VALLEY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 295 



growth. When I was three years old, they dug me up, cut off most 

 all my roots, packed me away in the cellar, among the moss. Here 

 I remained until spring, when I was taken out and heeled in. But 

 in a few days, it got very cold, and my limbs were badly frozen. I 

 had not seen any cold, for they put me in the cellar with ray sum- 

 mer clothes on, and when I was taken out, my wood was very soft 

 and tender, so it nearly froze the life out of me. During the spring 

 1 was sold to a tree agent, as a second class tree, and he shipped me 

 up to Kankakee, where after a few days, [ was delivered to my owner. 

 Ee heeled me in with a bundle of other trees, where I remained a few 

 days more. But I was finally planted out, and my owner has been 

 watching me these many years. His only reward has been a few 

 nubbins. I am ashamed of my condition, but I am not to blame, my 

 mother was a runty tree, and they grafted me to a scion from a 

 stunted tree so you see, I am of little use for they let me sour in the 

 pomace at home, which made me a sickly seed. They let me get so 

 musty, in the seed store in New York, that it weakened my constitu- 

 tion. They nearly choked me to death out in Kansas, when I was in 

 the seed bed. They nearly ruined me when they grafted me to a 

 sickly scion. They nearly froze the life out of me by stripping off 

 ray leaves early in the fall, and keeping rae in a warm cellar all 

 winter, and then turning me out in the cold, before my limbs were 

 hardened up. They let me lay in Kankakee, till my roots were half 

 dead. They let me lay heeled in here at home, till it was so late in 

 the spring, I just barely pulled through. They let the hogs rub 

 against my body, and root me around, till my bark was off. They let 

 the horses eat off my leaves, till I nearly choked to death. They let 

 the cattle hook me, till my bark was off in many places, and the 

 worms got in and nearlv eat the life out of my body. But the worst 

 of all, they planted me in the grass, and when I grew up to be a tree, 

 they cut off my lower limbs, which has ruined me for life. I can no 

 longer stand these cold winters. My owner has been watching and 

 waiting for me these many years, and his reward has been only a few 

 worthless apples. Oh! What will be the condition of the stock 

 grown from my seed. Seedmen; Nurserymen; beware! 1 came to 

 you from the Garden of Eden in the fullness of strength. But if you 

 continue to grow me, from sickly seed and scion, I will leave you a 

 total wreck. 



Gentlemen this is a true story. You have heard the pedigree of 

 this apple seed. Shall we keep on degenerating our orchards, or 

 shall we call a halt? The remedy is simple. What we have lost in 

 the past can, with care and patience, to a great extent, be restored 

 in the near future. 



Does the farmer go into his cornfield and gather the nubbins 

 for his next year's planting, and, if he should follow this up for fifty 

 years, would he improve his corn? Do you think the vegetable 



