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WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
TWENTY YEARS’ LESSONS IN FRUIT-GROWING. 
BY A. G. TUTTLE, BAIIABOO. 
The first attempts at fruit-growing in this state reach back 
little beyond twenty years. At that time very little was known 
of the wants or capabilities of our climate for the production of 
any kind of fruit, and no former experience in other localities 
proved of much value. Immediately following our first ex¬ 
periments came a succession of severe winters, as if to show 
us at once what we could, and what we could not do. This 
in the end was very fortunate, though at the time it seemed 
the height of disaster, and well nigh destroyed every hope of 
success, so that the cry became very general that fruit could 
not be grown in Wisconsin. So general was the belief in this, 
that whoever ventured the opinion that all was not lost, and 
that Wisconsin would yet become a fruit-producing state, was 
looked upon as a visionary dolt, whose very perversity excited 
only derision and contempt, and a man who offered a tree for 
sale was considered by many little better than a pick-pocket. 
There are very few new enterprises, resulting however suc¬ 
cessfully, but have had their dark days; and though amid the 
general gloom the faint-hearted saw nothing then but disaster, 
there was still a little light stimulating the hopes of the ardent 
horticulturist when it was found that trees of northern origin 
came through comparatively uninjured. Hence arose the idea 
of adaptation—and the orcharaists went to work by the light of 
a little experience. This proved to be the right course, and 
every year, and each extreme of climate has added something 
to our stock of experience, so that to-day it is generally ac¬ 
ceded that most of the fruits can be grown in our state with 
entire success, and we present the anamoly of an entirely 
healthy country producing an abundance of fruit. 
