202 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



Mr. Edwards. — I hope Mr. Hatheway will bring out the Salome 

 apple, as I have tested the fruit in June and know its superlative merits. 



J. T. Johnson, from the committee, read his report : 



REPORT ON NEW FRUITS, TREES AND PLANTS. 



BY JAMES T. JOHNSON, WARSAW. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Illinois State Horticulttiral 

 Society: 



Realizing, as I do to-day, my own want of ability to make out such 

 a report as I, in my own estimation, could desire, and especially upon a 

 subject of such manifest interest to the great horticultural family of the 

 West, I must confess that duty alone impels me to attempt the arduous 

 task which you in your kindness have imposed upon me. 



There is a demand for a new apple. Prof. Swing says that what- 

 ever is popularly demanded will come; so we shall have it. 



First, then, allow me to say that I regard him who shall give to the 

 world, not by mere accident, but by earnest, persistent and intelligent 

 effort, a new and valuable variety of the apple, one which shall at once 

 combine all of the good qualities of our own Ben Davis of Western 

 Illinois, with the addition of such good qualities as we can find in the 

 Jonathan, the Grimes' Golden or the Spitzenburgh, as one of the greatest 

 public benefactors of the age in which he may live (for he may or may 

 not at present dwell among us), as one whose name is worthy to be 

 handed down to posterity along with such illustrious names as those of 

 Franklin and Fulton and Morse. But shall we accomplish this without 

 an earnest effort and without expense, or intelligent investigation? Our 

 answer is, no ! And we believe that a great public effort in this direction 

 would be justified by the people of the great State of Illinois, and that 

 for such purposes an experimental orchard should be encouraged by the 

 State. It is a fact, now most generally accepted, that all of our most 

 luscious fruits have been (as Prof Swing told us upon last evening) in 

 the course of the ages evolved, or rather ameliorated, from the once wild 

 and utterly unpalatable fruits of the forest, and not by mere accident, as 

 a general rule, or by the wanderings of " Johnny Apple Seed," but as the 

 result of careful selections, or from intelligent and skillful hybridization, 

 all of which is now, or should be, generally understood by the intelli- 

 gent horticulturist ; and it is my wish to impress the fact that it is by such 

 intelligent effort alone that we should hope to produce new, rare or val- 

 uable varieties of fruits, trees or plants, and especially of such as will be 

 fully suited to our climate, location and soil. 



Then let us endeavor to more fully realize that the same beneficent 

 Creator who has done so much for us in the way of giving us fruits, trees 

 and plants, has also given to us the capacity, and along with it the 

 opportunity, to improve upon those which have been given to us. 



