Joint Convention. 203 



of health and wealth. One considers the growing of flowers ex- 

 ceedingly esthetical. Another finds in them a contact with 

 natnre, which feeds the soul and lifts the aspirations toward the 

 infinite creator. Thus horticulture has a broad field of useful- 

 ness in the progress of humanity toward health and wealth, 

 beauty and perfection. Our state has had a wide and varied experi- 

 ence in horticulture, which it would be interesting to review in 

 detail, but to which I can here only briefty refer. The pioneers 

 of our state were mostly native Americans, and largely eastern 

 people, and hence they commenced the culture of fruits and 

 flowers soon after the first opening up of the farm. Thus about 

 1836 to 1S40, the southeastern and southern counties commenced 

 tree planting. Jefferson county commenced in 1S40; Dane 

 county in lS-i5; Columbia, and other eastern counties, in 1850. 

 While ten years later found fruit tree planting in the lake shore 

 region to Sheboygan, and in the Rock river valley to Fond du 

 Lac, and so westward across the state, and up to La Crosse in 

 the immediate valley of the Mississippi and other streams. 



Central southern Wisconsin, up to the region of the granite 

 rocks, was generally first settled with a class of people who made 

 laudable and persevering efforts to grow fruit with the opening of 

 their farms, so that it is now ten to twenty years since all this 

 region has been a field of experiment and observation in horti- 

 culture. 



The heavy timbered regions in the northeastern portion of 

 our state, commenced general fruit growing some years later, and 

 both the old and young orchards are now very promising, 

 though the first attempts were, in general, failures from the excess 

 of water in the soil at that time. 



Nearly all attempts at fruit-tree growing in the. northern six- 

 tenths of our state are yet in the green of less than ten years, 

 therefore comparative results are not well known. But I have 

 no doubt of their success with hardy varieties and thorough soil 

 drainage. Thus we have for southern Wisconsin thirty-five to 

 forty-five years of experiment, in the southern central region 

 twenty to thirty years of trial of most of the varieties of fruits 

 and flowers now ffrowinfj in this latitude. 



