314 ANNUAL EEPORT 



ties that are worthy of being looked after and given further trial. 

 He is unable to tell where they come from. The original trees 

 may be dead and yet not have died from lack of hardiness, for 

 thousands of trees perish on our farms through carelessness or 

 neglect A description of two of the varieties is herewith submit- 

 ted. It is my opinion that this committee had best be continued, 

 and that each member of the committee should be appointed for a 

 denned district of which he should have an oversight, and that 

 whenever anything promising is found, trees, plants, cuttings or 

 scions, should be secured and distributed among our experiment 

 stations. 



EEPORT OF SEEDLING FRUIT COMMISSION. 



A. W. Sias, of Rochester. 



This is the fourth annual report that your kindness has suffered 

 to be inflicted. If we rightly understand, the main object the 

 society had in view in creating this commission, it was in view of 

 the sooner solving our difficult problem of the comiDg Winter 

 apple, and not to help nurserymen (although two thirds of the 

 commission belong to the fraternity) to hoist their half tested 

 pets into undue prominence. Your committee frequent- 

 ly errs in judgment like the majority of mortals, but their motto 

 has always been, and lived up to as far as possible, viz; '"Be sure 

 you are right and then go ahead." This we have tried to do with- 

 out fear or favor. I have no doubt the venerable Col. John H 

 Stevens had this grand old motto in mind, and well digested when 

 he made the motion to take up the work of this committee. Such 

 men as John S. Harris and G W Fuller never canvass this state 

 without finding something worthy the notice of the society, and 

 they are too well informed to be easily imposed upon by interested 

 parties — men who hold the truth to be more precious than the 

 society's money! And if the society should decide at this session, 

 that we had been given sufficient time and money to bring out the 

 "coming apple" for Minnesota in all its beauty and perfection, 

 and if we did not do so we must "step down and out," we should 

 step down very gracefully, thanking the society for past favors at 

 the same time. In looking over the state for the "coming winter 

 apple" your committee is obliged to state, that we find but little 

 that is strictly winter, except the native crab apple, which so far 

 as we have observed, is all winter. And I will state right here, on 

 my own responsibility and without fear of successful contradiction, 

 that when you find the ideal "winter apple" with perfect adaptation 

 to this arid clime, and where the extreme heat is so trying on all 

 vegetation at certain times the tree bearing this fruit will in my 

 humble opinion, carry blood in all its veins peculiar to that species 

 known to botanists as Pyrus Coronaria. Dame Nature placed 

 this winter fruit all over the Northwest to supply her children with 



