232 STATE BOARD OF AGKICULTUUE. 



who lias been tempted by this most excellent fruit, from the hand of Eve's 

 fair dang^hters, finds himself as weak as his prototype, Adam. 



The full grown orchard, bending with its burden of precious fruit, in autumn 

 Avas always a sight that had great attractions for me. Its fruit not only satis- 

 fied my taste but filled my whole being with pleasure and delight. If I ever 

 had an excess in appetite for the good things of this world, it was for her most 

 precious fruits. 



I never shall forget, when a boy, standing beside the church-yard fence that 

 separated it from a garden filled with choicest fruits, waiting in their ripeness 

 for some anxious hand to ])luck and eat the same. That hand was mine, but I 

 dare not pluck and eat, — it was not my father's garden. I thought of our 

 first parents, and did not wonder that they sinned, and I believe I should my- 

 self had I not stood on hallowed ground. 



Those grapes that hung in beautiful clusters from the arbor, rich and pur- 

 ple; those large golden peaches, with pink cheek, blushing to be mine; those 

 apples, in all their beautiful colors, ready to drop into my hands, as I thought, 

 are photographed upon my mind as clearly to-day as wheii I stood in the 

 church-yard of my native home. For me to have lived and not had an orch- 

 ard, I Avould not have been true to my instincts; consequently the first thing, 

 after purchasing a home was to plant an orchard. There had been set out, the 

 fall previous to purchase, fifty apple trees, but in the spring of 1857 only one 

 dozen were alive. A selection of iifty more trees, of which one-tenth was early, 

 one-tenth fall, and the balance winter, was made; twenty of the latter were 

 purchased for Esopus Spitzenburgh, and fortunately proved to be Northern 

 Spy. Our means being small, we concluded this would do until we could raise 

 our own trees. Accordingly the next spring, 1858, we started a nursery of 

 13,000 apple trees, adding to it from year to year, in a small way, luitil the 

 present time. After the trees in nursery had attained a sutlicient size for plant- 

 ing, I commenced extending my orchard, until it numbered some 800 trees. 

 I found, after a few years of experience, that some of the varieties in nursery 

 and orchard did not do well, and for what cause, I could not tell. Conse- 

 (piently I became mucli interested in the study of this matter, trying, if possi- 

 ble, to ascertain the cause. Years passed on and still the mystery was not 

 solved. Finding I could not succeed with certain varieties, I discarded 

 them altogether. The Esopus Spitzenburgh and lloxbury Kussct were among 

 the first to share this fate. Have been replacing them from time to time, as 

 they have died out or become worthless in the orchard, with Northern Spy, 

 and shall not be sorry when the last Esopus Spitzenburgh ceases to be in the 

 family of my orchard. Out of twenty-six (Esopus Spitzenburgh) I have six of 

 them left, most of them feeble. Tiie Koxbury llussets, have done somewhat 

 better. 



The very severe winters of 1874-5 cleaned out our peach trees and cast a 

 blight upon our orchards that will not be forgotten for generations to come. 

 Not until this time did I know that freezing was the great trouble with our 

 orchards. The next spring and summer dead and dying fruit trees were found 

 all over central and northern Michigan (that is in the Lower Peninsula), and 

 many of those that have finally survived are badly affected. "We all felt this 

 great loss, but no one so keenly as proj)agators of fruit trees. j\[y nursery in 

 June looked as though the fire had run through it in sections. Some varieties 

 were dead and dying, while others were perfect to the terminal buds, standing 

 up like so many livinir monuments to the dei)arted, imi)ervious to the long 



