140 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



TOP-WORKING TO SECURE WINTER APPLES. 



SETH H, KENNEY, WATERVILLE. 



The 15th of April, 1901, I top- worked about fifty trees of the 

 variety kno\yn as the Duchess of Oldenburg. They were at' that 

 date twelve years old. I placed the variety known as the jNIalinda 

 for grafts about two-thirds up towards the tops of the trees, on the 

 small ends of limbs less than one-fourth inch in diameter. We 

 never, from past trials and visits t'o other orchards, have thought this 

 apple, the Malinda, a safe investment on its own roots. I have for 

 several years believed that ironclad stock would to a certain ex- 

 tent impart hardiness to the graft, and I think I can show the good 

 union of the Duchess and Malinda and the result attained that the 

 Duchess is a safe stock to grow the ]\Ialinda apple on, and 

 that it imparts its hardiness to the Malinda. In proof, I have 

 never seen a Malinda graft that was not just as hardy as the 

 Duchess, and from my past experience I feel it would be a 

 safe investment to top-work Duchess with the Malinda and raise 

 that variety by the carload. For two years past we have tested 

 the keeping qualities, and the results have been very good, keeping 

 some specimens until the following June. 



Grafting in April, 1901, has given me five years' growth on the 

 Malinda grafts. I have fruited some Malinda apples for three 

 years. Last year, on or about the Qfh of June, a very bad blight 

 struck all the apple trees. I always believed in thinning to grow 

 large fruit, but not in this particular way. The Malinda suffered 

 more blight than the Duchess on the same trees, and I thought they 

 would not amount to much. After five years" growth the grafts were 

 from one and one-fourth to one and one-half inches in diameter 

 where grafted and by actual measurement from six and one-half t'o 

 seven feet long, and the fruit averaged large, by actual weight many 

 of the apples weighing one-half pound each. There were sixty-six 

 bushels of apples of Malinda in 1905. On account of the blight it 

 was not' so full a crop. 



From the results obtained from iSIalinda seedlings grown by 

 Mr. Perkins, of Red ^^'ing, it would seem to me that seed grown on 

 the Duchess might produce a hardier tree than the original ]\Ia- 

 linda. 



The question might be asked, "Would iSIalinda do equally well 

 on other varieties?" I have tested them on Hibernal. The first three 

 vears thev blisfhted verv badlv. On the Yellow Siberian thev were 



