76 ANNUAL RBPOBT 



trees in Minnesota, And yet the Sequoia described by Bayard 

 Taylor was said to be 3,100 years old, ninety feet in circumference, 

 contained 250,000 feet of timber, required six weeks of steady labor 

 to bring it back to its mother earth, and cost the sum of $550. 



Now, if a common sunflower, a little over three feet high, has 

 been found to exhale, as Prof. Gray says, about one quart of water 

 in a day, how much ought a full grown apple tree to throw oflp, 

 allowing each leaf to contaiu 100,000 breathing pores, or, to make 

 the contrast still greater, suppose the mammoth tree described by 

 Bayard Taylor was composed wholly of sap wood, throughout its 

 entire woody cell structure, and throughout the whole growing 

 season, at least, these cells had been kept full and active for the 

 3,100 years that it had been standing, is it not just barely possi- 

 ble that the water supply would have given out before that time? 

 And how such a preposterous system would upset all preconceived 

 notions of vegetable economy, economy of naure, etc! Now, if it 

 is possible for these giants of the forest, composed as they are 

 mostly of dead vegetable matter, to maintain a standing for two or 

 three thousand 3^ears, is it not reasonable to suppose that some 

 of our hardiest fruit trees, with good culture, and in spite of their 

 " black hearts," may continue to yield their fruits for at least 100 

 years. They belong to the same class of exogens, are made and 

 operated in about the same manner. 



The croaker makes no distinction between Heart wood and 

 " Black Heart," with him it is all " Black Heart." There is a dep- 

 osition of vegetable coloring matter in the heart wood of every 

 known species, peculiar to itself, and frequently quite a marked 

 difference in the different varieties of the same species. Now if 

 we could only find a variety of the Pyrus malus, with heart wood 

 precisely the same color of its sap wood, or as nearly so as in the 

 case of the Ash leaved Maple, (a specimen sample of the wood of 

 Avhich I have here,) it would prove a ' God-send " to the man of 

 little faith, and also to the honest, though despised tree pedler. 

 The war between those who contend that fruit can be grown suc- 

 cessfully in Minnesota, and those who still proclaim loudly that it 

 cannot, is mainly between those who have some little insight into 

 the " Theory and practice of Horticulture," and those who have 

 comparatively none. There should be a better understanding be- 

 tween what we call practical and scientific men. And there might 

 be, if the so called practical men would come out and hear the lec- 

 tures before the Agricultural department of the University. 

 During nearly a quarter of a century that I have been living in 



