STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 269 



of tree is most likely to combine the sought for good qualities, 

 requires no small amount of careful observation, through a long 

 series of experimenting, and then miss far oftener than hit. 

 "When we grew the first from our own growing of seed, we set 

 all in the orchard, and later set in orchard about one-sixth, and 

 yearly, as new seedlings come into bearing, we develop in knowl- 

 edge, and as we gain knowledge the per cent set in orchards 

 grows less. Thus far it has taken from three to five hundred 

 seedlings to give us one first-class apple, and that from seed 

 taken from the best apples we had; but in the same orchard grew 

 a vast amount of inferior apples, that to a greater or less extent 

 adulterated, hence to some extent the smallness of the gain. 



But the conditions in the State orchard are quite different. 

 There nothing but the very best is set, and from it we anticij)ate 

 a larger percentage of good fruit, though mongrels will cut 

 mighty freaks sometimes in reproduction, and as yet the oldest 

 trees from the State orchard seed are only two years; yet young 

 as they are, many bid fair to give good fruit, and in fact our 

 faith strengthens each year as new varieties come into bearing. 

 But whether I have adopted the best known mode by which to 

 develop new varieties of good quality adapted to our climate, is 

 to note the results, and the result is more first-class apples in the 

 last fifteen years than all other modes put together. 



The Siberian cross has given us hardiness of tree, and a com- 

 bination of qualities not found in any other class of apples, 

 whether to eat from hand or made into sauce — for either use we 

 can match the world, and therefore I hold the Siberian crab to 

 be a godsend to the entire North. 



The object of the State orchard is to grow new varieties from 

 seed adapted to our climate, and especially long keepers, and to 

 that end we planted close together in rows, and every alternate 

 tree is a long-keeping variety, and the other alternates are our 

 best iron-clad seedlings — the one to give hardiness and the other 

 long keeping, and in the cross expect to get some combining 

 hardiness of tree and long-keeping fruit of good quality, a treas- 

 ure we have not yet got, and to get it we top-graft long keepers 

 on hardy seedling stocks that get their growth early and stop 

 their sap flow, thus comj)elling the later growing, more tender 

 variety on top to harden up for winter, and thereby produce and 

 give us the cross, which could not be done were the long keeper 

 on its own tender, late-growing roots. And even on the best of 

 stocks we find but few long keepers that can be made to stand 



