TREES FROM SPROUTS. 35 



and it has been invariably the case, that those trees that have 

 been purchased from Western agents have failed in the same 

 way. I will say, that those trees that have come from those 

 sprouts have proved true to their name, as far as I could 

 remember; or, in other words, they proved to be very fine 

 pears. I cannot remember all their names, because they have 

 such long names for some pears, that I would rather taste 

 them than remember their names, in order to test the quality. 

 I can show you some dozen trees that I bought for Mr. Sumner, 

 who lived, in the summer, on the place where I now reside, and 

 set them out myself, and there is not one original stock among 

 them, except four or five Bartletts, which are about as large as 

 my thumb, and the sprouts are much larger, and grow much 

 more vigorously. I have not cut them off. Mr. Sumner told 

 me to cut them off last spring; but I said, "Let them grow 

 another season. By digging around them, and manuring tbem, 

 they may be made to do something." I find that it would 

 have been far preferable to have cut those stocks off two or 

 three years ago. He would have had very nice and vigorous 

 trees now. 



Mr. Gold. My opinion in regard to the relative value of 

 New England and Western trees is expressed pretty well by 

 the proportion in which I planted the two kinds for an orchard, 

 a year ago. I planted three hundred trees, and I got a dozen 

 from an agent from the West ; the rest I got from a Connect- 

 icut nursery. I wanted to try the experiment, but I did not 

 care to try it in any other proportions than that. 



Mr. Goodnow of Princeton. In the region of country 

 where I reside, we are overrun with cider-apples, and the 

 question is, what to do with them. I have fed them, in former 

 years, to hogs. This year I have fed them largely to stock. 

 I have also fed them to sheep. The question with me is, 

 whether it will do to feed them to milch cows. I was offered 

 eight cents a bushel for them this year, if I would cart them 

 four miles. I could not see any great profit in that. And if 

 we undertake to make cider, it will not bring the cost of the 

 barrel. 



Mr. Howe. A friend of mine has been feeding from 

 twenty-five to fifty bushels of apples a day to his milch cows, 

 and he told me he considered them worth more to make milk 



