WINTER MEETING AT LEBANON. 283 



Warrensburg, Mo., Nov. 20, 1889. 

 L. A. Goodman, Secretary Missouri State Horticultural Society, iVealport, Mo.: 



Dear Sir — Although I have not the pleasure of a personal acquaintance with 

 you, yet I almost feel like I had. 



Your name has been familial* to me for many years in connection with the hor- 

 ticultural interest of this State. 



I am a sort of amateur fruit-man myself, devoting much of my spare time to 

 the cultivation of the strawberry, raspberry, blackberry and other small fruits. I 

 have given a good deal of attention to the peach also. 



I am led to write at this time from a perusal of your letter of 4th inst. addressed 

 to my friend Mr. Levi Mohler. who sent you some peaches of a very late variety. 

 The peaches sent were grown on my place. I have named the peach "Reese's 

 November " The history of this peach is somewhat unique. Some years ago I set 

 out some 200 budded trees, purchased from the Mohler nurseries. Among these were 

 two labeled "Beatrice Early;" only one of these survived. The following year it 

 bore one peach. I soon saw that it was not the Early Beatrice or any other sort of 

 an early peach. I watched its progress with the greatest interest. Long after the 

 Steadly, the Heath and all other late peaches that I knew anything about were gone, 

 my nondescript hung on and continued to grow, showing no sign of ripening. On 

 the 30th day of October, it had not begun to soften. The following day (31st) it 

 blew a continuous gale, and I did not think of my precious peach. The following 

 morning (Nov. 1st), on awakening early, it came into mind. I repaired at once to 

 the tree and found the peach lying on the ground, having undoubtedly been blown 

 from the tree by the fierce winds of the preceding day. On examination, it 

 proved to be a free-stone peach, and though only just beginning to ripen, of a beau- 

 tiful appearance and most delicious flavor. I was so strongly impressed with the 

 value of so late a peach, and especially of so fine a flavor, size and appearance, that 

 the following August I budded a great many ; but unfortunately the hail-storm the 

 following May, and the drouth of the incoming summer, destroyed all the young 

 trees. Meantime, the parent tree began to exhibit symptoms of decay, and I 

 became seriously alarmed at the prospect of losing entirely this splendid variety. 

 The main trunk of the tree was finally broken off in a storm, but fortunately some 

 two or three feet above the graft. New shoots appeared from the old stump, and 

 this year produced about a peck of fruit; but not so perfect as the original peach. 

 This result was due, I think, partly to the age of the original tree and partly due 

 to some adverse peculiarity of the present fruit season— no fruit on my place of 

 any description having this year reached its usual degree of- perfection. It is my 

 purpose (if spared, both myself and the tree) to bud quite a number of trees next 

 season. Last August I secured the services of Mr. Mohler and he budded quite a 

 number from this tree, but the season being unfavorable, he tells me but ten of these 

 survived; and as these have yet to pass the ordeal of the coming winter, their fate 

 is of course uncertain. I hope that we may at least succeed in saving for future 

 generations a peach which 1 fully believe has no rival as to lateness and flavor in 

 the United States. 



With great respect, I am truly yours, 



A. W. Reese. 



Mr. President and Members of the Missouri State Horticultural Society : 



We see by your circular that we are booked for a report on the plum, which 

 will be short, as we have planted and fruited about all the plums put upon the 

 market, and find nothing worth planting but the Wild Goose. We see in one of 



