254 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN 



Mr. Peffer exhibited wood of a large number of varieties of apples 

 to illustrate his position that the extra severe winters like the present, 

 will cull out everything except the very hardiest kinds. (Jssf. Rec. 

 Sec^ 



The ojily true way to have hardy varieties is to raise them from 

 seed, saved from hardy parent trees. It is easy to tell at any time 

 whether a tree is perfectly hardy in any locality, if the tree is old enough 

 to have stood the test of the extraordinary seasons mentioned above 

 Select a limb old enough so that its growths will count back past any of 

 these severe terms and then count the rings inward from the bark till 

 you have the growth of eighteen hundred and sixty-four or of eighteen 

 hundred and fifty-six or of eighteen hundred and sixty-nine or of eighteen 

 hundred and seventy-two, and observe if the growth is discolored or 

 any way injured. If it is not injured you may be sure that it will take 

 a worse season than the one you have counted back to to hurt it. Now 

 if the fruit of this tree that is proved to be hardy, and that of all the 

 trees near by, which might pollenize it, is also good, you are safe to let_ 

 seedlings from the seeds of the selected tree come to bearing size, for 

 the chances are that you will get some new varieties which are both 

 good and hardy, but if the new sorts should when fruited prove inferior, 

 you lose but little time, for they may be top marked into better sorts 



Any youngster can be taught to graft and so any one can be taught 

 how to raise seedlings by artificial crossing or fertilizing, with a fair 

 chance of raising fruit to his own liking. 



I think the time is not far off Avhen this bleak northwestern country 

 will raise more i^ood fruit than the middle and eastern states, but the 

 fruit must be of different varieties from those grown at the East, that is. 

 varieties produced here and specially adapted to all the conditions of 

 the climate. 



I have here samples of fruit of which I know the parentage ; and 

 the characteristics of the progeny are such as bear out my theory of the 

 influence of the respective parents upon the offspring. The seed which 

 produced the Pewaukee was saved from a Duchess apple, those which 

 produce my No. 17 and 14 from Clark's Orange, those which produce. 

 No. I and La Belle from Tallman Sweet, those which produced .\llen 

 Russet from golclen Russet, etc. ; in each case the hardiness of the mother 

 tree is almost exactly reproduced in the seedling, while the quality and 

 flavor vary as the male parent varies. 



These varieties we raised from seeds selected and saved in our 

 early days, when fruit was a rarity in Wisconsin and we had not the experi- 

 ence we have now. Those we raise now, we can tell by knowing their 

 parentage quite nearly what they will produce. 



To improve varieties of apples by crossing we must chcose for the 

 female parents, the style of tree, the size of fruit, and the hardiness we 

 desire ; for the seedling will have a tendency to resemble the mother 

 tree in those respects. 



For thf male parent select the trees which, in time of maturity of 



