o 



16 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



tively small, yet a few are good keepers, and these are among the best in 

 quality. Among them are the Korthfield Beauty, or Cady's Crab, of Vt., and 

 Header's Winter, a Minnesota variety. 



It is most pleasing to be able to state that so eminent a hybridist as Mr. 

 Pringle, of Vermont, whose Snowliake, Alpha, and Ruby potatoes ; Conqueror 

 tomato; Champlain and Defiance wheats; Golden Drop, Lady Charlotte, and 

 Vermont Giant grapes, testify to his skill and success, is also engaged in pro- 

 ducing hybrid apples between F. mains and P. haccaia. He has been at this 

 work for taw years past, and some very fine new varieties tiius produced have 

 fruited the past season. It would be premature, and in fact a breach of confi- 

 dence, for me to particularize in regard to these now, but I can promise to 

 those earnest pomologists who have so long been working to spread orcharding 

 northward into the *'cold belt,'' that some exceedingly choice kinds may be 

 soon expected from among Mr. Pringle' s large collection of hybrids. — T. 

 H. Iloshins in Land and Home. 



THE WAGEXEE. 



B. Hathawav, of Little Prairie Konde, savs of the Waajener : 



This apple had a run of popularity in all parts of the State, nearly equal to, 

 and in sections surpassing that of the Baldwin. Although experience has 

 somewhat lessened the confidence of growers, it has characteristics, of both 

 fruit and tree, that will commend it to the attention of planters in spite of its 

 defects. 



As a nursery tree it is unsurpassed in vigor and beauty ; and this is one rea- 

 son Avliy it has been pushed into notice so persistently ; often beyond its deserts. 

 Kurserymen like to grow it, and men who go to the nursery and choose trees 

 by the eye are sure to buy it. 



In early productiveness there is nothing in all the list that will compare with 

 it. It is only necessary to get it well established, and it begins to bear at once, 

 not a few specimens, but a full crop for the size of the tree. Even from nur- 

 sery rows of only three or four years' growth, the fruit will often pay for the 

 gathering. 



It will not hold like the Baldwin, but keeps fairly, and sells at about the 

 same price. It has a thin skin and tender flesh, consequently, like the Spy, it 

 requires careful handling, and like that variety, keeps better in open craste 

 than in tight barrels, where a large quantity is to be stored for the spring 

 market. 



For its early productiveness, however, which is one of its chief recommend- 

 ations, something has to be discounted from its ultimate value. 



Tlie habit of bearing at an early age is so persistent that the tree becomes 

 permanently dwarfed, or so much so that at fifteen years, when the Baldwin 

 will be producing four or five barrels, or more, the Wagener will give only half 

 as much. And it is reasonable to suppose, though here we have not demon- 

 strated the fact from experience, that the longevity of the tree must be more 

 or less impaired. It must be conceded also, that quite often a large proportion 

 of the crop is defective, and that it is rather inclined to fall prematurely. 

 Still, where a man has no fruit, as in the newer parts of the State, it is no 

 doubt the best of economy to plant it quite largely. 



