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ory, Pratt, of Illinois, and C. G. Patten, of Charles City, Iowa, were made honorary members, and invited to take part in the proceedings of the society.

The following resolutions," introduced by Mr. Stickney, were unanimously adopted.

Believing that forest planting and culture is so vitally important in its economic and climatic influence as to be worthy of national aid and encouragement, we hereby

Resolve, That we fully endorse the recommendation of the memorial of the American Nurserymen's Association, and ask for it the careful consideration of the Congress of the United States, and that in furtherance of this interest we ask the passage of bill No. 1218 of the House of Representatives.

Resolved, That we unanimously recommend Dr. Jno. A. Warder, of Ohio, as a man eminently fitted, by a life devoted to the study and culture of trees and by his thoroughly practical knowledge of the wants of our timberless prairies, to examine the forestry interests of other countries and gather therefrom such facts as will be most useful here.

Resolved, That copies of these resolutions be signed by the President and Secretary of this society and forwarded to our senators and representatives in Congress.

Adjourned.

TUESDAY, 2 P. M.

The society was called to order by the President, who announced that the first business in order was the election of officers for the coming year.

Mr. Stickney moved to amend article 4 of the constitution by inserting the word "superintendent" after the word "treasurer,' and by striking out the words, "and the ex-president" in the third line. Which was carried.

The society then proceeded to the election of officers, and the following were chosen :

President J. M. Smith, of Green Bay.

Vice President-C. H. Greenman, of Wauwatosa.
Recording Secretary-F. W. Case, of Madison.

Corresponding Secretary - M. L. Clark, of New Lisbon.
Treasurer M. Anderson, of Cross Plains.

Superintendent at State Fair -F. W. Case, of Madison.

Additional Members of Executive Committee J. S. Stick

ney, A. J. Philips and A. G. Tuttle.

The following persons were elected as committee of observation: 1st District, D. T. Pilgrim, of West Granville.

J. C. Plumb, of Milton.

แ E. H. Benton, of Oakfield.

A. L. Hatch, of Ithaca.

E. W. Daniels of Auroraville. 66 M. L. Clark, of New Lisbon. D. Huntley, of Appleton.

The secretary was instructed to prepare the necessary blanks for the committee, to facilitate the work of gathering information. The committee on revision of fruit list reported, "recommending to strike Plumb's Cider out of the list of five varieties, hardiness the only test, and insert Wealthy instead. Also to add Prouty's Seedling to the list of strawberries for trial, and to add to list of evergreens for live fence posts, Norway Spruce."

The report of the committee was accepted.

Mr. Clark moved to correct the report of the committee by inserting Plumb's Cider in the place of the Wealthy. He said the Wealthy was comparatively a new apple, and had not been extensively tried, and in some instances where tried had not proved satisfactory, but the Plumb's Cider had been well tested, and so far as he knew was not apt to winter-kill.

Mr. Tuttle thought much of Plumb's Cider, but judging by the test of hardiness, he saw no reason why it should be preferred to the Utter, or a number of other varieties. The Pewaukee stands better than the Plumb's Cider. In planting an orchard he should give the Utter the preference; thought it should stand in the list before the Fameuse. He had seen the Plumb's Cider winter-killed in orchards; in his own nursery, none of the so-called hardy varieties suffered more than it did; would not wholly reject a tree because it was tender in the nursery, for some trees were very hardy in the orchard that were tender there, as the Rawle's Janet.

Mr. Kellogg advised caution; he was aware that Plumb's Cider was liable to injury in the nursery row, but was not in favor of throwing it out.

Mr. Philips had nothing against the Plumb's Cider; but it had not proved hardy with him, and his experience was the same as that of others; in Mr. Peffer's orchard, out of a row of nine trees, eight had died. The Wealthy was the leading apple in Minnesota, where the climate is severer than ours; that and the Duchess are the only apples they feel safe in recommending there. The Wealthy has been tested here to some extent, and seems to be very hardy; he had set one hundred trees of it, and expected to set two hundred more in the spring; he thinks it is the hardiest tree we have; likes the appearance of the tree better than the fruit, but the past year the fruit was very good.

The motion to strike out the Plumb's Cider and insert the Wealthy was carried.

On motion of Mr. Kellogg, the Wealthy was added to the list recommended for general cultivation.

On the motion to strike out the Ben Davis from the list for general cultivation, Mr. Tuttle remarked that he thought the society had done very great injury to the fruit growing interests of the state by recommending the Ben Davis; he regarded it as the worst mistake we had made; while it may do well in a few places, in a great majority of the places it will prove worthless. Motion carried.

The list of grapes was left unchanged.

On raspberries, Mr. Clark favored striking out Davison's Thornless, and inserting the Turner.

Mr. Stickney liked the Turner berry; it was most excellent, but he could not recommend it, as its persistence in throwing out suckers made it a troublesome pest.

On motion of Mr. Stickney, Davison's Thornless was dropped from the list.

President Smith thought we should give winter protection to the raspberry; he had adopted the practice, as much as with his strawberries, and found that it added largely to the yield.

The strawberry list was amended in accordance with the recommendation of the committee, by adding Prouty's Seedling; also, on motion of Mr. Clark, the Col Cheney was added for trial. Pears, to stand as before. To plum list, the De Soto was added for trial.

The recommendation of the committee, to add to the list of Evergreens, Norway Spruce for live fence posts, was adopted. Adjourned.

FEBRUARY 6, 9 A. M.

At the opening of the session the reports of the committee of observation for the 4th and 5th districts, were read; Mr. Plumb also made a verbal report for the 2d district, in connection with which he said that farmers are greatly encouraged in tree planting and the prospects are, that more trees will be set in southern Wisconsin than ever before. The more intelligent farmers there are moving forward cautiously, and are closely observing what our society endorse and recommend. This is complimentary to us, but should lead us to be careful what we recommend.

Pres. Smith said he was aware that the recommendation of the society exerted great influence in all parts of the state, and hence, it was exceedingly necessary that we move cautiously.

Mr. Kellogg made the report on behalf of the committee on revision of the premium list. In doing so he urged the great advantage to the exhibition of horticultural products. of holding the fair at a later date, and advised, that we request the board of the state agricultural society to fix the time a week or two later. Report of committee accepted and adopted.

A paper on Horticultural Education was read by A. L. Hatch of Ithaca; also one on Small Fruits for the Common Farmer, by C. H. Greenman, of Wauwatosa.

In answer to inquiries Mr. Greenman said that he preferred the one cane, and spur system of pruning, cutting the spurs back to three buds, and renewing the wood from time to time; vines should be set at an angle of about 45° to facilitate covering in the winter as without winter protection, it is impossible to raise grapes successfully. He does not practice summer pruning much, except the first year. Prefers the stake system to the trellis, as it is much easier, more simple, and though it may not give as much fruit to the vine, it would more to the acre, and of a better quality. If farmers would practice this system they would be well pleased with the results. Cutting the spurs back each year to two or three buds, the vines would never get beyond their control. Where the vines had been neglected and got twenty feet or more of old wood, he should cut back and get new canes, with bearing wood near the roots.

In relation to pruning currants President Smith said, where the currant wood is four or five years old, it bears but little fruit, and that is of an inferior quality; his bushes were set out over twenty years ago, in rows six feet apart and four feet in the row; his practice is to cut out the oldest wood each year, and to thin out the new growth, where too thick; manures each year and cultivates to keep down the grass and weeds; the result has been that he has had an abundant crop every season; even this year, when the crop has generally failed throughout the state, his bushes were loaded down with fruit.

Mr. Boyce favored cutting back and pruning every year; he had followed it, and had always raised large crops of currants. Spoke highly of the black currant; the more he used it the better he liked it; it is easy to raise, and always brings a good price in the market; selling readily for fifteen cents per quart, when red currants bring only five.

B. F. Adams said the advice of Mr. Greenman in relation to strawberries was good, but he was of the opinion that good paying crops could be raised on the same beds for three, four and sometimes five years in succession. Some varieties can be cropped longer than others. The Wilson is apt to weaken itself by overbearing, but thinks that good_paying crops can be raised of it for two and even three years. English gardeners usually crop the same beds for a term of years, but we have adopted the practice of resetting after the first or second crop; thinks this is a mistake; thinks that better crops can be raised of the Charles Downing, and of Downer's Prolific, the second, third, and even the fourth year, than the first, and that the fruit, in size and quality, will not be inferior. Of course it will require care and labor to cultivate and renovate the beds. Do not know how long the same land may

be cropped, but at the present time, has a third crop growing, and the vines are strong and healthy, and give every indication of bearing a heavy crop. His method of treatment is, as soon as the crop has been harvested, to mow the beds, plow between the rows, and drag and cross drag it, until it has the appearance of a newly sown field, and then to mulch the rows. Thinks the old leaves are a dead weight, a loss to the plant; usually mulches and covers with straw.

In response to an inquiry by Mr. Clark, as to use of manure as a winter covering, President Smith said he had not used it for that purpose, but thought pine leaves, straw, hay, or something that would not keep the plants too moist, would be better; manure should be applied to the surface when winter covering is removed. He had raised strawberries over twenty years, and had grown some very large crops, but had never got more than two good crops from the same bed; if the first crop was very heavy, he plowed the bed up at once, as the plants were too much exhausted to bear a crop the next season, even if they survive the winter. If the two first crops were light, the third crop would probably be a good one, but he preferred to reset, than to go beyond the second crop. The Wilson is very apt to exhaust itself by overbearing; other varieties might bear longer.

Mr. Stone, of Ft. Atkinson, was not in favor of covering with manure; unless the winter is very favorable, the vines will be greatly injured by it; coarse mulch is much better and safer.

Mr. Plumb said, that when covered with manure early in the season, the vines are apt to be smothered, but a light coating of manure late in the season will not be likely to do harm, especially where it is coarse. Strawberries and all our fruits were in the best condition possible at the present time; the very wet fall was a great blessing to the horticulturist; the amount of moisture in the soil, with the warm weather this winter, had helped to increase the life and vitality of our trees and plants, and they were in a better condition now than last October. Wanted to say a word about pruning grape vines, especially those mentioned as overgrown; the first thing to be done is to cut them down and make them start anew from the roots; do it at once, and not wait until spring; do not allow more than three canes to grow up; pinch off the laterals from these and let them grow to their full length; in the fall, cut back to three or four feet, according to the strength of the canes, and you have the fruit arms; if the trellis system is adopted, use but two canes, and tie these horizontally to the lower bar of the trellis, and start the upright canes from these; cut back the upright canes to two or three buds, in the fall. A vineyard pruned on the trellis system is a beautiful sight, but involves much care and labor; many of our most successful cultivators regard the stake system (two stakes to the hill) much preferable, giving better results with less labor. If farm