A MILD WARNING. 343 



in a while by a hard winter but to profit by the experience and go 

 right ahead and plant some more the next year. 



Dr. . T. E. Loope (Wis.) : I was very much interested in the 

 paper, but it gives me a rude shock. (Mr. Lord: Are you a 

 nurseryman?) (Laughter.) Yes, I grow a few trees, but I have 

 offered nothing for sale since I have been here. I think ]\Ir. Lord 

 is ver}- nearly right in his conclusions. In regard to the old trees 

 dying out, I will just mention the analog}* in the lives of your 

 neighbors. After your neighbors reach the age of fifty years they 

 will drop off, here one and there one, and after a while they will all 

 be gone, and a new set will have grown up to take their places. I 

 do not see why an apple tree should not die as well as a human being. 

 When one of my trees dies I plant another tree. 



Mr. Yahnke : I think ]Mr. Lord took the standpoint that a burn 

 is a good thing on somebody else's back, and I admit that it feels 

 better. These hard winters have really done our fruit growers good. 

 I have learned more through the hard winters than through any of 

 the mild winters, although I was very much discouraged in 1873 

 and in 1884, and I had almost given up, but I have recovered almost 

 as well as the tree. 



The President : From those that were killed we have more and 

 better fruit. 



j\Ir. Yahnke : Yes, more and better fruit, and big apples. If 

 it had not been for that winter of 1873 I never would have had what 

 I have now. If it had not been for the winter of 1884 I never would 

 have found out what trees would do well here. I know that the 

 fruit we grow here is far better than the same varieties grown in 

 Missouri. Take the Ben Davis, for instance : we have always heard 

 that the Ben Davis especially is a very poor apple, but it is a good 

 apple when it is grown in Minnesota. Try the Ben Davis three 

 months from now and see if it is not a good apple — and it brings 

 more money than any other apple grown. 



BEAUTY WITH UTILITY ON THE VILLAGE LOT. 



DAVID SECOR^ WIXXEBAGO CITY. 



Since the last annual meeting of this society the writer has en- 

 joyed the privilege of quite extended travel and observation. Three 

 trips have been made through the fertile and productive Mississippi 

 river valley to the Gulf of ^Mexico, traveling by as many different 

 routes, visiting thirteen states and two territories ; extending one trip 

 through a sister republic to the ancient city of ]\Iexico, and from 

 thence to the terminus of railroad communication, about four hun- 

 dred miles south and w-ell within the tropics. 



There is much to be seen, valuable lessons to be learned, and new 

 ideas and thoughts gathered on such pilgrimages. There are the 

 squalid huts and hovels of the extremely poor, with 'filth, vermin and 

 disease, incident to poverty ; the comfortable and happy homes of 

 the great middle class, and the magnificent palaces of the rich. 



