256 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



thousand seedlings. I have not yet sent it out but may offer a few 

 for spring planting. Some of my other seedlings of the thousands 

 coming on may be better. It is good enough to eat as it is, and it 

 has proven hardy without any protection. After you reduce a 

 plantation from thousands down to one plant you will know some- 

 thing of the effort needed. 



Mr. Elliot : I want to confirm what Prof. Hansen has said. I 

 visited Brookings this fall and spent a day with him in -looking over 

 his experimental work. He pointed to this row of raspberries, the 

 Sunbeam, to which he referred, and he made this statement: 

 "This is a row of raspberries I am undecided what to do with, 

 whether to send them out or carry them along for further exper- 

 iment." I have not seen in our cultivated varieties any finer show 

 of canes than I did there. They were magnificent. I think Prof. 

 Hansen is working along the right lines and doing more in this 

 way than any other man I know of in the United States with the 

 possible exception of Luther Burbank. (Applause.) 



Mr. Underwood : I think probably Mr. Elliot would have stat- 

 ed the case better if he had said that he is doing more than any man 

 for Minnnesota and the Northwest. 



Mr, Elliot: I will accept that suggestion. 



Mr. Underwood : Mr. Burbank is not working for Minne- 

 sota, he is doing very little for our benefit, he does not understand 

 our conditions, but Prof. Hansen does, and he is a man to whom 

 we may look for help. He has not told us what winter-killing is, 

 and he has not told us what being hardy is, and that was the ques- 

 tion under discussion. He says we must have something that is 

 hardy. What is hardiness? What is winter-killing? When you 

 tell me what that is and define it, and tell me what the principles 

 are of winter-killing, then I will tell you how to go to work to over- 

 come it. Prof. Hansen is going to breed hardiness in the plant. 

 I* do not object to that, and I hope the time will come when he will 

 breed apples and strawberries and raspberries that will be so hardy 

 that there will be no winter-killing, so they will be adapted to the 

 conditions they are in. That is hardiness. A plant is adapted to 

 South America because it is adapted to the conditions of South 

 America, but it might' not be hardy in Minnesota or Dakota, because 

 it is not adapted to the conditions there. What are the condi- 

 tions, and how can we meet them? So far as I am able to under- 

 stand it. after following up the matter for forty years very thor- 

 oughly, I cannot see anything yet that you gentlemen have done or 

 said that convinces me or can convince me — although I am open 

 to conviction — that it is not caused by a lack of moisture. If you 

 have got anything else bring it out. I want to know what it is. All 

 that you ever say of a plant is that it is hardy or it is not hardy, 

 and if it is not hardy you say the plant is injured or destroyed by 

 winter-killing, but you do not tell what it is ; you do not say what 

 hardiness is or what made the plant tender. If it is not hardy it 

 must be tender. How is it tender? What is the cause underlying 

 the condition of being tender? If it is not lack of moisture of the 

 root or top or both, then what is it? I think when you get down 

 to the bottom of the thing you will find it is a lack of moisture, and 



