212 TRANSACTIONS OF THE HOETICGLTUEAL 



TREASURER'S REPORT. 



L. Woodard made the following report, after which, on motioA 

 of Mr. Minkler, it was referred to a committee in the usual way : 



September 4, 1888. Cash balance on hand .^130. 71 



" 4, " Memberships 2 . 00 



" 4, " Memberships ree'd at Galena meeting 10.00 



^September 4, 1888. By cash paid A. L. Cummings $ 3.50 



4, " By cash paid for hall rent 6.50 



4, " By balance on hand 1.32 .71 



u 



S142.71 $142.71 

 Respectfully submitted, 



L. Woodard, Treasurer. 



THE COMINCt apple TREE— HOW SHALL WE MAKE IT? 



BY J. V. COTTA, NUESEEY. 



Mr. President and Fellow Members: — 



Upon reviewing the ups and downs, the anticipations and dis- 

 appointments, the successes and failures which mark the course of 

 apple culture in the great prairie states, west and northwest of 

 Lake Michigan during the past half century, we cannot help notic- 

 ing in all varieties of common apples, a lack of adaptation to our 

 climatic conditions, a want of power to resist the intense cold and 

 the sudden and violent changes of the temperature in most of our 

 winters, the great heat and severe drouths of our summers and the 

 occasional excessively wet seasons which this western country is 

 subject to. 



Originated in the much milder climate of Western Europe where 

 it has been cultivated for many centuries, the common apple was 

 introduced into this country by the early immigrants from the Brit- 

 ish Tsles, from France, Holland and Grermany. Soon seedlings of these 

 began to be grown and the varieties thus produced multiplied almost 

 indefinitely. Many of these proved to be fruits of the highest qual- 

 ity and nearly all of them succeeded fairly well in our Eastern States. 

 But upon their migration westward into a drier atmosphere, into a 

 climate of more sudden changes of temperature, the trees soon 

 showed signs of premature decline from the start. Our early western 

 orchardists seeing this defect in their old favorites did not remain 

 passive, quietly submitting to defeat. They reasoned like this, if we 

 raise trees from western grown seed, such trees being "to the man- 

 or born " will prove themselves adapted to western conditions, and 

 thus the varieties originally introduced from the east gradually gave 



