291 TEANSACTIONS OF THE KANKAKEE 



This question has been discussed at our meetings time and again, 

 yet we are no nearer solving it than we were years ago. There is 

 certainly something wrong, and this wrong has been going on ever 

 since nurserymen began .to propagate the trees extensively. I have 

 been in the nursery business for the last thirty-five years, and I do 

 say I have helped bring our orchards down to the miserable condi- 

 tion they are now in. It is a fact that stares me square in the face, 

 and every time 1 look upon our poor sickly trees, I feel guilty. 



They tell us budded trees are hardier than root-grafted, or 

 fice versa; they tell us about grafting on Whitney and Soulard 

 crab ; they tell us to plant Russian trees ; they tell us to get our 

 trees from the north, and that eastern trees are hardier, and bear 

 finer apples than our home growth. Now, this may be all good 

 advice, but is this going to make our trees what they were thirty 

 years ago? Do you think our new kinds, that are .now being 

 introduced, will be any healthier after thirty ye9,rs of propagating 

 than our old kinds are to-day? 



Now, let us take for an example one apple seed, and follow it, 

 from the tree through all the different changes, till it is old enough 

 to produce fruit. Although I do not claim that all trees will be 

 like this, yet it is a fair sample of many orchards we can see all 

 over our country. 



We will let the seed tell its own story : " I was an apple grown 

 in the State of !New York. When my master gathered his apples 

 I was rejected, because I was a little knotty, knarly thing. I was not 

 to blame for it, because mother was a sickly, stunted tree. 



After all the good apples were gathered, my master picked me 

 up, with many others like me, took us to the mill, and made us into 

 cider. Here I lay in the pomace till I got very sour, when the seed 

 man came along, and washed me up and carried me to the seed store. 

 Here I got very musty, and came near losing my life. I remained 

 here till in the winter, when I was sold to a nurseryman out in 

 Illinois, where I arrived in due time. From here I was sent to 

 Kansas, where, they say, apple seed like me grow to be large stalks 

 the first year. Here they planted me in nice, rich soil, and I sprouted 

 in due time. But there were many of us poor, weakly seeds that 

 could not keep up with our companions, and the result was I made a 

 poor growth ; in fact, I was about smothered when fall came. I was 

 too small to graft, so they packed me in with the small third class 

 trees, and shipped me back to Illinois. Here they packed me away, 

 and when spring came I was sold to a nurseryman, and he again 

 planted me out ; so by the next fall I was large enough for a second 

 class stock. 



During the winter, they cut me in pieces and grafted rae to a 

 poor weakly scion, whose parentage was even worse than my own. 

 But, with much care and coaxing, I managed to make a stunted 



