PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 27 



Rapids, 40 below; Beloit, Wis., 40 below; Sparta, Wis., 48 below, while at 

 South Haven, Mich., it touched 16 below, for a few minutes; and, if my 

 memory serves me right, there was only a light crop of peaches in the 

 southwestern part of the state the next season. 



The effects of King Frost were no longer a mystery. This frozen penin- 

 sula had rendered her verdict, and the dead and dying witnesses were 

 found plentifully in the apple, pear, peach, and plum orchards all over 

 Michigan. For the first time in my life I had learned that freezing was 

 the trouble, and is what makes so many trees black-hearted, feeble, and 

 sickly. 



I was now able to trace the effect to the cause. My observation was 

 aroused as never before. Since then I have been permitted to study many 

 interesting lessons in this wide field of investigation, and shall now try to 

 give you some of them. 



TENDERNESS OF SEEDLINGS. 



I have learned that many of our seedlings (apple stocks are tender, and, 

 without doubt, the cause of many evils that crop out in fruit culture. This 

 is likewise true of the sweet cherry on the Mazzard, and of the pear on' 

 the quince. 



I find, also, that the tender varieties are more subject to the ravages of 

 the borer and the armies of insects that prey upon our fruit trees, and that 

 among this class we find the largest percentage of inferior and wormy 

 fruit. If any one will take the pains to visit the orchards, as I have done, 

 in this and adjoining counties, as to the health, hardiness, and quality of 

 fruit borne, I think they will bear me out in this conclusion. 



SELECT HARDY STOCKS. 



In selecting the stocks and scions of the different species to be propa- 

 gated, it is as necessary that we study the character of the two to be united, 

 as to what is desired in the plant and fruit, as though we were about to 

 engage in the propagation and perpetuation of the choicest breeds of 

 horses, cattle, sheep, or swine. 



Ground once gained by judicious selection, in this way, becomes fixed, 

 and upon it we may enter with safety. By this process, this law of 

 assimilation, combining health, strength, vigor, and hardiness, we are able 

 to multiply and perpetuate the choicest selections of fruit. 



If we will select such trees as the Lyscom, Talman Sweet, Northern 

 Spy, Westfield Seek-no-further, and Golden Russet, of known merit as to 

 hardiness and vigor, upon which to top-graft or regraft our tender 

 varieties, such as Baldwin, Greening, King, and Red Canada, we shall 

 make a great advancement in the right direction, for it is upon this point 

 that success largely depends — perhaps more than upon any other. 



This plan or system of " double-working " our tender varieties and 

 feeble growlers, on hardy stock, is like building upon the rock, assuring us 

 not only of hardiness but of uniformity of growth and development (a very 

 important point), at the same time increasing the longevity and fruitful- 

 ness of our orchards, and the quality of the fruit borne, a hundred fold. 



