Ten Years in Horticulture. 193 



irol, I found myself like the man who went to Pike's Peak to seek 

 his fortune: I had saved myself, but came near losing all I had. 

 Urged by my friends to continue and see the outcome of mv 

 enterprise, I arranged my business, and set more trees in spring 

 of 1880. I found among my list of friends one nurseryman who 

 still had faith in my undertaking; that was A. Gr. Tuttle. He 

 sent me nearly two hundred fine trees, told me to set them and 

 pay for them when I made it out of the trees. They all grew 

 nicely last summer. I exhibited apples at our state fair and at 

 the Minnesota state fair in the fall of 1880, and received my share 

 of the premiums. 



I think I am about two hundred miles too far north, still I 

 have faith that my undertaking will be a success. When Judge 

 Knapp exhorted us last fall, if we wished to raise fruit, to emigrate 

 to Florida, I almost wished I was there. But now comes the sad 

 ntelligence that even in the sunny south, that favored spot, the 

 cold of the present winter has frozen their orange trees. This 

 winter an old neighbor of mine gave me such a glowing account 

 of farming and stock-raising in the mild climate of Texas, that I 

 almost wished I was there, and that some one else had my orchard. 

 But recently I read of one ranchman who had lost four hundred 

 cattle and twenty five horses, frozen to death in that state, so I 

 feel contented to stay in Wisconsin. In our Transactions, where 

 friend Plumb and others have repeatedly said that the best loca- 

 tion for an apple orchard was high land, clay soil underlaid with 

 limestone, it encouraged* me, as that describes my location exactly. 

 Mr. Wilcox has moved to La Crosse from Trempealeau, and has 

 selected a location for a nursery and an orchard, similar to mine 

 this satisfies me that he considers mine good, as he had made me 

 several visits and looked my orchard over. 



I have, as I said before, formed many pleasant acquaintances 

 during these ten years. I have visited Mr. Peffer aud his orchard 

 and seen the Pewaukee at home. Have visited Whitney and 

 seen the original No. 20 tree; have visited Tuttle, Wilcox, Free- 

 born & Hatch, Sabin, Sumner and Mathews, in Wisconsin, and 

 Messrs. Sias, Jordon and Cook of Minnesota, and have been cor- 

 dially received in every instance ; have gained valuable informa- 



13 — HORT. 



