Discussion on the Papers. Ill 



any other. This is the general complaint among strawberry grow- 

 ers. Mr. Hale, of Connecticut, has, no doubt, represented straw- 

 berries which, in other places, have not come up to the representa- 

 tion. With regard to American trees, I must say I never saw bet- 

 ter. I never saw such oaks, such tulip trees, etc. It was through 

 Bartram that these varieties were taken from America to Europe. 

 They were most successfully acclimatized. I would not throw cold 

 water upon acclimatizing Russian varieties, but I wish we would 

 rise up and say we will produce good varieties. 



Gov. Cobaan, of Missouri — I think this thing of making new 

 varieties is all right, but I want to second what Mr. Gibbs has 

 said. I have, for the past four years, had the pleasure of attending 

 the meetings of their Society, and when I saw assembled as large a 

 meeting as this, or larger, in their State, I was impressed with the 

 interest manifested. While we and you in Illinois have twenty, 

 thirty or forty, go up there where they can't raise near all the fruits 

 we have, and there are three or four hundred in their meetings. I 

 say, in my humble judgment, a variety of apples which will flour- 

 ish in Russia away from the coast will succeed in the same climate 

 here. If there is no other one to make a motion that another com- 

 mission be sent to Russia, I say I am ready to do it. It is well 

 enough to make experiments, as has been suggested, but if we go 

 there and bring scions we can have them bearing in two or three 

 years. We can graft them on bearing trees. We do not want to 

 wait so many years. There are places in China which I think 

 ought to be visited. 



Mr. Gibbs — We are carrying forward our experiments in the di- 

 rection indicated, but there is nothing to show that we can very 

 soon find what we want. Andrew Knight never got an apple 

 which did well in Minnesota but the Duchess, and he imported that 

 from the interior of Russia. The hardiest seedling we have of the 

 Duchess is the Pewaukee, originated by Mr. Peffer. The evidences 

 are we would have to wait for centuries to obtain what we want by 

 crossing. W^e have trees in Minnesota obtained from Russia which 

 care no more about winter than the oaks in the woods. They came 

 in the collection of four hundred brought by Mr. Saunders. 



Ifr, Wright, of Iowa — The question that rises is, where must we 



