34 Wisconsin Statb Hobticultdbal Society. 



failure. I have never been able to grow healthy trees to the age 

 of three years, except a small per cent of Duchess, Wealthy and 

 Tetofsky. The soil is a cool, clayey loam ; reasonably well 

 drained, the location high, though nearly level, and there are 

 higher grounds on two sides of it. There are more favorable 

 locations in the county, and some tor a time and on a small scale 

 have been more successful than myself, but in the long run the 

 result has been the same. The trees soon become unhealthy, and 

 usually after bearing once or twice die out. 



From 1865 to 1872 a great many apple trees were introduced 

 into the county from Beaver Dam, Sparta, and some other nurser- 

 ies, and as there was a succession of favorable winters, a great 

 many orchards were set which came into bearing previous to 1872, 

 but that winter ruined all of them, except a few which were most 

 favorably located upon the limestone ridges. For a year or two 

 after this, tree agents had a hard time persuading people to 

 purchase their stock. But they were equal to the occasion. 

 "Hope springs eternal in the human breast," and as two or 

 three mild winters succeeded each other, and new varieties were 

 introduced with the assurance that these were really ironclads, 

 orchards were gradually reset; more largely of Siberians this 

 time, and less with standard varieties. About this time Beaver 

 Dam began to send out trees grafted upon crab roots, which 

 they asserted imparted their hardiness to the stock and ren- 

 dered them as safe as Siberians. Experiments also were made 

 of grafting standards in the top of the Transcendent with the 

 same expectation. But the result has proved that these are even 

 less reliable than those grafted upon ordinary seedling roots. 

 There seems to be a lack of affinity between the stock and cion in 

 these cases, whether grafted upon the root or top, which, in my 

 opinion, will always render success impossible in this direction. 

 In 1873 or 4 the blight 6rst made its appearance in a few locali- 

 ties, first attacking trees set upon low, rich ground, but spreading 

 rapidly until within three or four years nearly all the Siberians in 

 the county were more or less aSected by it. Observing that it af- 

 fected most disastrously such trees as bad been stimulated by cul- 

 tivation to a rapid growth, I seeded down my orchard, hoping that 



