, as in the majority of cases of grafting upon what are called free stocks. One of the chief advantages of cultivating dwarf pears is claimed to be that the fruit is larger and more luscious. Instead of the pear being more austere and astringent, and inedible, it has its good qualities increased and not diminished nor rendered unpalatable, as should have been the case had the quince stock infused into the scion any of its peculiar qualities to affect the fruit. We are forced to adopt the views of modern physiologists-such as those of Schleiden and Harvey and others and conclude that the transformations of the sap into the several tissues must transpire in each several part of the plant separately, and not, as formerly believed, in the leaves alone, to be transmitted from them to the other organs.

The views of Harvey as to the wood growth constituting, as it were, by its continuous or connected lignin cells the roots of the buds, and connecting them with the soil, as the radicle does the germinating seed, are of the greatest importance to treegrowers, who will thus learn to value buds and appreciate the importance of their appendages-the leaves. An enlightened cultivator will never remove all the side branches from a young nursery tree, much less will he rub off the leaves from the annual shoot at midsummer in hopes of making it grow higher to produce more new foliage. On the contrary, he will encourage every leaf and every lateral branch, only subordinating the latter to the leader, when he knows that each of the buds is a separate existence, having its own connexion with the soil, and when he observes that by such a mode of treatment of his young trees he will have a satisfactory result—a stout stocky tree, the stem of which is a rapidly increasing cone, when traced downward from the tip, though perhaps somewhat knotty, if trimmed up to suit the eye of the customer, instead of a slender wand, without spot or knot or wrinkle, but tall, smooth and pliable, but also nearly worthless, as they are when crowded and trimmed up and forced to a single shoot, and grown as tall as possible, for they are then unable to support their own weight, and bending over, or ready to bend over, when they are deprived of the support of their fellows, and set out in the orchard. Such a nurseryman will, by observation of the effects of the laws of nature, soon learn that it is better to pinch the tips of the laterals, so as to keep them in subjection while doing their important work of building up the tree; and further, that there is a certain period in the life of the nursery tree, when the lower branches may be gradually removed, so as not to be so much missed, and so that the descending fibers from above will cover the wounds and produce the true desideratum for the tree-planter-a stocky stem, with branches placed at a sufficient hight from the ground, and below them also, a smooth stout stem, without those freshly made knife-scars that so often disfigure the young trees that are given to us for planting in our orchards, and which often produce ugly blemishes, and may seriously affect the vitality of the tree, which, for some time after transplanting,

is not in a condition to recuperate itself and to heal these wounds. Lest some of you may not have paid sufficient attention to this point of practice, I will refer you to some very interesting experiments that have been conducted by a committee of the Missouri Horticultural Society, to ascertain the period when the cambium layer was in most active formation. Dr. Claggett, of St. Louis, peeled off the bark from young trees once a week during the summer, and noted the results; he found that those peeled before the 9th of June did not have it reproduced-they all died; those peeled from the 16th to the 23d of June had the most perfect restoration, and those which were stripped after this period, when the bark would not readily leave the wood, made little or no effort to reproduce the parts. Now these dates apply only to that locality and to that particular season, and to the condition as to growth of those particular trees upon which the experiments were tried; but if the observations had been extended so as to note the status of the annual growth by extension of the subjects operated on, it would doubtless be found that the early failures at reproducing the bark were upon trees that had just made their first shoots in the early summer, and before these had begun their reflex growth of a layer of cambium, that constitutes the wood and bark of the annual layers, that those in which the experiment was successful were treated after the terminal bud had been formed, indicating that the growth by extension had nearly or quite ceased for the season, and that those which had failed at a later period were done after the descending growth had been made for the year. So it is more important to note the condition of the tree, than the advance of the season as indicated by the almanac, and so in practice in the nursery, where our trees may be kept in a growing state, by proper cultivation, for a longer period than in the orchard, the time is extended when the removal of laterals may be safely practiced with the desirable results of healing the wounds as rapidly as possible, and closing them the same season.

The effect of removing these lateral growths is well known in vine culture. By concentrating the growth in one main shoot, a larger and more productive cane is produced for the next years' fruitage than when several are allowed to grow, all of which may be more or less feeble. A vigorous cane, in the season of most energetic growth, will throw out laterals from almost every bud and will sometimes even bifurcate at the extremity. The careful vine-dresser will practice summer pruning and check these laterals so as to strengthen the cane that he is growing for the next season's fruitage. This he will do to the extent that he desires to cut the cane for bearing wood. Generally these laterals are broken out close to the axil of the leaves from which they sprang, but we are recommended to pinch them at their first leaf so as to leave one bud on each, so that, in case of any accidental breaking of the cane above them, this bud on the lateral may start instead of that which is lying dormant in the axil of the leaf, and which is destined to furnish the fruit the next year. Mr. Husman, of Missouri, has very judiciously recommended a similar treatment of the laterals on the bearing branches of the vine, and he practices a most admirable plan of shooting-in his fruit bearing shoots in such a way and at such a period as to force out laterals from them for the sake of making them supply new foliage during the summer, to

sustain and nourish the fruit. This he does by pinching the fruit-bearing shoots very early in the season, so soon as the bunches of blossom buds appear. By this means he forces out laterals from the buds opposite to each bunch, and, later in the season. these also are pinched at their first leaf. Mr. Husman claims that by this method he produces larger and better foliage, and that he can keep up a succession of healthy leaves during the season; and, further, that these evaporating surfaces for elaborating the sap are in juxtaposition to the fruit, just where they should be, for we know the value of the leaves to healthy growth, and can guess their importance also in developing the buds at their bases.

Some of our vine growers, by judicious pinching, will produce a strong cane and also have it furnished for a considerable portion of its extent, with spurs for fruiting, and all in one season's growth; this is doing two years' work in one, and requires a strong vine, but it may sometimes be desirable to work off the surplus energy of the plant in this way and prepare it for bearing fruit upon these spurs the next season.

It had been my intention to have presented some views upon the subject of producing new varieties of fruits from the seed. This would have involved a discussion of the very interesting questions of crosses and hybrids, but its extensiveness will prevent its introduction upon this occasion, when your patience has already been severely taxed. For the present you must be content with a fraternal caution, not to allow yourselves to be deceived by all the reputed hybrids that may be presented to your notice, and a recommendation to cultivate no varieties in which the plant is not perfectly healthy and vigorous, no matter how attractive the fruit.

I shall therefore now close, after directing your attention to some matters of busi

noss.

Election of Officers.-Our constitution in section 6th prescribes the annual election of the officers of this Society. A change was introduced by A. H. Ernst, who suggested it while presiding at the December meeting 1854, (as appears in page 19 of the sixth Report) altering the regular meetings from annual to biennial, and thus the elections ceased to be held annually, but I find no record of any alteration of the constitution in accordance with this custom of holding over for two years. I therefore suggest, that the Society would act more in conformity with its organic law by holding its elections annually, and I have appointed a committee in accordance with this view of the case, who will, I trust, furnish us with a list of candidates worthy of our ballots.

TREASURER'S REPORT.

You will be gratified to learn that owing to favorable circumstances for the publication of the last Report, the society has been able to husband its slender resources, while at the same time our valuable discussions have been presented to the thousands of readers of the State Agricultural Report. By this presentation of the results of or labors to the reading agriculturists of the State, we fondly hope that our list of members will be largely increased from year to year, to the great advantage of all.

Let me urge upon each of you to appeal earnestly to your neighbors and friends on behalf of this society, induce them to unite with us in the good work we have under