152 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



the labels and orders will correspond, no matter what the trash 

 filled in; the most experienced cannot always tell what the stock 

 is, and by the time you can prove anything, where is your tree 

 tramp? Occasionally, one gets locked up for forging orders. Pity 

 they all did not. Instances have come to my knowledge where 

 June roses worth one shilling have been sold in Madison for $2.50 

 each; where one hundred Plumb's Cider apple trees were sub- 

 stituted with three kinds and not a Cider; where Alaska crabs 

 were sold for one dollar apiece and Briar's Sweet, without labels 

 were substituted. The last sell I have seen on new " early Rus- 

 sian," is a plate of Red Astrachan. Not a bad sell, if they would 

 put in good trees at a shilling, and have them marked, and the true 

 Red Astrachan. Four of our best stand-bys are Russian, viz: 

 Tetofski, Red Astrachan, Duchess of Oldenburg, and Alexander; 

 but what about the nine hundred and eighty-eight varieties from 

 Russia, disseminated by the department at Washington. Who is 

 the man or men who will ever sift out the wheat from that pile of 

 chaff? Let a monument be raised to his memory. I have received 

 just thirty-two kinds of the nine hundred and eighty-eight, and 

 after ten years careful investigation, even if they come to bearing, 

 what will I know about their adaptation to different soils, hardi- 

 ness, productiveness and quality? And where is our Russian school? 

 Take, for instance, two names of the thirty-two just received, No. 

 430, Arkad Krugli Woskowoi; No. 458, Scholti Nalin. 



Who is going to be humbugged now? Nine hundred and eighty- 

 eight chances on new Russians, and these are not yet in the hands 

 of the itinerant tree peddlers. A few have already been so far 

 tested in hardiness of tree, that we have hope of success, but their 

 is not a man in our state who can tell the quality of five of these 

 kinds. How often have we been deceived with our own new vari- 

 eties after they have been tested for five years before receiving the 

 prize, and then only proving valuable in a few locations. 



What have we been able to accomplish in the past twenty years? 

 Turn to the Horticultural Report for 1876, page thirty; eighteen 

 reports from as many different men and portions of the state, giving 

 the lists of the most profitable ten varieties in the order of value, 

 numbered from one to ten. They all have the Fameuse in their 

 lists, eight of them as the first for profit. Fifteen have Duchess, 

 but only five put it as No. 1 for profit. Twelve have Golden Rus- 



