Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa are full of seedlings of the Duchess. Some of the best are Okabena, Peerless, Patten's Greening, Milwaukee, Dudley, Pewaukee. A very large amount of Wealthy seed has been planted, especially in Minnesota. Many of these give promise, but in none do we appear to have obtained the true winter-keeping capacity. The Wealthy has given us the Lord's L, Evelyn, Lyman Sweet, Perfect and many more, observed at Minnesota state fairs from time to time. The Malinda has given us in the Perkins' seedlings a number of promising new varieties that evidently are true winter keepers. The fact that they appear hardy may come from the fact that the original orchard had hardy varieties, like the Duchess, standing near the Malinda. From the experience with these three varieties I would like to draw the conclusion that in order to get winter apples we should save the seed of winter apples, but it would not be safe to draw this conclusion without further experiments. There is an immense number of Ben Davis seedlings in Missouri and adjoining states, but none appear to have come into extensive commercial notice except the Black Ben Davis and Gano. But as near as I can learn we cannot obtain real hardiness from this line of descent, unless the Ben Davis in the mother orchard is standing near varieties like the Duchess.
The seed of standard winter apples top-grafted on hardy stocks like Hibernal should be carefully saved as nature may have smiled with indulgence upon your efforts and created the desired variety. I am watching with great interest a tree of very vigorous, smooth growth, from seed of Talman Sweet top-grafted on Duchess. You would not expect to get anything hardy from seed of the Talman Sweet, but the entire hardiness so far of the young trees propagated from the original seedling, makes me impatient to see the fruit. A blend of Talman Sweet and Duchess ought certainly to bring something good, but they will not all be hardy or all good. The fact that there are so many different lines of pedigree available to us in our apple work, makes it all the more necessary for us to divide the work.
Let us gather inspiration from the story of Johnny Apple-Seed—one of the patron saints of American horticulture—who about one hundred and twenty-five years ago forced his way through the wilderness of Indiana and Ohio and planted many bushels of apple seed as he went along, so that when settlers came they found their orchards ready for them. The story of John Chapman and his unselfish efforts in planting the seed of apples and other fruits in the American wilderness should give us courage and patience to give a little of our time to this work. Make a record of what seeds you plant, and when the seedlings are one year of age plant them out in a row where they can be cultivated. Select the best ones as they fruit and bring to the state fair or horticultural meeting. You may not win the grand prize, but you will have the satisfaction of having made some contribution to the common welfare.
In localities where cottontails are sufficiently abundant to be a continual menace, the safest and most nearly permanent method of securing immunity from their ravages is to fence against them. It has been found that woven wire netting of one and one-half inch mesh and thirty inches high will exclude rabbits, provided, that the lower border of the fence is buried five or six inches below the surface of the ground. In cases where a small number of trees are concerned, a cylinder of similar wire netting around each tree, if so fastened that it cannot be pushed up close against the tree, serves the purpose more economically.