552 
STATE HOETICLUTUKAL SOCIETY. 
and a study worthy of a State Society. How wonderfully the fruits have been 
adapted to meet our wants both as physical and intellectual beings. To al 
our best fruits has been given the power of breaking up into varieties, a 
matter which we think little of, but one of vast significance. Were there no 
power in the plant of producing new kinds, we might obtain, perchance, ever 
kind of apple growing upon the earth and then our work would be done. 
No improvement would be possible in that direction. But in the seed have 
been placed unbounded possibilities. You may now have the best apple or 
pear or the most delicious grape, but next year some experimenting Horti¬ 
culturist may produce another better,—you in turn may surpass him. The 
law of improvement is ever saying, Onward^ Upward! And so it will be for¬ 
ever. In all our fruits, are undeveloped varieties just adapted to all our 
states, without doubt. There are apples, and grapes, and strawberries and 
even blackberries, I doubt not, jnst fitted for the State of Wisconsin. When 
they will be reached we cannot tell. We must unroll them, so to speak, and 
when the right form appears, hold it for our use, as we can, and propagate it 
by bud or graft. This is delightful work in which all lovers of Horticulture 
can engage. Raise seedlings. We may draw a prize and we shall have the 
satisfaction bf knowing that the prize will not be taken from our neighbor’s 
pocket but will and to his enjoyment and profit as well as our own. It seems 
to me that the raising of seedlings, of all our prominent fruits, is a work that 
ought to be undertaken on a large scale and persevered in till valuable result 
are reached. Certain it is, that the Wisconsin climate is now hard upon 
fruit trees that flourish at the South or East. It is just as certain that it 
gives some as fine fruit as can be found in the world. I have never seen 
finer specimens of apples than I have seen in Wisconsin the past season. 
They had a perfection of form and beauty of tint that I have never seen 
equalled in any other place. This means, something. It means that the 
apple-making power is here in its perfection. It will not manifest itself to 
the best advantage in the varieties most popular at the east, but there is a 
western and north-western apple somewhere rolled up in the apple species* 
It needs to be unrolled. Some little brown seed that we crush or destroy 
may have in it a germ, that, if developed, would change all the apple growing 
of the North-west. 
But if we consider the varieties we now have, questions arise which it wil^ 
take us a long time to satisfactorily answer. Prof. Agassiz remarked las^ 
year, that a scientific man could ask more questions in agricuture in ten 
minutes than all the agricultural colleges in the country could answer in a 
century. True undoubtedly. But questions must be asked before they are 
answered and we must begin to answer them by careful observation and ex. 
periment or the world will remain where it is. Two points for illustration 
now occur to me. One is the several growths of the fruit tree, respecting 
which much has been said the past year. I venture to predict that thorough 
mulching, which shall keep the ground moist through the season, will prevent 
this evil. Experiment may prove that it will make it worse. I shall not b e 
