STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 73 



Ml". Gilbert. Why do we want to plant the apple at all ? What 

 of the fact that they recommend the character of the fruit? I have 

 watched this fruit from its first introduction into the State — the 

 characteristics of the tree and its habit of growth. It is an early 

 and most persistent bearer. Now what is the result when you find 

 those two qualities in combination? That it is almost impossiljle to 

 grow up a good, well-formed and fairly good sized tree which will pro- 

 duce a large quantity of apples. You will usually- see such trees of 

 small size, and finally they bear their life out in the fruit. And 

 further than that, the}' are naturally' small ; their habit of over- 

 bearing renders it impossible to bring them to a large size. If ^'ou 

 feed the tree and make it grow larger, or tr^' to, you simply employ 

 the means without effect. They are small ; you find them generally 

 quite small — below the medium size. The qualit}' of the fruit is 

 good ; the color is good and the fruit is good, and selected speci- 

 mens of fair size make a good show on plates at the fairs. It is 

 a good apple for the table ; but I would ask seriously. When you 

 can raise so man}' other varieties of uniformly good size and market 

 qualities, wh}' do you want to encourage the introduction of this, 

 unless it is the best? 



Mr. JoKDAN. Almost every one wants to get some fruit as quickU' 

 as possible. I should take those trees and let them bear ; if they 

 do well it is a good thing — and then let them die. 



Mr. Merrill. I have seen two rows of the Wagener in a large 

 orchard. Any good, practical, intelligent orchardist, seeing them, 

 would sa}' that the variet}' was entirely worthless as compared with 

 the Baldwin, or almost an}- other late-keeping variety. I think, as 

 a rule, we had better discard it. If any one has a small place, it is 

 a good garden variety ; it will not occupy a great deal of space. 



Mr. Atiierton. I don't like to put my foot down on ever}' new 

 variety. If anything comes out worthy of particular attention, I 

 like to encourage it ; and if I could sa}' an encouraging word for the 

 Wagener I would do so ; but I cannot say much. I only spoke 

 very highly of its fiavor ; I was strongly tempted once to order 50 

 trees in addition to what I had, but thought I would test it further, 

 and I am glad that I did so. My three trees are all I want of it. 



