This remark from the report of the annual meeting of the Iowa State Horticultural Society is made the "text" for an editorial article in the March number of the Horticulturist. The article dissents entirely from this statement, and says that "if the writer thereof lives a few years, and makes fruit - growing his study, he will find that he was very far from the truth when he wrote it;" and "Iowa is not so much a distinct State in soil or temperature that she can afford to throw away the experience of New England," etc. If I am not mistaken, the author of your " text" is a friend of mine who passed the meridian of life in the noble State of New York, and with ripe experience in Eastern fruitgrowing, removed to young Iowa, and using that experience here, met with disaster; but now, after long years of extensive experiments here, having abandoned old notions, he has achieved a success that is a glory to his old age, and made the above remark guided by the light of more than a half century of observation and practice in both the East and the West. Further: the writer of this left the old Bay State fifteen years ago to make a home in young Iowa, and bore in his breast that self - sufficient, self-satisfactory feeling of superiority that nearly all Eastern people feel who do not know the West. Availing myself of the best Eastern knowledge that I could get from books or men, I ordered a huge box of trees of Baldwin, R. I. Greening, Fall Pippin, Louise Bonne de Jersey, Black Tartarian, Crawford's Early, etc.

They were transferred to my new home, and after the lapse of one Iowa winter they were all dead or hopelessly crippled.

Guided by the same light, a similar selection was ordered the next year, and a similar result followed. The third year a similar but smaller list shared a like fate. Chastened, but not discouraged, a gleam of light from a nearer but smaller luminary arrested my attention. It occurred that perhaps a totally different soil and climate might require a different selection of varieties and a different mode of treatment. Acting on this thought, I have now an orchard of 3,000 vigorous young trees, from one to twelve years, planted in perfect health, and promising to yearly increase the amount of beautiful fruit they are now producing. Among them all there are not one hundred trees of varieties that I would select in New England.

Eastern experience is of very little avail to us. It taught me that Baldwin and R. I. Greening were just the thing to plant. Western experience has taught me that they will winter-kill like a fig. Eastern experience taught me to prune in winter for wood, and in summer for fruit. Western experience has taught me not to prune in winter at all. Eastern experience taught me to train trees with open heads, to let in the sun and air. Western experience has taught me to grow trees with compact heads, to keep out the searching sun and winds of the prairies. Eastern experience taught me to manure all kinds of fruits liberally. Western experience has taught me that it will not do. In Massachusetts the soil is thin and poor; in Iowa it is rich and deep. In Massachusetts the air is moist; in Iowa it is dry. In Massachusetts the summer is cooler than in Iowa; and in Iowa the winter is much colder than in Massachusetts. In Massachusetts the Baldwin apple is the most profitable; in Iowa it winter-kills to the ground. In Massachusetts the Catawba will never fully ripen;. in hot, arid Iowa it seldom fails. Massachusetts is built on granite - Iowa on limestone.

The soil, seasons, atmosphere, flora, geology, and geography are essentially different, and of course require different treatment.

My birth, boyhood, and early manhood were spent in the dear old Bay State. My manhood's prime till I have passed the half-way post of life's allotted span has been wholly devoted to fruit-growing in young Iowa, and I beg to corroborate the statement, that Eastern experience is of very little avail to us. I should not have written these lines, but your article was so typical of the opinion that pervades the whole East, that I thought I would give you the Western view of the subject. Even the American Agriculturist - with cosmopolitan claims - advised a Minnesota correspondent to plant Baldwin, R. I. Greening, Fameuse, Roxbury, Russell, or any variety that succeeds in the same latitude East. Every one mentioned will kill but the Fameuse ; and the principle is wholly wrong, for some of our hardiest sorts are from the South.

The American Institute Farmers Club, New York, ridiculed a correspondent from the far Northwest who inquired for hardy sorts of pears. They replied, with a sneer, that all pears were hardy. They did not know what they were talking about. I will give one hundred dollars for one half dozen pear-trees of any variety of fair quality that is perfectly hardy here.

Iowa has often been condemned as a poor fruit-growing country, but it has been only by those who have tried it in the light of Eastern experience. We are slowly, but perseveringly, working out the problem of fruit-growing on the great rich prairies of the Northwest. We are already achieving success, and in due time shall bo able to show results commensurate with the fertility of our soil and the vigor of a growing young State. D. W. Adams. Wawkon, Iowa.