104 Alississippi Valley Horticultural Society. 



Beyond doubt we have lost millions of dollars and an untold amount of 

 time and faith, in unsystematic trial of fruits adapted to more equable 

 climes. Surely the time has come when we should unitedly give trial to 

 fruits of like climates, so far as they are commercially obtainable. Perhaps 

 ultimately our favorite fruits will be seedlings of those we first introduce, 

 but the only safe line of experimentation is based on the assumption that 

 the future favorites of our orchards of the apple, pear and cherry, will come 

 from climates fully as severe as ours, or will be the seedlings of such varie- 

 ties grown on our own soil. 



With the hope of aiding in this systematic experimentiil work so much 

 needed, I will offer a few suggestions based on a careful study of the climate, 

 soil and fruits of intercontinental Europe in the summer of 1882. These 

 hints are formulated on the well-known fact that every part of the Mississip- 

 pi basin is subject to extreme summer and winter variations of temperature 

 and humidity of air, consequent upon the varying winds, and that mere 

 ability to endure a very low temperature is the only requisite needed at the 

 north which in the south part of the basin may be dispensed with. 



Southern Illinois, Missouri and Kansas may safely experiment with the 

 api^les, pears, cherries, plums, apricots, nuts, ornamental trees, and shrubs of 

 the plains of northeastern Austria for the western portion, and of Transyl- 

 vania for the eastern portion. Here are found late keeping varieties of the 

 apple, comparing favorably in size, beauty and quality with the best we 

 know, growing on trees with foliage as perfectly adapted to a varying air as 

 our Duchess. Here also are found many varieties of the pear with the per- 

 fect foliage of the Chinese Sand Pear, yet producing fruit nearly equal to the 

 best sorts of France and Belgium. We have less reason to believe they will 

 be subject to blight to a serious extent, as for ages they have been subject to 

 intercontinental extremes like those of our valley. 



In this region will, in like manner, be found the coming cheriies for the 

 dr^' belt where the extreme winter temperature does not reach lower than 

 from fifteen to twenty degrees below zero. 



The plains of Galicia are checkered with lines of cherry trees along the 

 sides of all highways, and marking the division lines of estates, to an extent 

 not found in many parts of Europe. The varieties, too, are all new to an 

 American. A careful study of their leaf structure, fruit, habits of growtli, 

 etc., will convince the most skeptical that we have gone sadly astray in se- 

 lecting fruits for an interior prairie climate. The Griottes, with small pend- 

 ulous branches, and fruit with colored juice, are generally used for roadside 

 plantfing, as the trees do little shading on account of their small size, and the 

 fruit can be used for dessert, culinary purposes, and for the favorite drink of 

 high and low known as " Kirschwasser." In every respect the fruit is far 

 superior to our Kentish cherry, or any one of the Morello type we know. In 

 tlie fruit orchards, and on the grounds of land proprietors, wc lind many 

 varieties of a race of sweet cherries ni)t known to us. With the round spread- 

 ing top of the Morellos they have the excellent fruit of the tall growing 



