100 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



glossy leaves, the sign of health and vigor, we see a scant and 

 sickly foliage in which the keen eye of the experienced horticnl- 

 turist will read starvation, premature decay, and death for miles 

 around him. 



It might be well for us here to inquire 



HOW LONG 



Ave may expect our orchards to last — find out if we can how long- 

 each species and vai'iety of our standard fruits is likely to live 

 under favorable conditions and fair treatment,, in order that we 

 may know what to expect. 



We will first speak of the apple, the standard and king of all 

 fruits. Mr. Knight, of England, famous in horticulture, has 

 placed the duration of the apple tree, when worked and grown on 

 a healthy seedling stock, at two hundred years ; and sj)eaks of 

 trees on record as being over one thousand years old, and still in 

 healthy, fruiting condition. 



S. W. Cole, of Massachusetts, in his book published in 1850, 

 tells of apple trees twelve feet in circumference ; and claims that 

 the apple tree, in a wild state, with moderate, regular growth, 

 would live one hundred years, or more, and states that he had fruit 

 from a tree in Plymouth two hundred years old. Mr. Cole also 

 says that under high culture, they often fail at one-half that age. 

 I have myself seen trees of the Eoxbury Ensset that were planted 

 near Marietta, Ohio, by the celebrated Israel Putnam, in 179G, that 

 were seventy years old, still healthy and bearing well. The 

 original Grimes Golden Pippin tree, in Brook county. West 

 Virginia, was reported some years ago to he eighty years of age and 

 still in good health. 



From my own experience and observation in the Ohio Eiver 

 Valley, I feel safe in placing the average life of apple orchards there 

 at sixty years. As we come westward we find it much shorter. 

 Some writer claims the average age in Illinois to be twenty years, 

 and in Missouri twenty-five years. 



From our experience of sixteen years in Northwest Missouri, I 

 would not feel safe in placing the average above thirty-five years. 



In tracing the cause we fail to find it in any one of the numerous 

 theories advanced, nor do we find it to our satisfaction in the 

 geographical position ,of the country, nor in the climate, nor yet in 

 the soil. I believe there is much truth, and some of error in most 

 that has been written on this subject ; and while we hail with joy 

 each ray of light, and excuse the mistakes of our worthy brothers, 



