age have met no discouragement, and you will continue to plant and cultivate, in the full confidence that your harvest will, in the future, be commensurate with the labor and patience you have thus expended.

It is true these failures and discouragements are serious matter, but after all, I believe they are our best teachers for the attainment of a higher education in all that pertains to horticulture.

In assuming the duties and responsibility of the office of president of this Society it was with reluctance and somewhat of a distrust as to my ability to maintain the high standard attained by my illustrious predecessors. While I have some regrest, and may possibly have erred in my judgment, it is with a satisfaction that the dictates of conscience were for the best interests of our Society.

I will take this opportunity of paying my tribute of respect for the honor and trust you have reposed in me. Also thanking the members of this Society for the kindness and co-operation in our work, thus helping to advance the cause of horticulture.

B. S. Hoxie-I move that the suggestions made with regard to plant distribution be referred to the committee on Trial Stations and their action be included in their report to come before us Thursday morning. Carried.

REPORT OF SECRETARY.

A. J. Philips, West Salem.

Mr. President, and Members of the Wisconsin State Horticultural Society:-In submitting to you my first annual report, I do it with the satisfaction of knowing that, although the past year has, in may respects, been an unfavorable one to the horOur ticulturist, it has taught us many valuable lessons. prospects up to the frost of June 5th were very flattering, after that, serious losses were reported from many places, and

on later examinations I found the damage from that frost worse than was reported. Still we have not been alone in damage by frosts; other northern states reported more or less of it, and the beginning of the present winter has been a hard one for our brethren in the so-called "sunny south." Oranges, frost bitten on the trees, is as disappointing as apple and berry blossoms destroyed in the north. I find on visiting different parts of our state that the interest in horticulture is not lagging, but in many places it is on the increase, judging from the number of letters received, and the numerous questions asked at the different institutes. The correspondence connected with the office of secretary is greater than I expected and is on the increase, and, while I have endeavored to answer each one personally, or through the medium of some paper, as often requested, in absence from home some have necessarily been delayed, or in some instances may have been mislaid. Our reports for the year 1894 have been eagerly sought after and have been sent to ten states, besides to the Dominion of Canada. The president of the Ontario Fruit Growers' association in acknowledging receipt of our report said: "I have read it with much pleasure and profit. I particularly like the high moral, or I might say, the true religious tone of all the papers read and the addresses given at your meetings, and we would be much pleased to have you send a delegate to our meeting." Prof. S. B. Green, of Minnesota, said: "I regard your report recently received as one of the best. Full of useful instruction and information." Prof. W. A. Henry said, in a letter: "Am glad to notice that horticulture is on the up grade." These compliments to our members, who furnished material for our report, are certainly pleasant reminders.

One matter seriously confronts us, and I have given it some thought and study; that is, the difference in the membership of our state, 125, and that of our sister state, Minnesota, 525. I find that the publication of their reports and fruit notes, monthly, in pamphlet form, and the giving of plant premiums by some of their nurserymen has had a good effect, as they send this monthly magazine with premiums and an annual membership all for one dollar. I have received a number of

letters from our members advocating the same plan, but I find it cost $175 a year extra to do this publishing, and they pay their secretary double what we do, and he hardly receives enough as he has to be in his office most of the time. If we had sufficient funds to do this, and could secure a correspondent in each local society to give monthly reports, we might perhaps work up a membership equal to theirs. I do know that the plan of securing delegates from our local societies makes our meetings as interesting as any I ever attended in any state.

The time for the termination of the leases of our trial stations is approaching and we need some instructions on the matter. Owing to location, some of our members think we have not received the benefits we should have. Still, the expenses have been light. The one at Ithaca is remote from the railroad, and in nearly the same latitude of the experiment station, so well managed at Madison. The one at Sparta is on land too sandy to grow apples successfully; and none of the managers claim that much good for the general planter comes from experiments in strawberries and some other small fruits.

The station at Weyauwega has some good trees on it, and is of value to that immediate locality where water above and under the ground is abundant. These might all revert to the managers with the understanding that they have the profit from them, and in lieu thereof, ask them to make an annual report of what trees do well and what are failing. Then I would favor the State Society or trial station committee send. ing a committee of one man, or three, to select, in the northern part of the state, a suitable place near a railway station, away from the possible influence of water, on good apple soil, where a tree tested and found worthy or otherwise, would be of value to our whole state. Would advise buying a few acres, pay a man to care for it as ordered by the committee on trial stations, and not allow him to do any business on that station. for himself, but it should be called the State Trial Station for Trees and Plants, and an annual report be made to the Society by the manager. These hints I give you for your consideration at this time. I find one of the hardest things for our So

ciety to do is to reach the rank and file of the people of our state, with information that will enable them to grow fruit for their families and at the same time protect them from the ravages of the unscrupulous tree peddler. Would to God there was a spraying machine invented to drown him the first time he lies to an innocent purchaser.

We feel the need of a newspaper in our state with a welledited horticultural department.

With regard to our volumes I can only reiterate what our former secretary, B. S. Hoxie, said: "We need more bound volumes. We had some 2,000 copies left after the distribution; these I turned over to Mr. McKerrow, who kindly sends them out with the bulletins to the institute. I find them eagerly sought after, and the supply usually exhausted in less than ten minutes, many going away disappointed because they did not obtain one.

NEW FRUITS.

As the season of the red raspberries approached, I began to receive letters of inquiry about the Loudon raspberry, from our own and other states; and as our society had voted fifty dollars for looking up new fruits, I spent about one week looking it up and comparing it with other red raspberries. I found it of good quality, very productive, having a good, long season and a good shipper. a good shipper. My decision being that if it proved as good in other localities as at Janesville, it was well worthy of trial. Prof. Goff said the same and thought it a valuable addition to our list of red berries. "In October and November I spent about two weeks in Waupaca, Winnebago, Fond du Lac and Dane counties, looking after some new seedling apples. The Granite Sweet, near Waupaca, is a good keeping apple, a seedling of the Fameuse. The Ruth, near Weyauwega, is also a good keeper, a fine tree and an apple of fine appearance, and good quality. The Ray Craft, near Eureka, is good in tree and fruit and is productive; the owner intends planting 1,000 trees next spring. I think it will pay him. The Murply's Blush and the Prichard, in Dane county, are both good and will be heard from later. They both are

good bearers, the former especially so. It bore a good crop in 1894, twenty-eight bushels, forty-nine years after being planted. For the localities in which they are growing, I consider these are all valuable.

The Prichard, I found, on examination, to be a good tree, the fruit having been awarded the first premium as a winter seedling at the state fair in 1894, by J. S. Harris. Our apple men will remember a very handsome apple exhibited at our last winter's meeting by A. A. Parsons; as no one could name it, it was awarded the first premium as a winter seedling. I visited the tree on the farm of Mr. Beaulin, in Winnebago county. I am of the opinion that it is an eastern variety of grafted fruit, but will watch its further developments. It bore no fruit last season. To give all the particulars of the new fruits I found would make a report too lengthy. I only mention a few of the best winter varieties. On my return I had quite a number of apples and a bundle of cions for myself and for our experiment station. I spent a day at Ft. Atkinson and as time would not permit showing my fruit to all the growers there, Mr. C. P. Goodrich kindly allowed me to invite our members to spend the evening at his home where I showed the best apples I had found and gave them their history. Messrs. Coe, Mr. Edwards and two sons, Mrs. Spry and daughter, and Mr. and Mrs. Goodrich were present. Mr. A. J. Edwards, one of our young members, said his faith in Wisconsin winter apples, had increased. All seemed well pleased. I have extended accounts of these trips which can be condensed and used in our coming volumes.

NECROLOGY.

Since our last annual meeting the scythe of time has dealt us some severe blows, perhaps the hardest since our Society's organization. February 20, 1895, the sad intelligence that our time honored and beloved ex-president, J. M. Smith, was no more, flashed over the wires.

April 14th (only a short time after he read a paper at the round up) the largest gathering ever assembled at that place,