inent in the organization of many societies in which he took an active part. Among these were the Historical Society, the Horticultural Society, over which he ably presided, and to the beautiful exhibitions of which he always contributed largely. Indeed, the prevalent taste for horticulture and the suburban attractions of our metropolitan city are no doubt greatly due to his example, and to the enthusiasm in planting which he encouraged among his associates. The beautiful suburb of Clifton, which deservedly has a continental reputation, may be said to have been the outgrowth of his efforts Having selected a commanding site in that neighborhood, he erected a mansion, planted orchards, vineyards, and shrubberies as the pioneer of Clifton, and then he aided in subdividing a large tract of land adjoining his own, which has long since been improved and occupied as charming country houses by our fellow citizens, not a few of whom were induced to settle there by his cogent arguments.

One of the most admirable outgrowths of the Horticultural Society that Mr. Buchanan did so much to forward in directing the public taste of Cincinnatians was the noble cemetery, of which we have reason to be proud. A small number of gentlemen, chiefly members of the Horticultural Society, were called together in his house to discuss the project which happily resulted in the organization of the Spring Grove Cemetery. The high appreciation of the originator of this undertaking has been shown by the citizens in the selection of Mr. Buchanan to be a Director, and the President of the Board from the first beginning until his recent death.

Of that pleasant coterie at Mr. Buchanan's house, whose efforts on behalf of their fellow citizens have resulted in the finest rural cemetery upon the continent, but two survive to mourn the loss of him who led the van of this worthy enterprise. Mutatis mutandis.

But the briefest notice of our departed friend, would upon the present occasion be sadly imperfect without a reference to Mr. Buchanan's devotion to natural history. With all his busy life and constant occupations, he was a true lover of nature. This led him, with one set of his fellows, to the quiet scenes along the streams with the club of fishermen which was quite famous in its day, when the memory of Izaak Walton was kept green. At other times, and with a very different set of companions, our friend patroled the sylvan retreats and sunny prairies in pursuit of their floral treasures, until he became familiar with the habitats of the most rare and beautiful, many of which have already disappeared from their old haunts, banished by the rude tread of the advancing civilization of the times. Preserved in the extensive herbarium of his collecting, these specimens still live, or remain in collections of this country and of Europe, neatly inscribed by the diligent botanist who has left us.

The Helices and other land shells of this region, the Unios and molluscan fauna of our streams were not neglected. While he worked with the gentle Thomas Lea and Joseph Clarke as a botanist, he was also contributing to the collections of Isaac Lea, the conchologist and biographer of our Naiads. Foreign and marine shells very naturally came to him as exchanges, and increased his collections. The fossil fauna of our hills were not considered beneath his notice, and his collections embraced numerous specimens of organic remains as well as of minerals.

In conclusion, we can but mourn the loss to our community of a valuable citizen, but he was of ripe years and full of honors, and had so lived in this world that we may trust he received the summons of the just, and that he has entered the mansions of the blessed. Doubtless he now enjoys sweet communion with his former gentle companions of earth with whom he studied the beautiful works of the Creator, and he is also

receiving instruction on many points that are obscure to our human powers, while communing directly respecting these perplexing questions with the great Artificer himself— with him who knoweth all things.

Peace, peace, immortal peace to the christian gentleman who has been removed from his place amongst us.

AD INTERIM REPORTS.

BY GEO. W. CAMPBELL.

The past season can hardly be called a prosperous one for general fruit-growing in the portion of Central Ohio about Delaware.

A winter of unusual severity destroyed a large proportion of the fruit-buds, and injured many trees; so that all kinds of orchard fruits have been very scarce, and some kinds entirely wanting.

Fortunately, during the severest portion of the winter, the ground was covered with snow, protecting strawberry plants, and also the roots of grape-vines, and some trees and shrubbery whose tops were killed.

The strawberry erop was fair, but not very large, being somewhat shortened by dry weather about the time of ripening. I do not cultivate a large variety, but will mention those that have been most satisfactory.

Cumberland Triumph, for health and vigor of plant and foliage, productiveness, large size, and good quality, has been, perhaps, most satisfactory for the table for home use. It is rather soft, and would hardly bear carriage for long distances; but for a family garden variety, or home market, I regard it as a very desirable strawberry.

Monarch of the West has also been quite satisfactory. Healthy in foliage, large in size, vigorous and productive. Not quite as fine flavored as Cumberland Triumph, but rather firmer and better in color.

Forest Rose has hardly met expectations. It is a fine, large berry, of good flavor, but has been unproductive, by reason of the partial failure of the vines. The foliage seems too thin to stand the heat of summer, and the past dry season has again pretty badly injured it. I think, to succeed well, at least in my locality, this variety must have partial shade from the full effects of the sun.

Sharpless is the strongest-growing, and, apparently, the healthiest of any strawberry on my place-seems, so far, to endure both heat and cold uninjured. I have not tested it sufficiently to speak confidently as to its productiveness. It is, however, very good for a large berry; rather late in ripening, tolerably firm, and of good color. It is very large in size, but many of the berries are cockscomb-shaped and irregular. My present impression is, that it will be found a healthy, vigorous, and productive variety, growing many large, irregular berries, of good, but not first-rate quality.

Charles Downing still maintains its well-known character, and is among the recognized standard old sorts; in some places rivaling the Wilson in productiveness, with handsomer appearance, better quality, more uniformly large berries, longer continuance, and requiring less frequent renewal.

Kentucky has never been a favorite with me, and has not sustained the reputation given it in other localities. It has never satisfied me, either in productiveness or quality. Although of good size and handsome in appearance, with healthy foliage, long fruit-stems, bearing the fruit well up from the ground, I have found it rather a shy

bearer, and deficient in high strawberry flavor. I am inclined to think that the Glendale will be a more valuable variety, judging from specimens which I saw exhibited the past season, though I have not personally tested it sufficiently to speak with entire confidence.

One of the most noteworthy circumstances in regard to strawberry-growing observed during the past season, was the remarkable success of the Jucunda strawberry in field culture in a large way, and without the extraordinary care usually deemed necessary to grow that variety, in the vicinity of Cleveland, the past season.

Raspberries I think were more or less injured by the severity of the winter, and the yield was light, both of the red and black varieties.

The Gregg is the strongest-growing black-cap variety I have ever seen. The canes are really enormous. The clusters are rather small, but are numerous, and the berries large. Some of the canes died, apparently from winter-killing; but it gave indications of great productiveness, and just now is apparently the most popular, and also the most promising, of the black-caps.

The Mammoth Cluster was apparently injured by the extreme cold, and bore much less than usual. The same remarks would be applicable to the Clarke, and Naomi, or Franconia, which ever it may be.

The only new varieties I have recently tried, have been Henrietta, highly extolled, as it ought to have been, at a dollar a plant, and the Pride of the Hudson, which I hoped might be the pride of Delaware. The former proved a most vigorous and hardy plant, producing an abundance of strong canes; but the fruit, though large and handsome, has been very slight in quantity. And now comes the report that it is nothing but the old Belle de Fontenay, or Amazon, unscrupulously re-named and palmed upon the public as a wonderful new variety. The Pride of the Hadson refused to flourish away from its native locality, succumbed to the first winter, after planting, and is among the things that were. I have not been successful in my efforts to find a reliable and good new red raspberry; and up to the present time have found no variety as satisfactory as the old Kirtland, and this, I believe, has been also re-named, and re-introduced as Highland Hardy. Cuthbert and Queen of the Market have been claimed by eastern growers to be new, reliable, and valuable red varieties of remarkable excellence. But it is now stated, upon apparently good authority, that they are identically the same, although Queen of the Market is double the price, with no difference, except in the cost, and the label.

In blackberries, I have tried only the Snyder, in a small way, among the newer introductions. I find it hardy, healthy, productive, and of good quality; but, in my judgment, too small for a profitable market berry, or to be desirable for family use in garden culture.

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Among gooseberries the most prolific variety has been the American Seedling, scarcely different from the Houghton except in its more upright growth. The berries are, however, much inferior in size to Downing, Smith's Seedling, or the Mountain Seedling, all of which are large and handsome, the latter the most vigorous in growth but hardly equaling the others in productiveness.

Upon gooseberries and currants for the first time, the currant worm made its appearance. I had them treated to a weak solution of carbolic acid and with water, followed by dusting with powdered white hellebore, and it settled them for the season. They did not spread after ths application, and the defoliated plants partially or nearly recovered before the autumn.

Apples were a failure nearly everywhere in my vicinity, only a single and somewhat

remarkable exception occurring in the orchards of Horace McMasters, of our county. Year before last, which was what is popularly known as the "bearing year," a portion of his trees were badly infested by worms, and bore little or no fruit upon the affected trees. His crop, however, he informs me, was about 2,000 bushels. This year the trees which were attacked by the worms bore a fine crop of apples, and he has harvested 1,800 bushels, which are selling at $1.20 per bushel.

Pears bore rather a light crop. Tyson, Kirtland, Buffum, Winter Nelis, Seckel, Doyenne d'ete, and Beurre Giffard having withstood the blight better than others in my garden, all yielded moderately-Winter Nelis the best.

Peaches and cherries were an entire failure. Many peach trees were killed, and I think all were considerably injured, by the winter.

Quince trees have for several years blighted badly in a manner somewhat analogous to the twig-blight in apple trees, but more extensively, in some cases the whole tree being destroyed. Ordinarily, however, only portions of the trees are blighted, the other portions remaining apparently healthy. Quinces have always been an uncertain crop in my locality, and I think could hardly be recommended for profit.

Grape-vines did not escape the general injury from the excessive and long continued severity of the past winter, and the fruit buds were killed upon all except the hardiest of the “iron clad” varieties, and even these were more or less injured. The ground being covered with snow during the coldest weather, the collar and roots of vines were well protected thereby, and though the hybrid varieties and others in any way tender were killed to the snow-line, they have made a remarkably strong and healthy growth from the ground during the season, and are in admirable condition for fruiting the coming year, and are not only pruned but laid down and slightly covered with earth for winter protection. All the vines on my place were left wholly unprotected the past winter, although previous experience had taught me its danger, and I knew better than I practiced. And here I will again urge upon grape growers the necessity, if permanent and constant success is to be attained, of systematically pruning in autumn or early winter, and laying the vines upon the ground with a slight protection of earth or leaves wherever the climate is variable and subject to great and sudden extremes of temperature, or where the ground is not always covered with snow during the winter months. When this is the case, simply laying the vines upon the ground would be all that would be needed to insure the most perfect protection. I am satisfied that even the most hardy kinds are benefited by winter protection, and that no other attention paid to grape-vines pays better for the time and labor bestowed. As a record of the comparative hardiness of varieties, I will state that all the hybrid or mixed varieties having any foreign admixture were killed to the ground, and bore no fruit the past summer. This includes Allen's, Rogers', Arnold's, Underhill's, a few of Ricketts', and of my own. Diana Hamburg, and Brighton shared the same fate. The list of those that escaped wholly or partially and bore corresponding crops is a short one, and is as follows: Concord, Martha, Eva, Lady, Purity, Worden's Seedling, Belvidere, Janesville, Delaware, Elvira, Talman, Telegraph, Hartford, and Catawba. Of these, Delaware, Elvira, Janesville, and Worden's Seedling proved the hardiest and yielded full crops. The others gave only from one-third to one half their usual yield. For the first time since I have grown it, and always without protection, the fruit buds of the Lady grape were partially injured, although the wood appeared sound, and the yield was consequently light. The growth of the vines, however, has been the healthiest and strongest they have ever made, fully equal to that of the Concord in its best condition. The season was favorable for the

growth and maturity of grapes, and such varieties as bore fruit gave a healthy and well matured crop without mildew or rot, except upon the Catawba.

There were two other varieties which escaped winter-killing, which I forgot to mention. One, a vine received from Dr. Wylie, of South Carolina, proves entirely healthy in foliage as well as hardy in winter, and I think promises, from its character, to be valuable as a red-wine grape. It was sent me as a cross between Halifax and Delaware. It bears a black grape, a little larger in bunch and berry than Delaware, with a dark red juice next the skin, and a peculiar, pleasant flavor, wholly free from foxiness, reminding me of the foreign grapes from which the red wines of France and Italy are made. I believe it worthy of trial by wine-makers, for I am sure it will be found healthy, hardy, and productive, and wholly free from coarseness or impurity of flavor. The other variety was what I suppose to be a hybrid cross between the Lady grape and Joslyn's St. Albans. It made a remarkable growth, far beyond any other of the seedlings of the same age, and was wholly unprotected, except that it was trained on the east side of a board fence, where it remained unpruned all winter. To my surprise I found the wood uninjured, while all its fellows, some twenty in number, of various crosses, were all killed. It bore a few white grapes, small in bunch and berry, but of fine quality. It may never be of any value, but it is remarkable as the only hybrid vine that escaped uninjured the cold of the last winter.

We have occasionally in our Society had reports, I believe, of apparently beneficial results and remarkable success in growing grapes when the vines were allowed to run upon trees and to take possession of them, the foliage of the vines and trees growing together-the vines remaining healthy and bearing heavily, without rotting of the fruit or mildew of the foliage. An amateur grower, who has planted many kinds, in all more than a hundred vines upon a city lot, and around the walls of his dwelling, including Delawares, Marthas, Ionas, Allens, and several of Rogers' hybrids, has also seven Concord vines which have run into the top of a large apple tree; these he leaves wholly to their own devices, unpruned and uncared-for, except in harvest time, when he gets more grapes than from all the rest of his vines together. He says he had seven or eight bushels of grapes the present season from this vine-laden tree, and he regards this system of grape growing as a distinguished and complete success.

That this method, or a similar one with some degree of training and pruning, is the one practiced throughout the vine-growing districts of Italy, is well known; and it is also true that where the vines are grown upon trees, and allowed to grow in comparatively unrestrained luxuriance, and to run from tree to tree and to take possession of the entire top and branches, the vines bear largely and remain healthy, escaping, to a great extent, the attacks of the Phylloxera vastatrix, which has destroyed so many thousands of the cramped and stub-pruned vineyards of southern France. I shall have something more to say hereafter of new grapes, and of some insect pests injurious to various plants.

BY N. OHMER.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the State Society: The year of 1879 has not been a particularly profitable one to fruit growers. The not over abundance of some varieties of frait, and the low price at which it sold, reduced the profits materially. Strange to say, the extreme cold weather of last winter did but little damage to fruit, except it be peaches and cherries. Peaches were a total failure; cherries were only a partial crop. I should have added blackberries in the list of killed by cold. About enough of that fruit escaped to show us what they looked like.