386 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



vironment. If they did not our existing- flora would not be as 

 it is. It would not be advisable to plant seedlings of a tender 

 variety — but the general law of adapation must govern, and we 

 cannot get around that point. 



Prof. Hansen : I admit a change takes place. The box 

 elder has adapted itself to climate varying as widely as Virginia. 

 Arkansas, Minnesota and Assiniboia, but is there any use for us 

 to attempt to do the same thing in the case of the apple or any other 

 fruit? We should take advantage of nature's work and not start on 

 an experiment that will take ten thousand years to finish. That 

 is why our reliable seedsmen are careful about their tree seeds. 

 I was talking- with one of the foresters at the forestry congress. 

 It was a new idea to him. He did not think the species extending 

 over a wide area differed so greatly in hardiness. He had not 

 come in contact with forty below zero. We had better secure 

 hardiness to begin with in our fruit trees. 



Mr. Philips : How much more will the Duchess stand than 

 the Malinda? 



Prof. Hansen : I had a Malinda top-worked on Whitney kill 

 clear back to the graft in the winter of 1898-99, when Duchess 

 was uninjured. 



Mr. O. F. Brand : I want to ask Prof. Hansen whether seeds 

 taken from certain varieties, say the Duchess — and supposing the 

 Duchess of Oldenburg had been propagated for seven successive 

 generations in a temperature that would not fall below thirty de- 

 grees — and then take seeds from another class of Duchess that 

 have been propagated for seven successive generations where the 

 temperature has gone below forty degrees, would there be any dif- 

 ference in the hardiness of those seedlings? 



Prof. Hansen : I think there would not be any decided change. 

 The Duchess may be two hundred years old from seed, but it is 

 the same now as it always has been, unless a case of bud variation 

 occurs. We had that question up two years ago, with the Wealthy. 

 Mr. Gideon's son insisted that the Wealthy had varied under 

 propagation and brought the society sprouts from the original 

 Wealthy tree to test the matter. But practically apples do not vary 

 under propagation, the difference does not usually amount to 

 anything. It is just so with the Ben Davis ; it is the same as it 

 was in the beginning. There are no changes ; it is simply a sub- 

 division of the same individual by budding and grafting. I am 

 strongly of the opinion that the Duchess individual is tJie same 

 now that it always has been. An apple must be born again, as the 

 mnister says, if you want a real change. If fruit trees varied 

 greatly from the bud it would be very uphill business for the 

 nurserymen ; it would be necessary to breed apples true to seed 

 the same as corn. And that would be slow work, because a 

 generation in the apple is about ten years, while in the case of 

 corn one year only is required. 



