WINTER MEETING. 421 



that, as top-grafts, are hardy and productive, that were planted in the places 

 where root-grafted trees died out twenty or more years ago. And these are 

 not isolated cases, but they are the universal experience in all this region 

 where there has been a fair opportunity for comparison. 



There is a neighbor of mine whose orchard of some 700 to 1,000 King trees 

 is now being cut down as cumbering the ground. Ask this man if he would 

 ever plant a King tree again as a root-graft; ask him if he would ever plant 

 a root-graft Baldwin, or Eed Canada as a root-graft; or, it might be as well, 

 I think, to ask him if he would plant any variety among our old and popu- 

 lar sorts, any variety less hardy than Oldenburg or the hybrid crab apples of 

 recent origin. And this neighbor had come to his understanding of this 

 subject from thirty years' experience in apple growing, and thousands of dol- 

 lars lost through wrong methods of propagation alone. 



THE REMEDY. 



While right methods of propagation of the best of the old sorts still enable 

 us to grow apples in favorable seasons, for years to come, perhaps, it is doubt- 

 ful if this will be more than palliative of the trouble in this trouble in this 

 region of the State. The real radical remedy must be looked for in the pro- 

 duction of new varieties — varieties suited to the more rigorous climatic con- 

 ditions; and the question arises, " How shall this be done?" Those who are 

 aware of what is being done and what has already been done in this direction 

 by the States of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, will readily see that our 

 remedy lies in the same line of effort — that of the production of the new 

 varieties of the crab-apple, crossed or hybridized with the most hardy old sorts. 

 Or, what is more promising, perhaps, crossing wilh the best varieties brought 

 from central Russia in recent years — from those parts of that vast empire 

 whose climate corresponds nearly to that of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the ter- 

 ritories beyond. 



The two men to whom the west will owe a debt of gratitude for the frost- 

 proof orchards of the future are Prof. J. L. Budd of the Iowa Agricultural 

 College, and Peter M. Gideon, of Minnesota. Mr. Budd, led by a desire to 

 improve the fruit production of this country, went to Eussia some years ago 

 in search of varieties of apple suited to the trying climate of the west, and 

 the great number of varieties he brought home are now being tested by lead- 

 ing fruit-men at the agricultural stations now being established in those States. 

 Mr. Gideon has been experimenting for many years with the crab-apple. He 

 has produced and tested many hundreds of trees grown from seed crossed or 

 hybridized with the best of the old and Russian sorts; and though he has not 

 solved the problem of apples for Minnesota, his labors show a possibility of 

 growing this fruit under almost arctic conditions. 



EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



"While individual enterprise can do much, and has done much, toward solv- 

 ing the many problems both in regard to fruitgrowing and general farming, 

 we need the intelligent concert of action of many minds and many hands in 

 order to carry forward at the same time a great number and variety of experi- 

 ments — work that can be done much better by these stations than by indi- 

 vidual effort. Do you say ** We have the Agricultural College"? True, and 



