The Future of Orchadring m the Prairie States. 103 



lakes has not been guided by the scientific skill in selection ^^'hich character- 

 izes such work in the Colonies of all the civilized governments of Europe. 



Without exception, the scientific observers connected with the early sur- 

 vej's of the illimitable i^rairies of the West, interpreted the absence of the 

 Conifers, the Rhododendrons, tl*e Mosses and all the characteristic trees and 

 plants of the more equable regions nearer the coast and lakes, to mean an 

 inter-continental climate of extreme changes in temperature and humidity. 

 In these early days of prairie settlement, such men as Judge Knapp, Dr. 

 John A. Kennicott, Robert Russell and J. G. Cooper, unitedly expressed the 

 opinion that the world had no counterpart of our plains in soil and climate 

 except the great plain which covers, like a blanket, fully three-fourths of 

 Europe on the northeast. 



These men, in connection with Arthur Bryant, Hon. G. P. Marsh, and 

 many others also predicted, in those early days, that unless systematic tim- 

 ber planting was commenced and carried forward to ofTset the destruction of 

 the dense growth of prairie grass, and the eflfects of opening the clogged 

 drainage centers of the primitive prairies, consequent upon occupation and 

 cultivation, the already fickle and extreme climate would change for the 

 worse as the. years went on. 



With such clearly expressed views as to the real nature of our climate, it 

 would seem passing strange to the people of Europe, so long accustomed to 

 well-equipped and endowed experimental stations, that we have never at- 

 tempted to row our own horticultural boat, but have permitted the nurse- 

 ries of the Eastern States to do our importing of trees and shrubs from 

 the mildest portions of Southern Europe, mainly, indeed, from the nurse- 

 ries of Thomas Rivers, in England, and Andre Leroy, in Southern France. 

 Our plan really has been to try everything which our eastern friends had to 

 offer, and hold fast to that which was good. Unfortunately for our interests, 

 Southern Europe has very few varieties of the fruits which will long survive 

 in our climate, and the very few we have received are really strays from the 

 east plain of Europe, or seedlings grown on our own soil. As instances of 

 real iron-clads over broad expanses of our prairies, all will think of the 

 Duchess, Gros Pomier, Fameuse, Drap d'Or, and Wealthy — all but one strays 

 from the east plain, and that one, beyond doubt, a seedling of Duchess or 

 Tetofsky. 



Of pears, we have not one true iron-clad, and the nearest we have — the 

 Besi de la Motte and Flemish Beauty — are from Poland, on the borders of the 

 east plain, but modified by the breath of the gulf stream. 



With cherries we are quite as unfortunate. The Dukes and Bigarreaus of 

 the East utterly fail with us, and the early and late Kentish and English 

 Morello, in addition to short life of tree and irregularity of bearing, are far 

 lower in quality than any one of the Griottes grown by the train loads on 

 the plains north of the Carpathians. As to plums — without thanks to our 

 Eastern friends or to South Europe, we have been more fortunate, as nature 

 has provided us with better native varieties than I know to exist elsewhere. 



