112 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



Lake had the largest crop of apples ever produced, by probably 

 one-third. The cause of it was, as I believe, a heavy spring frost, 

 and the late spring of 1878, which was the bearing year about 

 here, killing the embryo fruit. The plums, tame and wild, suf- 

 fered more than any other fruit from this frost. It not only killed 

 the fruit sets, but the trees of the Winnebago, Wild Goose and 

 Hinkley, but wild ones also, so that thej 7 did not produce a plum 

 till the last season, when the fruit was very abundant and nice, 

 as the curculio did not propagate its species during the two or 

 three years of no crops. 



This heavy crop of apples has deterred some from buying trees, 

 saying, "it does not pay to raise apples, as it costs nearly all we 

 get to gather and market or make into cider," which I found to 

 be true. The net profit over care and expenses has been less 

 than in any year since I have raised apples for sale, for fifteen or 

 sixteen years. But, on the other hand, those having no fruit are 

 stimulated to make a commencement on a larger scale than for- 

 merly, as money is more lax than before. 



Varieties of Apples. — Duchess of Oldenburg holds its own 

 as to hardiness and productiveness, but its popularity has over 

 stocked the country with it, and its immense crops have been in 

 part consigned to the waste basket, or fed to hogs or cider mills. 

 I find the Ben Davis a good tree here, and north as far as Green 

 Bay. Fall Orange, Fameuse, Walbridge, fitter's Large Eed, 

 Haas, Talman Sweet, Astrachan and Sweet Pear are all doing 

 well. I have five or six new seedlings. One I have had for 

 fourteen years, the Aurora Belle. The tree did not kill as much 

 as Duchess in the winters of 1874 and 1875. Apple, large and 

 fine, and keeps with the Fameuse, but I regard the Northwestern 

 Greening as the best. Apple, size of Utter's Large Bed, as good 

 as Bhode Island Greening ; keeps till June ; tree grows one- 

 fourth faster than any other in nursery or orchard. The other 

 seedlings I cannot say anything about at present. 



The amount of tree planting in this county has been more than 

 usual the past year and a half, but not of the fruit producing 

 kind, to which I may allude hereafter. Blight, the past season, 

 has been more extensive than for many years past — four or 



