THE MOST DESIRABLE VARIETIES OF FRUIT. 41 



and in a few years there will be little lieav}' timber left. He 

 agreed with Mr. Wood that apple trees are more profitable on side- 

 hills than forest trees, if the soil is suitable. 



Professor L. H. Baile}^ of the Michigan Agricultural College, 

 said that there is more beauty in the Middlesex Fells than in 

 thousands of acres laid out according to the rules of landscape 

 gardening. People here do not appreciate their good fortune in 

 having such a picturesque place near their own doors. In Michi- 

 gan, where the land is all arable, less attention has been paid to 

 forest planting than here, and it is almost impossible to make 

 farmers believe in the necessit}' of preserving trees ; but it will be 

 only a few years before timber will be scarce, even there. The 

 sources of rivers and creeks should be protected by preserving the 

 trees and shrubs around them. The land around the Ohio river is 

 flooded every year, and is now not lived on. Dunes and knolls 

 should be planted with trees. The speaker looked to the Eastern 

 States for examples of judicious and beneficial forest planting. 



Edmund Hersej' said that every one who is in love with Nature 

 will be in love with the subject under discussion. What forests 

 we have may be turned in that direction where they will be of the 

 most value. The object should be, not to raise trees for firewood, 

 but for timber or for ornament, and in both these directions we 

 might make great progress. In cutting wood we often leave the 

 poorest trees, and those of least value for timber, to seed our land ; 

 we should pursue the opposite course. We should never cut off 

 all the trees, but should leave enough for seed. If our fathers 

 and grandfathers had done this, we might be reaping the benefit 

 now. Nature grows many trees that are not desirable. If an 

 effort had been made two generations ago to encourage the growth 

 of the chestnut, which is much more desirable than the birch, our 

 woodlands would be much more valuable than they are now. 

 Always save those trees which are most noted for their good 

 qualities. 



The subject of the most desii'able varieties of fruit was here 

 taken up, and Hon. Marshall P. Wilder spoke in continuation of 

 his remarks on the preceding Saturda}-. There are many valuable 

 old varieties not now cultivated, and so little known that they 

 might be introduced as new and promising well. He had done 

 well by holding on to a good man}' old varieties. Among cherries, 

 the Windsor is a new and excellent variety — fully equal in tree 



