248 Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society. 



sonicthinir like a Herbeniont vine. This end seems to be attained by the 

 production of tlie Medora from the seed of the Lenoir. The Medora will be 

 carefully tested before it is disseminated. If it comes up to its very high 

 promises, then, indeed, have we found a rare treasure to Southwestern viti- 

 culture. 



In conclusion, we of the Southwest would beg the representatives of ai 

 much older horticulture to judge us and our present results, not by what we 

 are to-day, nor by what we have done to the present hour. Northern culti- 

 vators have the benefit of generations of experience. They have gained no- 

 ble victories. But so different from their climate is our own, that those tri- 

 umphs are not for us. We must fight our own battles; we ask a remem- 

 brance that we are in the infancy of our existence; we can appeal to the ex- 

 perience of no former age; we inhabit a region with a climate so different 

 from that of any other that has been occupied by our countrymen, and then 

 we have but just emerged from a semi-no)iiadic state. If we are to take the 

 past fifteen years of progress as a guide in estimating future improvement,, 

 then, indeed, is there a bright prospect for the great Southwest. 



THE BEST APPLES FOR SOUTHERN MARKETS. 



BY A. C. HAMMOND, OF ILLINOIS. 



Early in the winter I received a communication from your worthy Presi- 

 dent requesting me to preimre a paper for this meeting, " The Best Apples for 

 Southern Markets," which, without duly weighing the difficulties of the sub- 

 ject, I consented to do. I shall, therefore, without preface or apology, proceed 

 to the discussion of the question. 



To do so intelligently, it becomes necessary to understand something of 

 the requirements of this market and the changes that have and are con- 

 stantly taking place in it. 



The demand has always been for a large, bright red apple, and this require- 

 ment is more positive now than twenty years ago. 



Christmas is the great holiday of the South, and alike in the mansion of the 

 rich and the cabin of the poor, great preparation is made for the festivities of 

 the occasion, and one of the requisites is a supply, whether it be a peck or 

 ten barrels, of brilliant, red apples, that can only be grown to j^erfection in 

 our Northern clime; and the shrewd grower or dealer who depends on this 

 market will always bo prepared to meet this demand. 



Thirty years ago the orchardists of Southern Ohio and Indiana and North- 

 ern Kentucky shipped the products of their orchards down the river in fiat 

 boats, .selling at the various cities and plantations along the route, and finally 

 landing what was left at New Orleans. For many years the Pennock or Big 

 Romanite was the jjopular apple for this trade, being large, red and a good 



