Annual Meeting — Opening Address. 79 



finest varieties are perfectly at home in the Fox River Valley; and I 

 hope the day is not far distant when the home supply •will, at least, 

 be equal to the demand. To accomplish this, we need some practi- 

 cal and experienced growers among us, who are able to give the 

 business their special attention. How much further north than 

 Green Bay grape culture will be profitable, remains to be seen. 

 Last fall, while spending some time with a friend in Oconto, he 

 asked me to look at his grapes; I found among them the largest and 

 finest looking Deleware vine that I have ever seen; I doubt if it 

 can be equaled in the state. It was well laden with fruit that bid 

 fair to come to maturity. I merely mention this as one of the many 

 evidences that the northeastern portion of the state is not out of 

 the grape growing district. 



But it is in apple culture that the greatest improvement is being 

 made. In this connection, I wish to make a few suggestions to the 

 members of this society, that seem to me to be worth your consid- 

 eration. I make them with the greater freedom, because as you 

 know, I am not personally interested in the business, never have 

 been and never expect to be. Many years since, that portion of 

 the state was completely and repeatedly overrun with tree peddlers. 

 To say that they were utterly unreliable, is to speak very mildly of 

 them; in fact, some of them, by their exceedingly dishonest trans- 

 actions, would almost convince one of the doctrine of literal and 

 total depravity. Trees were sold by car loads, and at good prices. 

 It is safe to say that many of them never put forth either bud or 

 leaf, and that they were the most profitable ones to the purchaser. 

 Many others lived for a year or two, and then died. I think not 

 one in a hundred of them ever bore a peck of fruit, and not one in 

 a thousand of them is alive to-day. Some few, who had purchased 

 with more care, and had succeeding in getting some of our more 

 hardy varieties, and had cared for them somewhat better, had better 

 success, until the terrible winters of 1871 and '72, when they lost 

 many of their trees outright; and others seemed to be so irrepar- 

 ably damaged that any further usefulness from them appeared to 

 be about hopeless. In this condition of affairs, it is not to be won- 

 dered at, if, for some years, tree peddlers and nurserymen in gen- 

 eral were at a large discount. 



The recovery of the damaged trees, those of our own hardy 

 varieties in particular, has been surprising. One gentleman, who, 





