46 ANNUAL REPORT 



apple questioQ soon, but want to impress upon the minds of the doubtful thnt you 

 ma^- be mistaken, as many great men have been before you. I remember riding in 

 the cars, when drawn by horses, from Saratoga to Schenectady. Col. Sam. Young, 

 a great statesman in his day, candidate for governor, etc., wars kept waiting some 

 time for the horse train; when he got on board be began to complain about the folly 

 of railroads. "Why, said he, if I had taken my own team I could have gone to Albany 

 and done my business. He could not see sixty miles an liour in the future for the 

 iron horse no more than the croakers can apples i/i tlie future for Minnesota and 

 Wisconsin. I find in the history of Wisconsin in the war oi the rebellion, in sub- 

 stance the following: There had been two unsuccessful assaults made on Marcy's 

 Heights, Fredericksburg. Col. Allen, of the Fifth Wisconsin, and some other reg- 

 iments were ordered to make another attempt, in his short speech to the men, he 

 said: "You think j'ou can't take them, but you can. You will advance until you get 

 the word halt; you will not get that word. ' ' Let me say after a residence of nearly 

 forty years in Wisconsin, you of little faith will not get the word halt from the 

 fanatics engaged in this fruit war, but the word w^ill be right on until you succeed as 

 Col. Allen's brigade did at Fredricksburg. Let us reason a little: When the wheat 

 blighted about 1S50 in Wisconsin, so that the old hedgerow was nearly a failure, the 

 farmers changed their seed and sowed the Canada club, which was a success. We 

 have changed from Khode Island Greening apple to Duchess of Oldenburg; the suc- 

 cess is assured as much as the change in wheat. Again, the potatoes rotted so badly 

 twenty-tive or thirty years ago that we had to fall back on beans. Rev. Mr. Good- 

 rich, a fanatic at Utica, N. Y., began experimenting b}^ growing from the potato 

 ball. Others took it up until now there is little complaint about rot. Peter M. 

 Gideon has from seed produced the Wealthy apple, which promises to be as great a 

 success as the Seedling potatoes. J. S. Harris has experimented in the same way 

 with a prospect of success, trees grown by us from scions of his seedlings having 

 stood the last two winters as well or better than some of the crab apples. I have 

 not done yet with that class who say, "Can't grow apples here." If Satan had the 

 same opportunity to harm the people of the Northwest that he had with our first 

 parents in the Garden of Eden, do you think he would call the attention of the Eve 

 of the present day to an apple? Far from it. He would tell her to dig in the ground 

 for the potato. Let us see. When the Colorado bug made his appearj^nce there was 

 war declared at once. Men, women and children turned out and destroj'ed them, 

 both old and young, even the eggs, and that, too, at the risk of life. The papers 

 published numerous cases of death, where women had eaten their meals without 

 washing their hands after picking the bugs. Now turn your attention tor a moment 

 to the apple and see how those same persons regard that. Their trees are in the sod 

 without protection or care. The cattle, horses, sheep, rabbits, and mice all have 

 full swing. The coddling moth, tent caterpillar, canker worm and curculio are not 

 disturbed in their destructive work; yet still we hear that old stor\- that we canno^ 

 grow apples here. I tell you I am right. That old serpent, the devil, has the rep- 

 utation of being smart. He ]would never try the Northwestern man or woman 

 with an apple to tempt them to trespass a divine command. I confess I do not 

 understand this. People let a smooth-tongued tree peddler, representing some 

 nursery in the State of New York, Ohio or Canada, go for them, and they will buy 

 the sand cherry of the Mississippi bottoms at $1.50 each, if it be called "Utah 

 Hybrid" cherry, or Box Elder live or six feet, labeled "Burgundy Maple," at $1.50. 



