THE MINNESOTA 
HORTICULTURIST. 
VOL. 26. DECEMBER, 1808. No. 12. 
~ Biography. 
A. J. PHILIPS, 
SECRETARY WISCONSIN STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
WEST SALEM, WISCONSIN. 
(See frontispiece.) 
A. J. Philips was born near Philadelphia in 1834. His parents, of 
Welch descent, were great admirers of fruit and flowers; hence, Mr- 
Philips’ horticultural education began in early childhood. He re- 
ceived a fair common school education, supplemented by a course 
in a Watertown (Wis.) school. In 1852 he decided to leave school 
and go to workona farm in Jefferson county. This cutting short of 
his schooling he regards as a great mistake, for he has in later life 
felt the need of a better education. Since 1855 he has resided in La 
Crosse county. He followed general farming until 1868, when he be- 
gan making a specialty of apples. In 1870 he joined the Wisconsin 
State Horticultural Society, since which time he has missed but two 
of its meetings. 
He has exhibited apples at over twenty Wisconsin State Fairs and. 
has been an exhibitor at thirty-eight out of forty fairs held in the 
county where he lives. He has also taken a great interest in dairy- 
ing, and at present has a herd of full blood Guernsey cattle. He 
has also attended and exhibited fruit at several of the state fairs of 
Minnesota, and has attended many of the winter meetings of that 
state. His specialty for quite a number of years has been top-graft- 
ing apples to produce winter varieties, at which he has been quite 
successful, having the past season Malinda, Missouri Pippin, Gano, 
McIntosh Red, Grimes’ Golden and Newton bearing fruit. 
In 1889, at the suggestion of ex-Gov. Rusk, the Secretary of Agri- 
culture, Mr. Philips was appointed to a position in the Division of 
Pomology. This position he held for about two years, spending 
part of the time in Washington and part in traveling through Wis- 
consin, Minnesota and Iowa, searching for information regarding 
seedlings and new fruits. This has given Mr. Philips a wide ac- 
quaintance with the horticulture and the noted horticulturists of the 
northwest. 
In 1894 he was chosen secretary of the Wisconsin State Horticul- 
tural Society, which position he still holds. He selected the 
