82 "Wisconsin- State Horticultural Society. 



■will sell them stock much better and more reliable than they can 

 obtain in any other way. 



I wish something 1 more practical could be done in the way of 

 pear culture in this state. T cannot possibly bring myself to believe 

 that the little orchard near Green Bay is the only one, and that, 

 the only spot where they can be made to grow. Remarkable as 

 has been its history, and fine as its crops have been, they were all 

 dwarfed by its wonderful show of fruit last fall. During the sum- 

 mer, one of my sons said to me, " Father, have you been up to 

 Martin's pear orchard lately?" I replied, " No." " Well," said 

 he, " you had better not go at all this season ; for if you do, you 

 •will tell such extravagant stories about the crop that you will lose 

 your entire reputation for truth and veracity all over the state. It 

 would be useless to tell any one the truth about them, unless they 

 could see for themselves; for they neither could nor would believe 

 it." I visited it a number of times during the latter part of the 

 summer and fall in company with friends; and among them was 

 one gentleman who had traveled, not only all through our own 

 country, but through Europe. But one exclamation came from 

 everyone, without a single exception, that they never saw anything 

 like it, either at home or abroad. The owner sold them for three 

 dollars per bushel. He could not tell me how many bushels he 

 had nor how much the crop brought him; but, from what I know 

 of the yield of those trees for the last ten years, I do not believe 

 that there is another piece of land of the same size in this state, in 

 any kind of crop, that has yielded one-half the net profit of that 

 little orchard. Probably there will be little or no fruit upon them 

 next season; and it will be surprising, if some of them are not 

 dead, next spring, from the exhaustion produced in maturing their 

 last crop. But if every one of them should die this winter, they 

 have paid for themselves and the land they stand upon, ten times 

 over, as I verily believe. I have sometimes thought that'I would 

 never say anything more about them; but their steady, annual crop 

 of splendid fruit has compelled me to do so, hoping that the lesson 

 they teach would in time induce our fruit growers to give more at- 

 tention to the soil and locations suitable for growing this delicious 

 fruit. 



But I wish to call you attention, for a few minutes, to another 

 subject. Last summer, at our convention, a committee consisting 



