St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1907-01-23
Birds and Flowers.
proceedings of the Annual Meetings of
the Vermont Bird Club and the Yer.
mont Botanical Club.

the VermUUt blTu CkuD ana the YER
mont Botanical Club.
The 10Th annual meeting of the Yer
mont Botanical Club and the sixth an
nual meeting of the Vermont Bird Club
were held at the class room of the Fair
banks Museum on Friday and Saturday.
Over 40 members of both societies were
present from all parts of the state and
many interesting and instructive papers
were given. The exercises Friday after
noon were given up to the proceedings of
the Vermont Bird Club and at the bust
ness session these officers were elected
Pres, Prof George H. Perkins, Bur
1ington.
Vice-Pres., Carlton D. Howe, Essex
Junction.
Sec, and Treas, George H. Ross, Rut-
land.
Elk. Com, Carlton D. Howe, Mrs.
Elizabeth B. Davenport, Brattleboro,
Prof. J. w. Votey, Burlington, Miss
Isabel NJ Paddock, St. Johnsbury.
The club elected Miss Griffin director
of the Fairbanks Museum, as their re-
preventative at the New England Fedora
ton of Natural History Societies.
Prof. Perkins presided as president OF
the meeting and the program as given
last week was carried out with few
exceptions. In presenting the problems
of the Vermont Bird Club, Mr.. Howe
laid special emphasis on the necessity Of
educating the farmers toregard the birds
as their best friends instead of their
enemies. He spoke particularly of the
attempted legislation to take the cherry
bird off the protected list and said its
life was saved by the active work of the
Vermont Bird Club, the Audubon
societies and the good sense of the legis-
lative committee on game and fisheries
He quoted freely from arecent newspaper
article from Vermont fruit grower in
which he claimed the cherry birds had
damaged his orchard to the extent oil
5000 in one year. Mr. Howe said that
would be impossible and that there was
plenty of evidence to prove that the
cherry bird destroyed more worms and
bugs than cherries every season.
Miss Marion Bole of West Barnet, an
enthusiastic bird lover, spoke on the
winter feeding of birds. Miss Emma E,
Drew of Burlington spoke on some bird
acquaintance, and Miss Griffin reported
the recent meeting of the Federation Of
Natural History Societies. B. p. Ruggles
of Woodstock spoke of the Hartland
grasses and Prof. L. r. Jones of the
University of Vermont gave an exceed
ingly interesting paper upon the dry
subject of the potato leaf fungi. Prof
Jones said the potato was a native Of
Mexico and South America and in those
tropical countries it took about a year
to bring the plant to perfection, while in
the United States we raised potatoes in
about three months from the time o.
planting
Prof H. w. ,Seeley of Middlebury
presented paper upon the red clover
and said that clover should be cultivated
to have shorter blossoms to correspond
with the length of the bees tongue. Miss
B. Nj. Rooney of ST. Johnsbury gave a
brief but interesting description OF the
"a species of orchids found i'll St. Johns
bury.
Mrs. E. H. Terry of Northampton
Mass, exhibited the most wonderful
herbarium ever seen in this section. She
is the daughter of the late President
Hitchcock of Amherst College and
brought to this meeting the collection
which her father and mothek made
some so years ago. This was not the
pressed flowers, but series Of hand
painted flowers taken from the origina
specimens. To add to the rarity of the
collection many of the specimens hac
pencilled notes by Prof. Asa Gray
Americas greatest botanist. This
collection was greatly admired by the
members and visitors present at thu
meeting.
The Vermont Bird Club had about 10C
members before and 90 new ones joined
at this meeting.
Friday evening the trustees OF the
Fairbanks Museum provided rare trea1
by engaging Henry 7. Oldys of th'
United States Biological Survey al
Westinghouse give an illustrated lecture
on birds and bird notes. Athenaun
Hall was filled with an interested
audience who greatly enjoyed the won
derful imitation of the bird notes giver
by this specialist.
Saturday was given up to the proceed
lngs of the Vermont Botanical Club witt
4 President Brainerd of Mddlebury College
D presiding as the president of the society
4 The program opened with an interesting
and exceedingly carefully prepared ad
dress on the variation of plants by
President Brainerd. He gave the results
OF II years of experiments on the scarle
runner, that well-known ornamental
climber, and similar experiments OF
varieties OF peas. BY most ingenious
Y chart he showed how varieties were pro
duced and he then passed around red ant
i white beans of the scarlet runner ant
different varieties of peas raised iron
two well-known species of peas. HI
SAID Luther Burbank was working along
these lines and producing most wonder
tul results in new varieties of plants ant
fruit.
Miss Mabel Strong of Woodstock re
ported finding the male fern in Wood
stock, the second time it has ever beer
found in this state. This is European
species and botanists are left to con