This Association held a very successful meeting at Reading. Mr. Calvin Cooper was again reelected President, and Mr. E. B. Engle, Secretary.

The next annual meeting is to be held at Bethlehem. Over 100 new members were enrolled. Much of the success of the meeting was due to Ex-President Judge Stitzel and Cyrus T. Fox, Secretary of the Berks County Horticultural Society. Prof. Buckhout of the State College, gave an admirable address on the adornment of home grounds, which will, no doubt, have a good effect in stimulating gardening in purely farming districts. An interesting discussion followed, participated in by A. W. Harrison, of Germantown, S. B. Parsons, of Flushing, X. Y., Rev. W. W. Meech, of Vineland, Col. McFarland, of Harris-burg, and Josiah Hoopes. Mr. Parsons would not plant a tree within 200 feet of a dwelling house, though we do not know his reason. The annual report of the General* Fruit Committee, Cyrus A. Fox, was one of the best features of the meeting. Apples in Pennsylvania seem to be in the "off" year, though many full crops were reported. Pears, always a certain crop in Pennsylvania, were more abundant than usual. Peaches are so troubled by yellows, that cultivators are well nigh disheartened. Plums are successful where intelligent shaking is practiced, and the talk about "curculio proof varieties" deemed, as most people now know, arrant nonsense.

The quince is grow-'ng in favor as a profitable market fruit. The cherry suffered some from late spring frosts and the English sparrow; but on the whole proved a satisfactory fruit. Grapes do well everywhere, and much value found in paper bags for fruit.

Small fruits seems not to have been very satisfactory last year to Pennsylvania fruit-growers; while the culture of vegetables seems to be more successful and more profitable than ever before. The taste for ornamental shrubs and plants is growing amazingly. In storing and preserving, the refrigerator and retarding houses around Reading, have been found very satisfactory. Fruits are kept till gluts in the market are over, when fair prices are realized. Sunflower oil is getting to be a profitable horticultural crop, being used by paint factories instead of linseed. "Agents, who sold anything for the true kind," came in for their usual scoring.

Edwin Satterthwaite furnished some excellent practical remarks on vegetable culture for market.

Dr. Funk, of Boyertown, gave an explanation of his retarding house. He said that he is satisfied that a large body of ice is necessary to achieve success. He built a house to contain 75 tons, which answered very well, but when he needed the house most the ice was all gone. He is now putting up a house, which will require over 5oo tons of ice. This building is 40 by 45 feet, constructed of stone, the walls being 20 inches thick, every crevice being filled out with mortar and spalls. Inside the wall is dead air space 6 inches wide, and then a space 3 inches wide filled with ground charcoal. The cold storage room is 8 1/2 feet high in the clear, and the ice chamber 12 feet high. At the front entrance there is a solid door, opening into a vestibule large enough to contain three barrels. The vestibule opens into a packing room, from which there are three doors 4 inches thick, opening into three separate apartments, in which fruit is kept. There can be no atmospheric change in the rooms. There is an open surface above the ice chamber, with caps over the joists to catch all droppings.

Mr. J. H. Bartram, of Chester county, being called upon, said that his refrigerator house is only 16 feet square, and 16 feet deep, requiring about 100 tons of ice. It is partly in the ground, and did not cost over $300. He then described its construction after the manner of any ice house. The general temperature is 370.

Dr. Funk, in reply to further inquiries as to the construction of the floor, said that the floor is of simple construction of yellow pine, with about 4 feet between it and the ground. There is a mortar floor underneath to keep out the rats. He is able to put in a ton of ice a minute by means of an elevator, worked by an endless chain, the ice being in large cakes, weighing about 200 pounds each, as the ice packs better in large masses.

Dr. Funk said that he used to have to sell his Bartlett pears when ripe, for $1.50 a bushel. Now he sells them about Christmas for $4.

Specimens of the excellent Reading pear, that had been preserved in retarding houses, were on exhibition.