•THE CAIENS APPLE SEEDLINGS. 1/3 



THE CAIRNS' APPLE SEEDLINGS. 



MISS GERTRUDE M. CAIRNS, EIvI,SWORTH, WIS. 



The greater part of northwestern Wisconsin was still but sparse- 

 ly settled, when in the fall of 1867 my father, G. W. Cairns, of Ells- 

 worth, Pierce county, paid a visit to his brother, J. V. Cairns, who 

 was then living in the town of Middleton, a few miles from Madison. 

 The few apples which found their way to Pierce county in those 

 days came up the Mississippi chiefly from Missouri. So when his 

 brother and other friends offered my father a couple of barrels of 

 apples from their young orchards, which were just coming into bear- 

 ing, they were a very welcome gift. The apples were picked a few 

 from each tree, and the names of the varieties, if in the possession of 

 the owners, were never preserved. 



From the choicest of these apples my mother saved the seeds, 

 planting them and caring for the seedlings. After they gained suffi- 

 cient size the more promising were removed from the nursery row 

 and in time came into bearing. There were several very fine apples 

 among these seedlings, some of which were displayed in the early 

 eighties at the meetings of the Wisconsin Horticultural Society, and 

 one, a sweet apple, was taken to the New Orleans Exposition. To 

 this apple, if my childish taste was true, I have never .found an equal 

 among sweet apples. 



But the test winter of 1884- 1885 did for these trees what it did 

 for so many others, and when the spring came there was left alive 

 in my father's orchard, besides the crabs and Duchess of Oldenberg, 

 but one tree. This tree could hardly be said to be left, as the old 

 trunk was dead. Its death could not be attributed to the severity 

 of the winter, however. It had been unfortunate. Standing where 

 it could be reached by the horses of careless teamsters plowing the 

 garden, it had been repeatedly barked and broken until it had grown 

 misshapen and unattractive, and all the care my mother could bestow 

 upon its wounds — for my father thought it hardly worth attention — 

 was unavailing. Decay had set in. The old trunk was dead, but 

 the root was still vigorous, and all about the dead tree the fresh 

 shoots sprang up. These were carefully pruned and in due time set 

 out and came into bearing. In the nursery row were other seedlings 

 which survived the severity of the winter, and among them were 

 some grown from the apples raised on this same tree. These seed- 

 lings together with those spouts have made the trees which are today 

 bearing in our orchard. 



There are some ten or a dozen varieties of seedlings, including 

 several crabs, but the majority of them are probably of no special 



