STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 103 



vatioii m my own and reports I received from other orchards, I 

 began to fear that the winter of 1880-'81 had been equal, if not 

 worse, in its effects on apple trees, than the memorable winter of 

 '72 and '73 ; but as spring approached, on close examination, 

 althouijh the trees were much exhausted, I found they had not suf- 

 fered as much as I had expected. 



Being very busy with other business in the spring, I rented my 

 farm and orchard with it — had one hundred trees set — and for four 

 months I gave my orchard very little care. But as tall approached 

 I made arrangements to drop other business and give my whole 

 attention, for a while at least, to farming, stock raising and fruit 

 growing. I began by looking around to see what varieties of trees 

 had withstood the past winter, and caraeout with sufficient vitality 

 to bear fruit in the summer of 1881, not only in my own but in 

 orchards in my neighborhood. This I concluded would be a good 

 criterion to guide not only my own but the efforts of others in 

 future apple tree planting. I found Whitneys No. 20, Orange and 

 Transcendent Crabs bearing fair crops. Also found the Duch- 

 ess, Wealthy and Utter were reasonably filled with fruit, but 

 not of as good quality and size as the year previous. I found two 

 winter seedlings that are on my grounds bearing, one for the 

 first time and the other for the twelfth consecutive season, the 

 last having on about one barrel of very good sized apples. Of 

 course this increased my faith in these. I found the Fall Orange 

 bearing in some very unfavorable localities ; also the Pameuse, 

 though it plainly showed signs of exhaustion, I found it had rallied 

 and was bearing some fruit. But poor Ben Davis, though it had 

 tried hard to stand this climate and be profitable, had finally, ex- 

 cept a few trees, given up the ghost; also Rawles' Janet. Jonathan 

 and Red June had shared the same fate. I found the Atwood, a, 

 seedling originated by Dr. Atwood, of Trempeleau county, Wis- 

 consin, (and of which I have fruit here on exhibition, and for which 

 your committee awarded a first premium at the state fair last fall 

 as a winter seedling) looking very vigorous and bearing for the 

 first time a very few apples. This tree I had been watching with 

 some anxiety for the reason that although the trees looked fine. 

 Uncle Wilcox had informed me that the parent tree was dead. 

 But for the purpose of smoothing over the feelings that are the 

 usual result of disappointments in these trials, and increasing and 

 stimulating our future hopes, he added, " Well, that is not fatal, 

 for the old Wealthy tree is dead too." I find where men are deter- 

 mined to succeed they always try to put the best side out and 



