STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 19 



Dr. Hall — I wish to speak of a few varieties that have been 

 successful in ray orchard. Minkler, Willow, White Winter Pear- 

 main and Michael Henry Pippin have all done well. Stauard has 

 been my most profitable fall variety, the trees have been somewhat 

 injured by overbearing, but now seem to be in good condition for a 

 crop next year. 



Mr. Minkler — These questions of progagation and varieties are 

 very important.- There is scarcely an apple tree in Northern Illinois 

 twenty years old that is fit to stand. Father Bryant said, many 

 years ago, that twenty or twenty-five years was the limit of the 

 profitable life of an apple tree in the West. We should plant those 

 trees that have done best during the years of disaster, instead of 

 running after new things. iSuch varieties as Yellow Bellflower and 

 Winesap used to give us good fruit, and I think they will again. 



A. H. Gaston — We have some varieties that never fail us, 

 among which are Snow, Willow, Roman Stem and Salome, I have 

 a new seedling, the "Hennepin," which 1 think is one of the com- 

 ing apples. 



H. M. Dunlap — I am glad to hear this discussion, but wish it 

 was a little more definite. Varieties that are good in one section 

 are worthless in another. In Central Illinois the Stanard is a valu- 

 able fall apple, but in Northern Illinois it is a winter apple, but not 

 thought to be desirable. 



D. B. Wier — I don't know anything about apples — although 

 I once thought I did — but I think it a mistake to bring new apples 

 from the south. I once had forty-seven varieties sent me from 

 Georgia, and to-day they are all dead but one, a Ben Davis, sent un- 

 der another name. We have some reliable trees — Roman Stem, 

 Willow, Minkler, Snow, Duchess and Red Astrachan, which we 

 should continue to plant. I know nothing about the Russians, but 

 am testing a number of varieties from Southern France, which ap- 

 pear to be hardy and promising, 



F, I. Mann — About the only sound tree in my orchard is the 

 English Golden Russet. The branches of this and the Roman Stem 

 have interlocked and it is difiicult to distinguish the fruit. 



H. M, Dunlap — I move that a committee be appointed for each 

 of the three horticultural districts of the State, to recommend a 



