The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-10-28
HORTICULTURAL nEETINd.
The Secretary Hands in Full Report of One Of
the Best Meetings the Society
Ever Had.

The society convened in regular
meeting, as per announcement.
A bout sixty-live or seventy pre-
sent. The tables, OF course, did the
usual grooming act" under its
bountiful load of good things, and me-
thinks it took good deal of effort for
some of the "feedersu To suppress II
groan, after forty.fve minutes of in.
diligence.
Dinner ovef, meeting called to
order by Sec'y Pancoast, President
being absent. On motion l.. ID. Buck
was appointed chairman, reporter
absent, ID. ID. Smetzer was appointed
reporter, minutes of last meeting
read and approved. Fruit and vege.
table display, small but good; Jas. H.
Hoaglsnd, four varieties of apples,
vie; Ben Davis, Jonathan, Rambi and
London Sweet. He also presented a
sample of his wonderfully profitable
Henderson's bunch lima bean, Of
which more will be said later on.
Mr.. Fergus showed some fine
specimens of the Keller pear, and
Mrs. f.. II Funston some beautiful
specimens of the old reliable orange
ounce; Secretary Pancoast two
peaches, very fiue variety sent to
him from Emporia, Kansas, by the
owner, p, II. Rich, 405 Cottonwood
street. The society requested the re-
porter write for publication descrip
ton of the above variety and az |
have letter before me from Mr..
Rich will quote from 1t.
IL have this day sent to you n
small box containing two peaches OF
rare quality, being fine favored free.
stone peach Of extra size. The tree
IL Of the dark hard wood species. 1t
has yielded eight successive crops.
The origin of the tree Is not known.
| have u stock of them started, bud
ded, probably about three thousand,
| wish you to test one of the peaches
and keep the other until fully ripe,
or until your next meeting, second
Friday in. November at the q, A. II.
Hall in lola, Kansas"
In examining and discussing the
aforenamed peach 1t was decided that
the quality was good: color, medium;
size, large. 1t was suggested that
the proper way to handle this peach
for profit was to pick them about
frost time and lay them away in
cool room TO ripen, if it IL true, as
stated, that they hang on the trees
after the frost cuts the leaves off. i
desire to say that l would advise
people in this latitude to examine
carefully into the merits of this va
riety before planting largely thereof.
While man might get rich off OF
this variety as far south "a Oklahoma,
Arkansas or Texas, he might lose
his time and money on 1t here. If
may be allowed to disgress little, |
will say that in the fall of '96 met
with gentleman in kaufman CO.,
Texas, who has fine, large late
white variety, which he marketed
i'm November and sold readily at
Sl00. per busheI, while | saw just as
fine peaches in the middle of the
season 90 slow, very slow at fifteen
cents per bushel and the owner Of the
latter, in Wits Point, Texas, told me
that he actually quit gathering them
and gave them away ON the trees.
Mr.. Pancoast announced that Mr..
Fergus intended to send to
prof L. V. MuhsOn, of DenisOn, Tex,
for several new varieties of grapes
raised from seedlings and suggested
that in large clubs they could be pro-
cured for less money. MIR. =. says he
II personally acquainted with Prof
MunsOn, that he is prob ably the best
posted man in the United states on
Seeding grapes and that his grapes
do well north. Some doubt being eX-
pressed as to the pIopriety of using
southern raised stock, Mr.. Pancoast
said the Ben Davis apple originated
IN North Carolina and was one of the
most hardy apples we raise. MIR. p.
moved that we AS "a society recon-
mend the planting of theBen Davis for
market purposes. This precipltated
very animated discussion. Mr..
Funston said. he did not think this
society could afford to jeopardize its
hitherto high standing by recomend'
ing the Ben Davis apples He said
among other things, that there was
nothing to the Ben Davis except its
color to fool people, and exclaimed in
his usual forcible style, "any man
that would, eat "A Ben Davis apple
woule eat pumpkin" DR.. Wake
field, of Humboldt, spoke in favor OF
il aud said the Ben Davis was very
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