148 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETT. 



<lo it, with the material at hand with which to attain yet greater results. 

 At the outset, it was test and try ; but now that the problem is 

 solved, it is onward, with great results certain. 



When I say we have twenty first-class apples, that does not in- 

 clude all that are worthy of cultivation, by any means. And now, 

 with such results, and only a few thousand trees fruited at the end 

 of sixteen years, what maj' we not expect at the end of the next 

 sixteen years, with twenty or thirty thousand choice, selected trees 

 from the very best of seed, which are not yet fruited, and the seed 

 of over 100 bushels of choice apples planted this fall, all to fruit in 

 a few 3'ears. Then on, on, plautiog the seed of the best each year ; 

 soon the choice varieties will count into the hundreds, and the great 

 Northwest will be the fruit paradise of America. 



To get the desired cross we plant the selected varieties in close 

 promixity, so that the natural flow of pollen will the more surely do 

 the desired fertilizing, and the seed thus produced is planted, the 

 most promising of the seedlings selected and set in orchards for fruit- 

 ing, and, after fruiting, the best in tree and fruit is selected from 

 which to grow seeds to trj' again, and so on, at each repetition I find 

 there is a gain. The young trees that fruited this year for the first, 

 gave a larger percentage of first-class apples than any lot ever fruited 

 before. 



By crossing and judicious selection we retain the hardiness of the 

 crab in the tree without the crab thorns, and on top grow large apples 

 without the astringency of the parent crab. And yet, by the com- 

 mingling of the two natures, we get an exquisite flavor not found in 

 any other class of apples, especially so when made into sauce. But 

 our triumph is not 3'et complete ; we must, we can, fill up the balance 

 of the year with a continued succession of luscious apples. There 

 is no question as to the certainty of such a result ; the past is a 

 guarantee that it can be done. 



But the proper cross can't be got in Minnesota, a fact clearly de- 

 monstrated in the extensive and expensive trials that have been made 

 in the last nine years in the State orchard. And here let me state, 

 that the seedling is inclined to ripen its fruit at or near the time the 

 parent apple did, from which the seed was taken, hence the need of 

 seed from long keepers to grow the same. There are no long keepers 

 of the best qualit}' yet found that are hardy enough to fruit in Min- 

 nesota, but we can take our best hardy seedlings further south, 

 where the long keepers can be grown, and there get the cross and 



