SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS. 213 



way to au assortment essentially western. But alas for human wis- 

 dom, the immutable law, that " like begets like " had been overlooked, 

 our western pets have gradually but surely fallen victims to the same 

 adverse conditions. The hope of growing hardy seedlings from 

 tender parent trees has not been realized. The arctic waves of the 

 memorable winters of 1882 to '83 and 1884 to '85 have so completely 

 upset our preconceived notions and theories by the wholesale dis- 

 truction of both orchard and nursery trees throughout the North- 

 west, that we are willing to admit the fact, however humiliating it 

 may be, that we did not know how to grow an apple tree, and today 

 we are willing to council with one another and inquire how the 

 coming apple tree shall be grown. 



In order to form an adequate idea of the difference that exists 

 between our climate and that of Western Europe, the original home 

 of the predecessors of our American assortment, and where they had 

 flourished for many centuries, thoroughly acclimated to the condi- 

 tions surrounding them, let us trace the parallel of Chicago, latitude 

 42, across the Atlantic into Europe. This line crosses Spain near 

 Barcelona; it crosses Italy between Rome and Naples, and Turkey 

 just a trifle north of Constantinople. Now, if you will consult the 

 official meteorological records of both this country and Europe, you 

 will find that the maximum cold of a Chicago winter corresponds 

 very nearly with that of Moskow, Russia, in latitude 56, just an 

 even thousand miles north of Naples, which means simply this, and 

 nothing else, that our trees are at all times subjected to a powerful 

 sun heat, like that of Central Italy — a country possessing a semi- 

 tropical climate like our own Florida, and likewise thev are exposed 

 to the cold, dry atmosphere similar to that of Central Russia; or, 

 in other words, the same extremes of sun heat and cold, for which a 

 thousand miles of latitude are required in Europe, strike our western 

 country on the same spot. Nay, more; inasmuch as corresponding 

 latitudes of Western Europe have a milder climate than Central 

 Russia, this difference is all the more striking. 



Taking these simple facts into consideration, we will at once 

 recognize good and sufficient reason for the unsatisfactory behav- 

 ior of our trees, and when we further consider how prone they are 

 for putting on a late second-growth in seasons favoring this trait, 

 we might even consider ourselves fortunate that we can grow apples 

 at all from this race. This tendency for a late growth is one of the 

 worst features we have to contend with, immature wood being par- 

 ticularly liable to injury by frost action. 



Had we no other types of apples in cultivation, beside the one we 

 have thus far considered, the task of future improvement as to 

 increased hardiness would be well-nigh a hopeless one; but fortu- 

 nately we have in cultivation the Siberian Crab and the East Euro- 

 pean or so-called Russian apple, and these are destined to play a very 



