VALLEY HOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. :^0:] 



he verv nice in tlieiv place, tliev are a iiiiisaiiee to the fruit ^j^rower: 

 while Messrs. Miner. Mellon and others thouj^ht we can hetter 

 affctrd to raise enoujjfh fruit for Ijoth ourselves and the hirds than we 

 eaii do without them. 



VINEYARDS. 



I*. \. Honvallet. committee: 



(xrapes are coloring" — Oporto. Ives, and Hartfords. We have 

 an e.xtra show in some corners, and if nothinj^ wrong ccmies. we call 

 this a good season. Am busy with a large corres])ondence all over 

 the Tiiited States about the Oporto grape, and beating some old 

 doctors. Have three extra-promising Concord seedlings. Will tell 

 yon this winter new notions, but too busy for the present. 



Hy recpiest the President then read the following papei' which 

 he had pi-e]>ared for the Society: 



WHY AUK APPLE TREES SO 8HORT-LI \'E1) IX THE WEST? 



UV MILO 15AKNAHI). 



This question came \\\) for discussion at a former meeting of our 

 Society, but owing to the immense breadth and de])th of the subject 

 no satisfactory conclusion was arrived at. This is not to be ^von- 

 dered at when we reflect that the most learned, scientific and practi- 

 cal minds of the age cannot settle the complex ))roblem. 



One man attributes it to one cause, and another to somethin<r 

 else, l^jveii here the doctors cannot agree, and I should be foolish 

 iinleed were I to think 1 could solve or settle this, the most im[)ortant 

 question, j)erha])s, that the western horticulturist has to deal with, 

 which will recjuire years of scientiHc I'eseanh and ])atient experiment 

 to fully elucidate, and my only hope is that I may otfer theories or 

 make suggestions that will set others to thinking and searching into 

 the secrets of nature, to exj)ose the fallacy of my reasoning, ])er- 

 ha|>s. if they serve no other ])ur|)ose: for the first step toward true 

 knowledge is to unlearn what we have learned amiss. 



The wording of this (piestion j>resuppo.ses the longevity of the 

 apple tree to be greater in other localities than it is at the west, and 

 in discussing the matter nuMubers generally held to the idea that 

 ilown east, and in many localities far north of us. the api)le tree 

 lived and produced profitably for from fifty to one hundred years. 

 But this knowledge ( with me at least ) being only hearsay knowledge, 

 and wishing contirmation of its truthfulness, I addressed notes of 

 inquiry to some of the leading horticulturists and fruit-growers of 



