296 STATE HORTIOULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



wken I went to Lebanon county and started one myself. It was a fair 

 success, and after building a cottage in the outskirts of North Leba- 

 non and living there a few years, I bought 14 acres of land two miles 

 northeast of town. There I had a collection of fruits that could not 

 well be found elsewhere in those parts. There I raised the Louisa 

 grape, a decided improvement on the Isabella, but the big growers 

 pronounced it Isabella, and it never became popular. Some years 

 after the Concord came out, and I bought a vine for $5; at the same 

 time requested Mr. Bull, the originator, to send me some seeds of the 

 fruit. He sent some, out of which the Marietta was raised ; also Eva, 

 another white one, that was perhaps equal to the Martha. But 

 after Mr. Knox had paid me $5 for the Martha, Eva was in a measure 

 dropped. I am satisfied that Mr. Knox made $10,000 out of it. I 

 never envied him in the least. A man once said I was a fool for sell- 

 ing it at that price. A friend standing by remarked that he supposed 

 friend Miller would make a fool of himself again in that way. ''You 

 bet he would," was my reply. In 1857, joining the Bluffton Wine Com- 

 pany when I came here, my tree and vine affairs were conducted for 

 others, and the first season I grew about 70,000 plants. 



Soon I cut loose from the BlufTton Wine Company and worked 

 for myself. Went into growing small fruits and trees. I had a good 

 selection of strawberries, the seeds of which were scattered all around 

 by the breeze, and one day, while plowiog in an old orchard, discov- 

 ered a seedling, which I saw just in time to prevent covering with the 

 plow. It was taken up and planted on a terrace east of my house, but 

 a grub attacked it, and if I had not discovered it at the time, there 

 would have been one popular strawberry less on the list. I am often 

 asked why I gave such a noble fruit such a bad name. It was simply 

 because when nearly all the roots were eaten off it still lived. One 

 day I remarked that that plant is like the Indian chief, Capt. Jack 

 ( that was then giving our soldiers such trouble in the Lava beds in the 

 west), and Capt. Jack shall be its name. Since then I have not 

 brought out anything of much merit', but believe I have something fine 

 in a seedling Cuthbert raspberry; have also a seedling Seckel pear 

 tree that may bear next season ; a tree each of Gov. Wood and Napo- 

 leon cherry that may bear next season. So it will be seen that I am 

 still experimenting. 



I keep posted on the new grapes. Am disappointed in the Co- 

 lumbia Imperial. Have two vines of Campbell's Early that can bear 

 next year; have also planted three vines of the McPike grape and or- 

 dered three vines of the Kentucky. I have the famous Soudan rasp- 

 berry. Miller's Eirly Red and Cumberland, the latter the grandest of 



