332 State Horticultural Society. 



I am certainly pleased to Imow that you can bud some trees 

 from bud sticks which I can get of this year's growth. I think 

 very strongly at present about going up to Burlington to look at 

 these early red apples that are supposed to mature the 1st of July, 

 and if I get anywhere near that tree, you bet your life, I will try 

 to get a few buds, and I want you to spare no expense in having 

 your men take extra care of them, so we can propagate them. I 

 will mail them to you and take care of them as you indicate. I do 

 not know whether it makes any difference what these are budded 

 onto, but have an idea a strong growing seedling of some kind, 

 but you know more about this than I do, and will leave it entirely 

 with you. The idea is, go get them propagated and to bring the 

 first few into bearing the very first possible moment, and multiply 

 them as fast as possible from the start. 



In the first correspondence with this party up there he was 

 very willing to let me have some of these scions last fall, or at 

 least his son was, but from late correspondence the old gentleman 

 has forbidden his son to send anyone those scions. I suppose he 

 thinks he has a good thing, and he is mean enough not to w^ant 

 anybody else to have any of them, not even down in this district, 

 where it certainly would not hurt his trade, especially as he only 

 has twenty or twenty-five trees. I note with much pleasure that 

 you are liable to make a trip through our country this summer, and 

 we will certainly be glad to see you and to show you around. 



You probably remember that ten acres of trees you furnished 

 Mr. Frye, who owned the 80 acres between mj'' two quarters, and 

 which I wrote you I had bought. They tell me they have never had 

 any apples off that orchard except Missouri Pippin and Winesap, 

 and, as I understand it, their big crop was 1,900 bushels. Whilj 

 I had not seen that orchard every month in the year, I had sup- 

 posed the Ben Davis had borne pretty well, but they tell me no, I 

 was out there yesterday and I think I saw every tree in that or- 

 chard, and the Ben Davis are loaded to the guards, and the largest 

 and most thrifty apples I ever saw this time of the year. This is 

 also true of the Winesap, and partially so of the Missouri Pippin. 

 If these do not drop off, I believe there is going to be from 3,000 

 to 5,000 bushels of apples on that orchard. This made me feel a 

 little more kindly toward the Bens. I have an idea that this or- 

 chard is about 15 years old, so suppose I have got to wait for the 

 Bens to do something two or three years longer. There is one 

 very surprising thing in that orchard, and it looks like a demon- 

 stration of what has been worrying me for some time; that is. 



