Siberian Crab for Nursery and Orchard. 137 



prunifolia type are far more common in cultivation owing to larger 

 size of fruit. It is a question whether there has been any real gain in 

 many cases in hybridizing these two species, as the pure Pyrus baccata 

 appears freer from blight than some of the hybrids that have originated 

 accidentally under cultivation. 



In Russia the method pursued is to plant one year seedlings of 

 Siberian crabs in nursery row in the spring and bud them the following 

 August or crown-graft the succeeding spring. A tree of this kind with 

 a two-year top is equal to any ordinary three-year root-grafted tree 

 and of very smooth, strong growth. The ultimate effect on the tree in 

 the orchard of the baccata stock was to dwarf the tree slightly, bu\. 

 to make it bear at least two years earlier. 



In the prairie northwest nurserymen have long deluded themselves 

 and their customers with the idea of using a long scion on a short 

 root, so that the tree would ultimately get on its own roots. This will 

 do very well far enough south, but there is a considerable area of the 

 northwest where all the scion-roots o€ the hardiest varieties winter- 

 kill at times. If nurserymen desire to send into this section trees that 

 will live, they must wholly reform their present method of propaga- 

 tion. 



Some say we should raise our nursery seedlings from hardy apple 

 varieties, such as Duchess and Wealthy. This would do for a time, as 

 we go northward, but I learned by experience at Brookings in the 

 winter of 1898-9 that no seedlings of the common apple, even Hibernal, 

 Wealthy, Duchess and many more, are sufficiently hardy. The Russians 

 long ago learned to discard all the varieties of the Pyrus malus species 

 for hardy stocks. 



Some say, plant a cover crop to protect the roots over winter. 

 Very well for some localities, but for a considerable area of the north- 

 west the trees need every ounce of moisture that falls. Furthermore, 

 the season is often too dry, and the cover crop seeds fail to germi- 

 nate. 



If we were always sure of sufficient snowfall it would solve the 

 problem, as snow is the best mulch in the world. This explains why 

 root-killing is not a factor of consequence in the North Atlantic states 

 or other moist regions with abundant snowfall. 



Can a nurseryman afford to raise trees of this kind? No, he 

 cannot sell trees on this stock in competition with the ordinary root- 

 grafted trees. It would make apple trees cost as much as budded 

 plum or cherry trees. In the end it may be necessary, however, to find 



