234 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



After satisfying myself from a cross-examination of tiiose with wliom 

 I chanced to meet that if any apples save the crahs could be raised, it 

 was yet to be proved, I requested a friend at Red Wing, a few miles south 

 of St. Paul on the Mississippi River to introduce me to some man familiar 

 with fruit growing upon whose statement I could rely. He kindly took 

 me to Judge Wilder, a gentleman whose former residence was Paines- 

 ville, Ohio, and who while residing in Red Wing and only occupying a 

 city lot had given time and attention to the raising of fruit as his 

 grounds plainly showed. He invited me to his house and showed me his 

 grounds. He had several different varieties of grapes in bearing and the fruit 

 Avas very fine. The small vineyard showed the most careful training. The 

 fruit was all close to the ground on the horizontal branches, the main stalk of 

 each vine being about three inches high, and the main branches trained hori- 

 zontallv from that to facilitate tlie covering in winter. The vines were several 

 years old and received the best of care. The "interview" in regard to apples 

 was very like this: "Judge Wilder, I have sought an introduction for the 

 purpose of getting some reliable information in regard to growing apples in the 

 Northwest, and particularly in Minnesota." 



" Well, sir, I know about Minnesota and the raising of fruit in this State, 

 and it is a total failure." 



The Judge was so emphatic in his declaration and seemed to cut off all argu- 

 ment so squarely I thought to temper matters somewhat by saying : " Judge, 

 I meet in my travels men who say that they can raise the Ben Davis and certain 

 other kinds of hardy apples successfully." 



"Well, sir, if to raise apples two or three years, five at the outside, and then 

 have the tree die is raising apples, then they can. That, to my mind, does not 

 mean raising apples; the truth is that in from two to five years the trees will 

 crack from the the limbs to the root, the bark will roll away and the tree die. 

 Sometimes there will be one crack and sometimes three — the trees die." 



I told the Judge that I desired to tell the Horticultural Society of Michigan 

 what he said, and to this he consented. 



In Oconomowoc, in Wisconsin, I met a friend, Dr. L. W. Weeks, one of the 

 pioneers of that country, who I knew had set out one of the first apple 

 orchards in Milwaukee and who had given attention to the cultivation of fruit. 

 I recited the conversation with Judge Wilder and he said : " You may say 

 about the same thing of Wisconsin; raising fruit is not a success." I am 

 more particular in giving my authority because I know it is reliable, and I 

 found that the information I gathered from parties interested was so universally 

 shaded for the benefit of their State that it was quite a new sensation to meet 

 a few men whose statements were strictly true. 



All this to show that there is an immense territory west and northwest of us 

 to be supplied with fruit. I wish to impress upon the people of Michigan that 

 there is a market for good fruit at their doors; that the cry, "apples are 

 worth nothing," and "apples are not worth gathering," and all this deprecia- 

 tion of the fruit business is from " want of thought." While our farmers are 

 talking disparagingly of their fruit interests they ought to know that in t)ie 

 fruit region of Nev? York State, through Niagara, Monroe and adjoining 

 counties, nothing is more apparent than the increase of apple and pear 

 orchards. They have learned that it is easier to gather a dollar's worth of 

 apples than to raise a dollar's worth of wheat. The net profit on apples at 

 25 cents per bushel is greater than on wheat at a dollar per bushel. Here 

 we are in a natural fruit countrv. West and northwest is a natural wheat 



