The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-07-25
Editorial NOtings.


Editorial NOtings.
SECRETARY GILBERT IN VERMONT
The able secretary of the Maine Board
of Agriculture has begun the publica-
ton Gin the Maine Farmer, of which he
is editor) of his notes upon farming as
he found it in Vermont. The first of
the series is entitled GA Day with Dr.
Hoskins," which we think our readers
will not care much for; but his subse-
quent notes, which will deal mainly
with the dairy industry, we shall make
liberal extracts from in future issues.
IRRIGATION IN New ENGLAND
All the great market gardeners around
our great cities are recognizing the
importance of free use of water for
irrigating their crops in dry times.
The high acreage value of their crops
justifies large expenditure, which farm
crops will not bear, but there are many
cases on New England farms where
large fields might be very cheaply ir-
rigated, and if our farmers were not so
generally poor, and therefore timid
about any sort of expenditure, our thou
sands of mountain brooks might now
be adding hundred-fold to the pro-
duction of grass and other crops in our
too frequent droughty years. The time
will come when this fact will be better
understood.
ONTARIO FRUIT-GROwERs - Secre-
tary Woolverton has kindly sent us
copies of the Report of the Fruit
growers Association, and of the En-
genealogical Society of Ontario. The
proceedings are eXcellently reported,
but, we regret to say, not so well in
deXed as they deserve to be. AS Pro-
fessor Bailey of the Michigan Agricul-
tural College well says, the bulk of our
American agricultural and horticultural
reports and publications are grave-yards
of knowledge, lost for want of good
indces. We give away, every year,
publications sent to us, which we should
preserve as invaluable, simply because,
without induces, they are practically
useless. The facts we want are there,
but life is not long enough to allow the
necessary search for them. These re-
ports show, however, that fruit-grow-
ing is making good progress in this best
of all the provinces of the Dominion;
and that this progress is due to the
energy and Intelligence of the associates
of this society, and especially of its
able secretaries, Messrs. Beadle and
Woolverton, no one can fail to see.
We wish them no less than their de-
serts-a triumphant success.
MISSOURI AGRICULTURE.-P
j. w. Sanborn of the Missouri Agri-
cultural College puts us under obliga-
ton in sending us his Annual Report
of the State Beard of Agriculture, of
which he is secretary. Mr.. Sanborn is
well known to our readers for the eX-
celent work he did for the New Hamp-
shire Agricultural College, of which
little seems to be known since he left
it. But what was New England's loss
was the great Vests gain, as is so often
the case; and if we can not retain our
ablest children, we can at least rejoice
over their acknowledged usefulness in
broader and more appreciative sphere.
AS these state reports are not obtain
able elsewhere, it is hardly worth while
to use space in noticing them, much
excellent matter as they contain; and
our readers can expect to benefit by
them only so far as they are useful to
us in our editorial work. To this end
they require thorough and careful in
deXing, and it is pity here again to
have to say that this report, like that of
our Ontario friends, is sadly lacking.
RUSSIAN APPLES.-When we con-
slider that territory equal at least to
six large states on this continent would
be practically unable to grow any tree
fruits, were it not for the timely i'm
portations of the Russian varieties,
we have wondered at the origin of
the innumerable skits and slurs flung
at them in the newspapers. Undoubt-
edly some of this antagonism is honest
if unintelligent, and due to the frauds
of tree-peddlers, who dub everything
Russian" when trying to sell their
stock in cold localities. But the noise
is too great to be all owing to that, and
it can be mainly traced to the nursery
men who did not catch on to the value
of these iron-clad trees in time, and
now find themselves without stock to
meet the demand, while overstocked
with more tender sorts. But lack of