STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 101 



Sow hardy grape seed and seed of all other hardy, edible fruits, of flowering shrubs and plants to keep 

 improving our assortment of cultivation. 



In the present depressed condition of western horticulture wlioever brings into bearing an ironclad 

 ftrnit seedling is so far a public benefactor. 



Mr. Dart firmly believed in the arguments advanced by Mr. Phoenix, 

 particularly that we should grow seedlings from hardy apples. 



Mr. Jordan said that though it Avas a long and tedious plan, it must 

 win, and the coming apple was a seedling from hardy parentage. 



Mr. Pearce said it would take generation after generation before we 

 could produce an apple of desirable quality that would be perfectly 

 hardy in Minnesota. 



In his trials of seedlings, in order to facilitate the work, he buds 

 from seedlings into bearing trees and is thus able to produce fruit in 

 two years from seed. 



Mr. Dart said if we take seeds from all sorts of fruit indiscriminately, 

 that it will be many generations before we arrive at satisfactory re, 

 suits, but if we plant seed from such good hardy fruit as the Duchess 

 and Wealthy, the desired result will be reached much sooner. 



If a thousand seedlings grown from seed promiscuously, not ten would 

 be alive in ten years. He had planted a large lot of crab seed and 

 grafted the seedlings, and found only one in twenty sound. 



Mr. Harris said that he believed if all Avould practice the planting 

 of seed from hardy fruit, we would get our apple in time. 



The Russian apples were advanced by generations after generations 

 of seedlings from China to Moscow, but it took five hundred years to 

 do it. Soil and climate has much effect on seeds and seedlings, and 

 the tree that would endure sixty degrees below zero at Moscow, might 

 be killed by forty degrees below zero in Minnesota. 



Mr. Gibbs said there was no use in groping in the dark, there are 

 authorities on these matters. Certain varieties will transmit their 

 qualities through seed to tree; they have the ear marks of bud 

 and leaf by which the}' can be distinguished. 



He cited to the Iowa report of 1879, article by Prof. Budd, and com- 

 mended the experiments at the Iowa experimental fruit farm as worthy 

 of careful study. 



PtEVISION OF THE FRUIT LIST. 



Mr. Dart moved that the Wealthy be recommended for general cul- 

 tivation, in favorable localities in the State. Mr. Stevens moved to 

 strike out the word favorable. 



Mr. Dart said that the Wealthy was hardy in some localities, lie 

 lost one-half of his during the Christmas freeze of 18S0, and half the 

 balance were now looking sick. 



