HORTICULTURAL VENTURES, WISE AND OTHERWISE. 1 39 



Wealthy trees have grown and produced fruit, until, with the pos- 

 sible exception of the Duchess, they have proved the most profitable 

 lot of apple trees that I have ever planted. 



From this great variety of Russian trees and American seedlings, 

 our two trees of the Cross apple and the twelve trees of the An- 

 tonovka have proved both hardy and productive ; also five trees of 

 the Borovinka besides ten trees of the Romna — which, as I have 

 them, are identical with the Hibernal and are, of course, valuable. 



About the year 1890 my friend, Jos. Wood, set out a variety of 

 Russian apple trees from the Iowa Agricultural College. He told 

 me lately that only one variety had any value and that was the Cross. 

 If he had only planted Duchess and Wealthy instead of so many 

 Russians how much better an orchard he would now have! 



About the year 1894 a tree man arrived in our neighborhood. 

 He was not an agent, he was an orchardist, he w^as one of the firm 

 and hajled from Adrian — so he said. One of my neighbors gave 

 him the attentive ear. The stock came in due time and was heeled 

 in, and a written guarantee was given that the orchardist would 

 be around in the spring, plant the trees, also care for them and re- 

 place any dead ones for a period of five years. A note was taken 

 for the full amount, $183.00, and sold to the bank. The so-called 

 nursery firm failed, the orchardist never came around to plant those 

 trees or to replace any dead ones, the 500 Russian mulberries proved 

 to be cottonw^ood seedlings. Only a few wrecks of trees are left in 

 this orchard, but the Red Dutch currants and Houghton gooseberry 

 plants have been very satisfactory. 



In the autumn of 1896, my townsman entertained one of the 

 model orchard agents from Princeton, Illinois, with the following 

 result : Pear trees, Salome apple trees, May, June and July cherry 

 trees, $1.00 each ; evergreen blackberry plants $1.50 each, etc. ; total, 

 $80.00. Note taken and sold to the bank. Not a dollar's worth of 

 fruit did my townsman grow nor is there a tree or plant now left 

 to show for his horticultural venture. 



In the spring of 1886, along with many other fruit trees, I 

 planted two Martha crab trees, and how they did grow ! But as 

 the years went by they would be full of blossoms each May, but 

 somehow they failed to bear. I frequently heard the remark made 

 that the Martha did not bear, but I was sure that they would bear 

 enough to make it all up when the trees got older — and didn't our 

 horticultural society recommend it? So the spring of 1894 we set 

 out twenty-five more Martha trees and thought that we had laid 

 the foundation for our fortune, but while all our Martha trees have 

 been in perfect health until this season and blossom verv full we 



