386 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



necessity of all the technical knowledge pertaining to their business 

 that is to be obtained, there is an abundance of work to be done. When 

 this is done, our Agricultural College will have a hundred students 

 where it now has one, and meetings of this character will call together 

 overflowing audiences. 



What I have said may sound harsh, but if it is true, it is not the 

 part of kindness to refrain from saying it, even though it is disagreea- 

 ble. My desire is to do what I can to advance farmers' interests, and 

 want to see this done in the most effective manner possible. 



THE BABBITT APPLE. 



Elm Grove, Mo., Dec. 1, 1889. 

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



Sir — In answer to your request for facts as to the "Babbitt" 

 apple : 



The Babbitt was produced from seed of the New England Baldwin. 

 The place of its origin was Tazewell county, Illinois. The date of its 

 originating was at least as early as the year 1838. Propagated by C. 

 W. Babbitt at his nursery in Woodford county, Illinois, in 1844 or 1845. 

 In 1847 I saw the trees in my uncle Babbitt's nursery, and noticed them 

 as the largest trees of their age, among an extensive collection of 

 varieties ; also, for the large size of their leaves and the stoutness of 

 the new growth. 



In the spring of 1848 my father was planting an orchard beside 

 our village of Granville, Putnam county, Illinois. He allowed me to 

 plant next the town a row of eight of those trees. My reason for 

 wishing to plant them there was on account of their size and beauty ; 

 and in a few years I had a row of the very largest and finest trees of 

 their age that I ever saw grow in Central Northern Illinois, and in due 

 time, apples. 



My brother and myself went to Oregon in 1853 to start the first nur- 

 sery in the then new Territory. Beaten by a visitation of grasshoppers, 

 we returned to the States, and in 1858 J. G. Laughlin & Sons did start 

 our nursery at College Springs, Page county, Iowa. The Babbitt was 

 not one of our old first list of trees, but about twenty-three years ago 

 we had it sent from Illinois ; and my father and brother each have the 

 trees of that age in their orchards at College Springs, lat. 41 deg. 



For thirty-two years I have not seen the trees I used to know in 

 Illinois ; but to my personal knowledge they passed the memorable and 

 terrible winter of 1855-G unhurt, and I have been informed that up to 



