Bx Sea as ' 2 he 
THE BEST VARIETIES FOR TOP-WORKING. 425 
‘the “coming apple” comes, Itis not likely that many of our farm” 
ers outside of our horticultural society will adopt it for some time 
to come, but will wait for the coming apple to get here, and in tha 
meantime our state will continue to be used asa dumping ground 
for the surplus stock of the nurseries of the east and south, and our 
farmers will plant ironclad northern grown trees from Alabama, 
and budded trees and whole root trees, or any other new fangled 
thing that sharpers can invent, supporting frauds and sending their 
money out of the state, until they can get a dollar to spare to join 
some live horticultual society. Long years hence they may hear of 
Gideon and the Wealthy apple anda thousand other good things that 
have been brought out by patient, self-sacrificing horticulturists, 
but the day of opportunity has passed. 
GOOD, BAD AND INDIFFERENT FRUIT TREE AGENTS. 
R. PARKHILL, CHATFIELD. 
Blessings on the good fruit tree agent! His mission is to bring joy 
and gladness to the young and health and happiness to the young 
and old. He proclaims the gospel of an abundant supply of home 
grown fruit ; refreshing fruit when the hot winds ofsummer wilt all 
animal creation; ripe, yellow fruit for the golden days of autumn; 
cellars filled with fruit in can and barrel for the long winter evenings 
when, sometimes, king frost compels the mercury to crawl into its 
den ; tables groaning under bountiful supplies of small fruits and 
large fruits from Jaauary to December; fruit for the owner of 
hundreds of broad acres, and fruit for the man in the crowded city 
who measures his garden spot by square feet. 
Battling with and overcoming ignorance and prejudice, the friend 
of mankind has truly a noble mission. Not to him belongs the 
comparatively insignificant task of making a few extra'blades of 
grass to grow in our pastures but the grand work of making 
orchards to spring up where not even a solitary fruit bud was to be 
seen, and thus making it possible for every man to retain at leasta 
little corner of paradise. Indifference must also be met and con- 
quered by enthusiasm in this work, and so this preacher of truth, 
this grand reformer, swings numbers inline under the banner of 
“Fruit for the Home.” Butthe battle rages fiercely, and the victory 
is only won by a hard struggle. Ignorance, prejudice and indiffer- 
ence are not the only foes to be conquered. There is discourage- 
ment arising from loss by the thousand and one plagues that fruit 
is subject to, including the ghost of the much dreaded scale. 
Last, but infinitely greater than all those other obstacles in this 
grand reform, is the bad fruit-tree agent. Heis a giant in the land, 
His scythe is long and keen, and he cuts a wide swath. Ignorance 
and prejudice oppose not his onward march, but rather aid in his 
dreadful work, and even indifference and discouragement quickly 
yield to his gaudy chromos and lying eloquence. Remorseless as 
death, old and young, rich and poor, all are numbered among his 
victims. He leaves desolation and ruin in his track, but he sweeps 
