. VALUE OF N. W. APPLE SEEDLINGS. 307 



I do not in my day expect to see any seedling apple originated 

 in the northwest, superior to what we now have in our present seed- 

 lings, or can have by properly top-working our old reliable kinds 

 on to extremely hardy and congenial stocks, but I do expect to see 

 new and more valuable kinds added to our list that will no doubt 

 come to U8 by top-working from New England, the middle and 

 western states. My reasons for this I think are plain. The apples 

 first brought to this country came from north central Europe, a land 

 congenial to the apple, but since their advent we have unmistaken 

 evidence that the environments here have proved to be more congen- 

 ial 1o the apple than they were in the land from which they came. 

 This position is sustained from the fact that the apples here have so 

 much improved as to be shipped back from whence they first came 

 and are now driving their ancestors to the wall in many of the 

 higher markets of Europe. In short, they now have nothing that 

 compares with many of our beet American apples that have been 

 originated in our best apple belt. But for various causes, known 

 and unknown, we in the northwest have fallen behind our southern 

 and eastern friends in originating and producing choice apples. A 

 kind Providence has seen our unpleasant condition and has recently 

 come to our aid and has blazed out a new, short and direct road 

 to success. In short, the good Lord has marked the way through 

 to success and made it so plain that a child can follow. We can 

 grow, not only a great majority of our old choice kinds we have 

 coveted so long, but at once we can catch and hold a majority of 

 such new and desirable kinds that either skill, luck or chance may 

 place in our reach, for I do not claim it beyond the possibilities 

 of man to produce a new seedling here in the northwest more valu- 

 able than any we now have. But unless you infer from my remarks 

 that I deem it useless to attempt to make an efifort to originate or 

 secure new apples here, I will say that "nature with her still kind 

 hand oft doles out to man her choicest gifts." You have your watch- 

 man on the tower; he is a good one, keep him there. Give him a 

 search lamp and means to supply its wants so that oft as nature 

 presents to view something valuable it can be kindly taken in and 

 propagated for the benefit of the masses. I would much sooner run 

 my chances in securing something valuable along this line than to 

 expect to secure such by the direct hand of man by way of cross 

 breeding, etc. Had we followed this plan years before, I know we 

 should have been now in the possession of many more choice vari- 

 eties of fruit than we now have, some which I know by my own per- 

 sonal knowledge to be superior to any we now have. I know of at 

 least three native plums and one apple that have been lost to us by 

 careless and shameful neglect in our own vicinity. I have not the 

 least doubt today that there are hidden, and to the world unknown, 

 many superior varieties, especially apples, along the line of our 

 most congenial apple belt, many equal and some superior to any 

 we now know, that can be brought to the Northwest and made by 

 top-working of great value. The now famous Baldwin, Grimes' 

 Golden and other varieties of highest grade, have only come to us 

 after the original trees have been grown old and rotten; or, rather, af- 



