STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 125 



placed in its orchard home, can ever atone for a mistake made on 

 the point under consideration in this paper. 



I need not point out the premature decline or the altogether too 

 frequent destruction of fruit trees throughout the vast region of 

 country north of the fortieth parallel and west of Lake Michigan 

 — a region otherwise unequaled on the face of the globe for the 

 universal fertility of its soil, and the almost limitless productions 

 of its farm crops, and its domestic animals, for that is an old, 

 old story. But that in such a wonderful country like this our 

 fruit trees should be the only products of the soil which do not 

 attain a normal length of life, and which, in fact, may die during 

 any season and at any size, is certainly a question worthy our 

 most serious consideration. The test winters of 1855-'6, '56-'7, 

 '72- , 3, '77-'8, '82-'3 and '84 '5, and several others almost as 

 severe, should be ample proof of the fact that the great majority 

 of our trees, as commonly propagated, are lacking in that consti- 

 tutional hardness so necessary to resist the extremes of our 

 peculiar climate; and unless we can produce trees that will 

 pass such test winters unharmed, we have no good reason to 

 expect any better success in the future than we have had in years 

 past. 



In considering the practicability of improvement in hardiness 

 of the pear, plum and cherry by top-working, I can only say that 

 there are no pear stocks available as yet, by the use of which the 

 hardiness of the varieties in cultivation could be improved. The 

 same may be said of the cherry. Nor is there any improvement 

 in the hardiness of the European plum, in its numerous varieties, 

 to be looked for, since all of these have shown a want of affinity 

 for our hardiest American plums, and in all attempts made in top- 

 working the former upon stocks of the latter, the scion has 

 invariably outgrown the stock. We have quite a number of 

 native varieties which are worthy of propagation by the common 

 methods, and therefore we shall have to dismiss the consideration 

 of these fruits in connection with the problem at hand, and 

 confine ourselves exclusively to the king of fruits, the apple. 



Half a century of apple culture in the West and North presents 

 to the investigator a veritable "checkerboard" of successes and 

 failures, of hopes and disappointments, and why? Is the climate 

 at fault? I say verily, nay ! For He who created this magnifi- 

 cent country, knew full well what sort of a climate to furnish for 

 it. Has it not been entirely our own fault that we have suffered 

 so many disappointments, and will it not be our own fault again, 

 if we suffer any more such disastrous results as the winters men- 

 tioned have brought upon us? 



Is it not a fact, that attempts of growing varieties not adapted 

 to the localities where planted, inadequate methods of propaga- 

 tion, neglect of proper care and cultivation and fertilizing of the 

 soil, and more or less neglect and abuse of the trees, have charac- 



