256 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN 



So though all the seeds in one apple may be different one from the 

 other in such characteristics as are inherited from the male parent, they 

 will yet all take after the female parent in hardiness, shape of tree and 

 size of fruit. 



Mr. Pefter further stated that the stigma of the apple is ready for 

 impregnation some time before the pollen sacks in the same flower are 

 ready to open so that self fertilization becomes the exception and cross 

 fertilization the rule where several kinds of apples grow near each 

 other. Hence it is a rare case that apples are produced like the parents, 

 the earliest flowers open being less likely to mature fruit than are the 

 later blooms, and those early flowers are the only ones likely tu be self- 

 fertilized. Mr. Peffer's many and careful experiments furnish us with 

 another case where amateur effort is procuring valuable knowledge of 

 vegetable physiology all the time, while the aristocrats of science are 

 merely speculating and guessing, mstead of going to work like Mr. 

 Peffer and proving by actual experiment. [Asst. Rec. Sec.) 



S. G. MiNKLER presented the following report on Fruit Trees : 



Mr. President^ Members., and Friends of the Northern Horticultural Society : 



Your Society has made it my duty to make a report as one of your 

 committee on Fruit Lists. 



I am at a loss to know what I am to report, whether on varieties 

 or the crop in general. I conclude the latter. Therefore I must say that 

 this year, like the preceding, has been one of the bountiful years in 

 horticultural products. This year also, like the preceding, has been the 

 driest of the forty years of my residence in Illinois. 



The Apple crop in the Fox River Valley has been very fine, indeed 

 I think the finest, that I have ever known. Not more plentiful than last 

 year perhaps, but exceedingly exempt from insects. The early varieties 

 of apples were exceedingly free from codling moth. 



I remarked to a friend that Mr. Wier's codling moth trap had caught 

 all the insects. He expressed his purpose to find them so fine. 



The winter fruits were somewhat affected though not as much as 

 last year. The early apples brought a good price. But the late summer 

 and fall apples were a drug on the market ; in fact they were sold for 

 twelve — twenty-five cents per bushel. And I have seen men peddling 

 from house to house in the city of Aurora with apples in one end of the 

 wagon and a barrel of cider in the other, half bushel measure in one 

 hand and a gallon measure in the other, trying to find customers. 



And hundreds of bushels, yes a thousand, rotted on the ground or 

 were fed to stock. Barrels could not be obtained to put cider in, and 

 no sale if you could. But things have changed. Winter apples are in 

 good demand at one dollar per bushel, and have been since November. 



Brethren, I am convinced that we have planted too many summer 

 and fall varieties. 



The Pear crop was very unsatisfactory; trees blighted badly, and I 

 could see no difference between grafted trees and seedlings in that 

 respect. I am about discouraged in. planting pears. 



