110 ANNUAL REPORT 



From seedlings, and nothing else, good fruits were to be produced. 

 The same law held good with the ancients, but the Grreeks understood 

 the process better than the Romans, as he could show by reference to 

 books in his possession. 



A.t a convention held in England some two years ago an effort was 

 made to obtain information with regard to the adaptation of various 

 varieties of apples to the different parts of the British Isles. It was 

 there demonstrated that every locality had a different climate, and 

 that different varieties were adapted to particular regions of country. 

 He believed that animals were climatic, and plants as well ; everything 

 that grew on God's earth was climatic, and it was wonderful that it 

 should be so, although we could not tell the reason. 



He had heard of a delegate to a certain political convention who 

 asked the question, "What are we here for?" That might be applied 

 to us individually. We are here to take care of ourselves; we are 

 here to subdue, replenish and beautify the earth. 



Mr. Thompson. We have been talking about the Duchess of Old- 

 enburg. I do not know of any such apple; we are misnaming it; there 

 is no such variety in the catalogue The name Oldenburg is given, 

 but the other is a mongrel The true Oldenburg is a Russian variety, 

 and a general favorite throughout the district where it originated, as 

 well as throughout the Western States, as shown by this report to 

 which I have referred I have here the historical accounts of some 

 of our best varieties, and the Duchess of Oldenburg is not mentioned 

 in the list, while the Oldenburg is. It is described as of medium size, 

 round, oblique, yellowish red in color, quality good, season Septem- 

 ber, a Russian variety. It is a good apple. The tree " scalpers " 

 have added to the name. I have on my grounds the Oldenburg 

 proper. 



I have heard of agents who have been around in Grundy county 

 selling what is called the Winter Duchess. There is no such thing. 

 Tt is what is known as the St. Lawrence, a very valuable apple. Why, 

 one of your agents here represeuting L. L May & Co., was down 

 there and tried to humbug me into buying some of their trees, and I 

 suppose would have agreed to sell me anything under the heavens, 

 and would have given me some hazel brush claimed to bear peaches if 

 I would have given him the order. 



We, as horticulturists, should exchange ideas; work in harmony. 

 There is not a man living that is too old to learn something from the 

 interchange of ideas. The great trouble is we are apt to be selfish; 



