The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1898-02-24
FEBRUARY MEETING
OF THE STARK COUNTY HoRTI-
CULTURAL SOCIETY.
Massillon The Ohicial Report
OF the Proceedings.

OF the Proceedings.
The second monthly meeting of the
Stark County Horticultural Society, for
1898, was held at the residence of ]. ].
Bast, in Massillon, on Wednesday, Feb.
uary 10th.
The handsome home was coy and
warm and everything had been made
ready for a large meeting. And although
the impossible condition of the roads
prevented the attendance of those who
lived away from the lines of railroads,
Canton sent over a carload of members,
and with the addition of those in and
around Massillon very pleasant and
profitable meeting was held.
The tables in plain sight, through the
sliding doors, loaded with snch delicious
viands, forbade the holding of forenoon
session, and not until two hours or more
had been spent in social chat, and par
taking of the great feast, did the house
get down to the business of the day.
The reading of the minutes was omit
ted
Chas. Archer was named to collect
membership fees.
A communication from w. w. Farms
worth, Secretary of The Ohio Horticul-
tural Society, was read, urging 'horticul-
turists to write letters to senators and
representatives of the Ohio legislature
urging them to pass the ''De Ran" bill
for the protection of orchards against
the ravages of the San Jose Scale and
other fruit and shade tree pests; and also
to provide larger fund for the use of
the State Horticultural Society to enable
it to render its efforts more effective in
its work of fighting these orchard pests.
The secretary was authorized to write
to our Legislators conveying to them the
desire of this society for the passage OF
Bills for promotion of these objects
NJ. Bitter having been appointed to
open a discussion on some subject to be
named by him, proposed the following
"If you plant two fruit trees of the
same age, one in the spring and one in
the fail will they be likely to bear fruit
in alternate years2' the one one year and
the other the next.
Mr.. Bitter had read all article on the
subject in which such a claim was made,
and also that by destroying the bloom on
one side of a fruit tree would ordinarily
produce the same result, unless frost
should destroy, also, the bloom on the
other side.
Mr. Krider says he plants "Ben Davis"
and has apples every year, and does not
need to try such experiments.
Mr. Mofitt read the following essay on
PROGRESS IN FRUIT CULTURE
Until within a few decades past but
little attention was paid to fruit culture,
and that was mainly for home use.
At the first meeting of the first Horti-
cultural Society of this nation, namely,
the Horticultural Society of Massachu-
sets, about half century ago Robert
Manning was thought to have done Won
ders when he had exhibited two baskets
of apples.
At the second meeting of the American
Pomological Society. held in the city of
Philadelphia in 1882 the committee on
fruits reported 21 varieties of apples, 6
of pears, 4 of peaches, 3 of grapes. At a
recent meeting of this society, the COM
mittee on apples reported 352 varieties,
crab 10, apricots u, Blackberries II,
cherries SO, native grapes SO, foreign 81,
nectarines 7, mulberries Z figs 1S, orange
8, peaches ia, pears 122, plumbs 73,
ounces 9, raspberries 2s, strawberries 43,
total 947 varieties. Taking the Centen-
nial statistics as basis upon which to
approximate the actual present we may
safely place the number of vines and
trees of the great staple fruits in the
United States in round numbers as
follows;