STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 199 



plete. Then place it around the tree, slip the loose end of the 

 wire through the loop where it passes around the first lath inserted, 

 and fasten securely. If the tree branches too low to permit the 

 entire length of lath being used, the ends may be sawed off to the 

 proper length after the web is woven. After the first lath is in- 

 serted it is very convenient to fasten it to a spring attached to the 

 front of the bench so as to keep it well forward and the loops pro- 

 perly tightened, and at the same time to permit it to move back as 

 the length of the loop is shortened by the process of weaving. 



The Secretary. That, I believe, is the best tree protection yet 

 invented, and is worth the whole cost of this meeting. If I can get 

 a cut made in time for this report I will put it in, representing an 

 apple tree thus protected, the sun looking solemn and baffled, a rab- 

 bit near by weeping, a pocket handkerchief held to one eye, and the 

 other eye looking up for condolence to a sap-sucker on a limb, the 

 bird peering down inside the lath where he dare not venture, and 

 a mouse lying dead from fatigue in running around the tree or 

 foraging in some other direction. 



SEEDLING APPLES AGAIN". 



Mr. Emery. If any good long keeping apples are ever profita- 

 bly'^ grown in Minnesota it is my opinion they will come from our 

 own resources and not from importations, and they will never get 

 into the hands of the farmers except through the nurserymen. 

 Whenever we find a promising seedling, we propagate it, but 

 slowly at first till we can give it a thorough test. No nurseryman 

 wants to graft 3,000 to 5,000 scions of a new variety till he is thor- 

 oughly convinced of its value. I would not shorten the time of 

 the test from ten years in our liberal premium scheme for new 

 hardy keepers. 



Col. Stevens. Wyman Elliot sent over to my yard and got scions 

 of Hawkins' Chief and the Boyd apple, and grafted them into 

 Transcendents, and they are now bearing. I do not know of any 

 others of these varieties living. 



Mr. Peffer. Stocks for experimental purposes should be grown 

 from the seeds of our hardiest seedling trees. They would be likely 

 to be as hardy as the parent tree, and more so from an accumulated 

 hardiness in the growth of the parent tree transmitted to its seeds 



Mr. Emery. If seed can impart any quality to its prog^eny it 

 will be hardiness. 



