68 ANNUAL REPORT 



FROM GEO. P. PEFFER. 



Pewaukee, Wis., Dec. 2, 1886. 



8. D. milman, Secretary, etc.: 



Your letter of November 20tli was received on 29th. Yes, I see 

 that the paper I sent to last winter's meeting caused discussion 

 and fetched out some facts, so that the public will find that there 

 is as much risk in planting Russian varieties as any others. I 

 still hold to it that our fruit trees, to give satisfaction, have to 

 be grown from seed raised in about the same latitude and 

 neighborhood where wanted. 



I shall probably attend your meetings this winter, and hope 

 to see many of our fruit growers. 



Cordially yours, Geo. P. Peffer. 



FROM F, K. PHOENIX. 



Delavan, Wis., Dec. 28, 1886. 

 Friend Hillman: 



Thanks for notice of winter meeting. I beg to ask if your 

 Society has sufficiently worked the Ironclad seed -saving and 

 sowing, the Ironclad seedling-growing and testing scheme, as 

 the best, surest, swiftest way out of this wilderness of tender 

 varieties. 



A prince fitting up a magnificent new estate had already spent 

 fifty years and fabulous wealth in vain. At last he called on a 

 very modest master workman, of whose wondrous skill he had 

 before heard. "Can you do this job?" said the prince. "I 

 can," was the quiet answer. "For how much money?" said the 

 prince. The master answered, "I work not for money." 

 "Wherein is the cost, then?" asked the prince. "In patient 

 care and heed taken to follow my every requirement. First and 

 foremost, I must have the help of every tiller of the soil we can 

 •enlist on your wide domain. I do no hasty, botch work." 

 " How long might it take? " queried the prince. "That depends 

 on the number of your workmen and their careful attention to 

 my instructions. That job will take 10 or possibly 20 years." 

 "Ten or 20 years longer ! " echoed the astonished prince; "have 

 I not already spent 50 years at it % And what good will your 

 help do me 10 or 20 years hence?" The master's last answer 

 came: "Remember the 50 years' time, the wealth and hopes 

 already wasted — and then, your children ! " The prince went 



