38 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



disappointments had been many and great, and at times he had 

 felt like giving up the struggle, but those engaged in this good 

 work should not be discouraged. One may discover or originate 

 a variety that is hardy, or by experiment may find out one or two 

 varieties of standards and crabs that will unite readily and will 

 give us a hardier stock ; others will carry on the work and add 

 to the list, and ultimate success will be attained, and then pos- 

 terity will applaud the labors which now seem well nigh fruitless. 

 Mr. Plumb thought that none of us had yet finished our educa- 

 tion, our schooling in fruit raising. We are still learning by our 

 own experience and that of others, and also contributing to the 

 knowledge and benefit of those who are to come after us. We often 

 hear it stated that our trees are not injured by root killing. If 

 this is true, we do not need hardier roots. A hardy root cannot give 

 hardness to a top that is not in itself hardy ; for, while the root col- 

 lects the sap, for the nourishment of the top, the leaves and the cells 

 of the top elaborate the sap and govern the development of the top, 

 giving it the form and structure of the original stock ; but the de- 

 scending sap passes from the top into the root, and gradually gives 

 to the new cellular growth a form and qualities like those of the 

 top in which the sap was elaborated. So that if we start with the 

 crab root, we shall in time have the top standing on its own roots, 

 the old roots gradually dying out ; or on roots from which the 

 original properties and characteristics have been eliminated. What 

 we want is both hardy roots and hardy tops. But it is a fallacy 

 to say that from a crab root we can get a hardy top. To secure 

 the needed hardiness we must select hardy varieties, give them 

 the culture and set them where everything will tend to produce 

 a hardy development by securing a steady, uniform and mature 

 growth. The fact that our best orchards are on high hills and 

 ridges, with northern exposures, corroborates thi?\ We have an 

 example near at hand, in the orchard of friend Philips, where 

 on the top of a bluff one hundred and fifty feet high he raises 

 apples that we cannot raise in Southern Wisconsin. In regard to 

 affinity, it makes no difference in the result whether we bud or 

 graft, as the two processes are one in theory and effect. If the 

 affinity does not exist, the union will not be perfect in one case 

 more than in the other. 



