stock is not in favor on our Pacific slope owing to their liability to blight.  We may also expect from the French pear stock a decided lack of hardiness.  The Japan pear stock is probably some form of the Chinese sand pear.  The seed may come from too far south, whereas we should plant only the northern form of the species.  This varying degree of hardiness in the Japan pear seedling of commerce I find discussed in a German horticultural paper.  I have tried to establish a regular source of supply by importing the seed, but it is difficult indeed to do this.  To avoid root-killing at the north we should mulch these Japan pear seedlings heavily until we get enough orchards of this truly hardy form, Pyrus Ovoidea, planted so we can raise our own stocks.  I firmly believe we will extend pear culture on the North American continent clear to the Arctic Circle if we wish.

For pear stocks I am going to try everything I can think of.  Some years ago I worked pears on Juneberry stock from a hint given me many years ago by Professor J.L.  Budd.  These grew well and were in full bloom when five feet high, but were lost in clearing off a block of trees.  I hope to try this again on a larger scale.  The mountain ash and hawthorn are sometimes used, but both will be expensive and perhaps short-lived.  The quince is the dwarf stock of commerce but would need to be very heavily mulched to prevent root-killing.  Such dwarf pears are splendid in the back yard, or for training up against the side of the house; the fruit is fine and large, and the trees fruit the second year.  The pear will root in nursery by grafting with a long scion on apple seedlings.  I hope there will be much work done along this line.

To sum up the question, I think there is a hardy pear in sight.  We have the requisite pedigree back of it, and it seems that the quality we call immunity to blight is in some of these Chinese or Siberian pears.  If we can combine the hardiness and blight-resistance of this Siberian pear with the large size and high quality of fruit of the European pear, with thousands of years of cultivation back of it, then we have the solution of the pear question in sight.  Millions and millions of people are watching for a good hardy pear. (Applause.)

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WARNING TO MUSHROOM GROWERS.—­As the result of a serious case of mushroom poisoning in a mushroom grower’s family recently, the mushroom specialists of the U.S.  Department of Agriculture have issued a warning to commercial and other growers of mushrooms to regard with suspicion any abnormal mushrooms which appear in their beds.  It seems that occasionally sporadic forms appear in mushroom beds, persist for a day or two, and then disappear.  These are generally manure-inhabiting species and may be observed shortly after the beds have been cased.  In the instance cited, however, these fungi appeared in considerable numbers at the time the edible Agaricus campestris should have been ready for the market, and the dealer supposed it was probably a new brown variety and tried it in his own family.  As a result, five persons were rendered absolutely helpless and were saved after several hours only through the assistance of a second physician who had had experience with this type of poisoning.