VICE-PRESIDENT S REPORT, FIRST CONG. DIST. S; 



" Duchess have paid the best because orchards are oldest, but 

 Wealthy is in best demand and brings highest price. Newer varie- 

 ties of currants and gooseberries are coming to the front." 



''The Transcendent crab is the very best for commercial pur- 

 posess. The Morello cherry is the best and only cherry raised here 

 successfully. Has fruited over thirty-six years. Have picked and 

 sold 237 bushels in one season. Seedling apples of finest quality: 

 Leona, season July; Ailing, season June; Long John, April to 

 May." 



"If a tree gets damagd by a cold winter, cut back all limbs in 

 spring, so that the top is not more than half size." 



"I have many varieties on trial, but as yet they have not been 

 proven. Am more and more of the opinion that the list to advise 

 to the general planter should be kept low. The large cultivator 

 or grower is himself better able to judge than the society can tell 

 him, for undoubtedly he has or will give it study. Recommend 

 only the old and sure ones. Better for the majority to plant two 

 or three varieties and be sure, than many and failure." 



"In my long experience, have tried at least 120 varieties of 

 apples, and can now recommend not more than twenty varieties 

 that I would set for an orchard, if age permitted. Patten Greening 

 is a large and a fine apple, but falls from the tree too soon. Long- 

 field is a good bearer, but fruit is too small for market purposes. 

 The Anisim, though a beautiful color yet too small. The Mc- 

 Mahon, unless near market and carried like eggs, they bruise. 

 Would now set an orchard in the following proportions: Five Red 

 Duck, 5 Glass Green, 5 Gilbert, 5 Yellow Sweet, 25 Wealthy, 15 

 Duchess, 20 Thompson, 10 Repka, 10 Malinda. Crabs or hybrids: 

 Sweet Russet, Gideon No. 6 and Martha." 



The facts and experiences as rehearsed in the thirty-three com- 

 munications have been of great interest and benefit to me, and hope 

 they may be the same to many others. Why are the reports so 

 meager and discouraging pertaining to the cherry? It is a fruit 

 that I especially love, and why is it not a success in the western 

 half of the district? What is the force of suggestions made by a 

 few that commercial orcharding and general farming cannot be 

 successfully followed, as a rule, by the same party? Is it not one 

 of the forceful reasons for the present disparity of fruit culture upon 

 the prairie and upon the hill and bluff sections? Evidently, this 

 is worthy of consideration at all horticultural meetings. 



Also, from the many references in the communications, we seem 

 to be following closely our eastern neighbors in the apparent neces- 

 sity of "spraying." 



The President: You spoke of the grafting on the sand cherry. 

 Will the graft have anything of the vigor of the sand cherry? 



Mr. Freeman: I cannot tell anything about it; these answers 

 are all from my correspondents. 



