WJNTEK :MEETJNG, 1877. 3 



'*I am ashamed tluit 1 liiivo not responded to your invitation with a paper, 

 but time has slipped by without it. Were I in attendance at your meeting I 

 sliould try to bring out a di.-cussion on the subject of ' JMack lieart in apple 

 trees.' Gray says in his Botany, page 154 : 'The living })arts of the tree are 

 only these : first, the rootlets atone extremity ; second, the buds and leaves of the 

 season at the other ; and, third, a zone of the newest wood and the newest bark 

 connecting the rootlets and the buds and loaves, however widely separated these 

 may be, — in the largest trees from two to four hundred feet apart. And these 

 parts of the tree are renewed every year. No wonder, therefore, that trees may 

 live so long since they annually reproduce everything tliat is essential to their life 

 and growth.' Now a tree is doing well ; we have a very hard winter which at first 

 seems to have killed the tree, we lot it stand and it throws out branches which 

 grow vigorously under the good culture we give it. The next spring if we cut 

 oil the tree at the trunk we fiud a 'zone of the newest wood and newest bark' 

 ajiparently perfectly healthy, but the inside of the tree black or rotten with dry 

 rot, and our experienced nurserymen and orchardists tell us the tree is useless, 

 it is black-hearted. If we let the tree stand we shall find that the proportion- 

 ate amount of the new live wood is increased, but that this black heart grows 

 with the tree. Now it seems to me if Mr. Gray is right this black heart can be 

 of no injury to the tree (except by depriving it of so much support against wind), 

 unless it is the symptom or an attendant condition of some disease. If it is so, 

 Avhat is it? If the time is not fully occupied I should be glad to have the mat- 

 ter brought up. So far as I can observe, this black heart, whether the result of 

 a hard winter or of bad culture, is the same. 



"I send a few apples, a plate each of Baldwin, K. I. Greening, Wagoner, E. 

 Spitzenburg, Eed Canada, Talman Sweet, G. Russet, Dumelow, and Autumn 

 Strawberry. 



''The IJumelow was received by that name from Wisconsin, and is certainly a 

 very fine cooking apple, being very tart and cooking tender without losing its 

 form. Autumn Strawberry is called by that name here. These with the 

 Wagener and Baldwin, came from a neighbor, the rest from my cellar, and I 

 now am sorry that I sent them, as they hardly do us justice as compared with 

 the careful selections Ave might have made. Forty per cent of our Greenings 

 were as good as those sent, and the Red Oanadas and Spys were taken from our 

 eating apples in the cellar, so we have not moved every stone to get the best, as 

 we should do for such an occasion." 



BLACK HEARTED TREES. 



A short discussion ensued on the above topic by Prof. A\\ J. Bcal, N. Chil- 

 son, of Battle Creek; H. Dale Adams, of Galesburg ; E. H. Reynolds, of 

 Monroe ; Mr. Carpenter, of Orion ; A. G. Gulley, of South Haven ; B. G. 

 Stout, of Pontiac — pro and con in favor of cultivating and not throwing away 

 trees which are frozen when one and two years old. Mr. Stout stated that he 

 set out an orchard of 1,000 trees which were frozen the first winter, and he 

 thought that he had lost the whole, but an examination of the roots determined 

 him to try them for a year or two. They were set in 18G3, and last season he 

 picked 800 barrels of prime fruit. Mr. Carpenter stated that in his section 

 they favored eastern trees rather than western. Mr. Adams stated that during 

 a visit to Western New York, he saw as many frozen trees in the nurseries as in 

 this State. Mr. Gullev and Mr. Stout stated the same. 



