ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 253 



and more particularly with some of the remarks of last evening. Having 

 been called upon at thai time to speak of my experience I promised to 

 do so more fully this morning, and especially in support of the principles 

 then laid down by Mr. McAfee on the subject of c^ossing and Hybri- > 

 dizing. 



Many varieties of plants will fertilize themselves and will reproduce 

 themselves, and especially is this true of plants which have both male 

 and female organs in the same flower, but to become self-fertilized the 

 plants must be isolated so that crossing is not possible. As was said 

 last night the apple may produce seedlings just like the parent, but to 

 do so it must not have any opportunity to receive pollen from another 

 tree. Of the first apples raised in my orchard, when there was not 

 another blooming apple tree within two or three miles, so that pollen of 

 another variety could not come to the flowers, the seeds produced trees 

 which bore fruit identical with the parent. That is, seedlings from a 

 black Gillifiower bore true black Gilliflower apples. But at the second 

 fruiting of that black Gilliflower tree, when other trees in the same 

 orchard began to bloom, the seeds were crossed, and trees raised from 

 them were of mixed sorts of apples. These crossed fruits sometimes re- 

 sembled the parent apple in form and appearance, but not in flavor, 

 texture, keeping qualities, or time of maturity. 



On the subject of hardiness there is not very much to be said. The 

 samples I here present for your inspection tell a plain story. Even the 

 hardiest varieties of fruit if tried by such winters as the present, or as 

 those of 1864 — 1865 and 1856 — 1857 may sometimes fail, especially if 

 from the nature of the preceding summer the wood was not fully ripened 

 in the fall. These samples show the discoloration which follows hard 

 freezing, and in proportion to the discoloration the tree is more or less 

 injured. Wood that has the most sap in it in the fall, or which is not 

 perfectiv matured and ready for winter, suffers with a less freeze than 

 would affect the better ripened wood. 



Mr. Tuttle remarked that the fruit raisers of Minnesota think they 

 ran raise all the kinds of fruit that we can. They may try to do so, but 

 in the end they will have to do as some of us have done, and are doing. 

 that is keep trying to see if they are hardy enough to stand, and then 

 reject the lender ones as fast as we find them out. 



The varieties for the Northwest must be such as will go through 

 the hardest winters, as these samples of Duchess of Oldenburg (best). 

 Tetofsky, .Mexander, el( ., which I show you, have done this winter. 

 The hardest seasons are the true test, and the fruits whirh with'^tnnd 

 their severity are worthy of our conlidence. 



Here I have, along with the samples of hardy ap|)les, some wood 

 which shows i)Iainly that it is either half-hardy or tender, for instance, 

 the Rhode Island Greening and Fall Pippin you can see are entirely 

 frozen to death, and they may well be (ailed tender, for although top 

 marked on hardy seedling stocks they are killed nearly to the place of 

 union with the stock. 



