new fruits should be received with caution, and planted sparingly; that years of trial upon a variety of soils and in different localities, are absolutely necessary to prove the adaptation of any fruit to our climate; and that money invested in tender fruit is worse than

thrown away.

The winter of 1872-73, was a repetition of that of 1855-56, its effects being very similar. The experience we gained then should not be lost upon us now. Then as now, some fancied that trees standing in grass land suffered less than those in the cultivated ground, and accordingly left their trees in grass until they nearly ruined their orchards. No one can grow fruit with profit from trees long in sod; the quantity will be diminished and the quality inferior. They will do better when the atmosphere is charged with abundant moisture, but then the practice long continued, will prove disastrous. It is far better to lose occasionally a tree from over cultivation than make scrubs of them, thereby lessening the quantity and injuring the quality of the fruit. Trees like humans had better die than live ingloriously and without benefit to the world.

From an examination of the condition of the orchards after the hard winter of 1872-73, through a territory extending from Lake Michigan into northern Iowa, I found as I went west the injury increased; varieties that passed the winter uninjured near the lake were badly injured in the interior, and those slightly injured in the interior of our state were badly injured or destroyed in northern Iowa. This would seem to indicate that the greater humidity of the atmosphere near the lake serves to counteract, in a measure, the injurious effects of severe freezing. It is certain that varieties of fruit can be grown near the lake, that cannot be raised in the interior, and that too, where there is no essential difference in the degree of cold.

A very large proportion of the trees killed during the cold winter of 1872-73, were killed in the root, from being planted too shallow, or not being properly protected by mulching. I am aware that shallow planting is generally recommended, but is not this one of the practices better adapted to the east, where there is little depth of soil, than in the deep, dry soil of the west? It is a fact that trees naturally root deeper here than at the east. Nature in this provides against the severe cold of winter and the drouths of summer. Let us follow her teachings. I would not recommend planting

trees as you would set a post, but set them sufficiently deep to give a good earth protection against the frosts of winter and drouths of

summer.

There is nothing now grown upon our farms that pays better, properly cared for, than the growing of fruit. Every good, healthy and productive tree, well into bearing, will yield as much net profit as an acre of good land, and fifty such trees can be grown upon an acre. There is a vast difference in the productiveness and consequent profit of different varieties. I have some trees in my orchard that have occupied the ground for twenty years, and have never produced a bushel of fruit, the trees still in good, thrifty condition; others standing near them have given me more than a hundred dollars worth, each. We want trees that are hardy and productive, and those that produce fruit of good quality. For trees of this kind no tree-planter will be in danger of paying too much; while those that prove tender and unproductive will be found dear at any price.

In our anxiety to encourage and extend the cultivation of fruits, let us not forget the flowers. Our broad prairies and beautiful groves were gorgeous with wild flowers before they became the abode of the white man. These have been crushed out by the tread of civilized feet; let us supply their place by cultivated ones in variety and profusion. The care and cultivation of flowers is woman's appropriate work. Are there any who forego the pleasure of their cultivation for fear of soiling their delicate fingers by contact with the soil? Those soft, white hands are far too expensive a luxury when obtained and preserved at the sacrifice of physical strength, health and rational enjoyment. Is there a young man, with soft hands and softer head, who fancies that manual labor is degrading, and that he is too delicately constituted for good, honest toil, let him go, select some spot on this broad earth, plant it with fruits and flowers, and trees, for ornament and shade, make a home, a very Eden in loveliness, and he will not have lived in vain.

HORTICULTURAL PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS.

BY J. C. PLUMB, MILTON.

Having passed the thirtieth anniversary of my initiation into the practical labors of the nursery, I have thought it well to retrospect the past, look over the present condition, and give my impression of the future of the horticulture of the northwest. Reviews of practical life may not always be pleasant, but they are useful and have an important bearing upon the present and future. We measure the present by the past, and from both views form our expectations of the future.

In the spring of 1844, I assisted an elder brother in removing and selling some four-year-old-trees from his first nursery on the old homestead near Lake Mills, Jefferson county, and the following summer spent may pleasant hours in learning the art of trimming and budding, as then generally practiced. The next spring I was given the entire charge of a block of several thousand young trees, and a one-half interest in them, conditioned upon my caring for the whole during the ordinary spare hours and days of a farmer boy's life. This kind and thoughtful act of my respected father was the means of creating an interest in practical horticulture, which has never abated or grown weary, and every year since has added to this care and interest in practical tree-growing. Those first trees grown and sold in Jefferson county are many of them flourishing now, and can be pointed out in various places in the county.

The advent and progress of fruit-growing in that county, from that day to this, has its checkered history, with its share of discouragements in destruction of trees and fruit, but through the persevering efforts of its local nurserymen, and its hopeful, enterprising farmers, it is probably the banner county in the state in this enterprise, in favorable seasons producing largely beyond its own consumption. Tree-planting is on the increase yearly, and planters are yearly growing more careful in the selection of varieties adapted to its wants. The first nursery planting in that county of which

any record remains, was in 1840, by C. M. Plumb, of seeds and young trees from Massachusetts. This was continued by myself after 1845, until 1860. In 1854 the Atwoods engaged somewhat in the business, also Geo. Hyde and L. Fargo, all of Lake Mills. Then J. C. Brayton of Aztalan, Adam Grimm and James Barr, of Jefferson, and Reynolds and Flynn, of Watertown, and lately, Mr. Whalen, of the same place, who, with our friend Steinfort, of Lake Mills, are the only professional tree-growers of that county at the present time. At no time since 1850 has there been less than two to six competing nurseries in that county. The earliest nurseries were stocked from New England, New York and Ohio. The later ones largely from Illinois and Indiana.

During the brief period of Mr. Brayton's nursery enterprise in this locality, he probably put on trial more new varieties from the south than were ever before introduced into the state; the final success or failure of which have come largely within the range of my observation in later years.

The result of this home interest and local competition, has been manifest in important ways.

1. A long series of experiments and trial of varieties.

2. The exclusion of foreign tree-agents to a remarkable degree. 3. The moderate and even low prices at which the farmers have been supplied with trees.

4. The general knowledge of and faith in fruit culture; and

5. A large area of orcharding. Few very large orchards, but almost all the early made farms are well supplied with fruit, with thousands of young orchards coming on all over that vicinity.

I have thus instanced one county in its pomological history, to show what might have been accomplished, or yet may be, by all of the counties lying south of Green Bay, by the persevering, intelligent efforts of even a few professional and non-professional fruitgrowers.

The early history of fruit growing in our state has a very bright side to it, as well as a dark one. The first fifteen years before 1856 was almost without a shadow. We grew seedling peaches in profusion, and even the quince and apricot were thought to be within our limit. Greenings, Baldwins and Fall Pippins were brought to fruiting, and their large size and fine color put New England to shame in comparison. Luscious Gages and Golden Drops loaded our

plum trees, and our currants and gooseberries weighed down with their welcome "first fruits." But alas, the borer and mildew has almost driven the latter from our gardens. The little Turk, the curculio, came this way; the canker worm and codling moth followed in its wake. The winter shocks and summer drouths exhausted vitality and thinned out our fruit plantations and nurseries. We had to cut down our fruit list to a small moiety of its old volume, and four out of five of the local nursery enterprises of the state were abandoned or have "changed base," from alluvial bottoms to our driest high lands, We have come to realize that quality must stand second in our estimate of values and quantity of fruit, and quality and adaptation of tree are of the first importance as a measure of success. So in the pursuit of the highest values we have developed a race of apples, which, with the few gleaned from other sources, give us a supply of seasonable varieties for nearly the entire state. In the progress of this new development the little Siberian of old has grown to a competing size with the Fameuse and Jonathan, and in flavor and long keeping, with our best old favorites, and where others fail, these hybrids prove their adaptation to all the reasonable demands of the state.

A review of the progress of the professional nursery-interest of the state during these thirty years, would afford many an instructive lesson, could it be written from the testimony of the actors in the scene; but some of those early in the field have found other homes and occupations, and some have passed "beyond the river," and the best record we have of all these is their "fruit." We can give at best only a brief mention of the earlier nursery efforts of this state, and this is doubtless imperfect for want of any published record of them; but from the data in hand we give the following:

1840-50.-C. M. Plumb, at Lake Mills, removed. 1842-50.-F. K. Phoenix, at Delavan, removed.

1844-60.-J. C. Plumb, at Lake Mills, removed.

1844-48.-Beecher & Bryant, Milwaukee, gone.

1846–56.—Charles Gifford, Milwaukee, deceased; Converse & Parker, Milwaukee, gone.

1846-60.-Mr. Bell, Spring Prairie, gone.

1848.-Stickney & Loveland, Milwaukee, removed; now Stickney & Baumbach, Wauwatosa.

1848-61.-Colby & Willey, Janesville, removed.