346 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



undertake such work, then who is to do it for the pnbHc at large? 

 Fruit-breeding is invention work, and if we could g.et more men like 

 Edison to turn their attention to fruit-breeding our problems would 

 be solved in a few vears. 



THE WINTER CARE OF FRUIT TREES. 



J. \'. WICHLER, OWATOXXA. 



In preparing this paper, I have not presumed to instruct you vet- 

 erans in horticulture. ^ly purpose has been to say something which 

 may peradventure encourage our people who are not growing fruit 

 for their own use to plant fruit trees, make them live and prove a 

 blessing. 



If my barber had not persuaded me before appearing here to 

 have my horns and other insignia of my craft removed you might 

 have known, without my telling you, that I am a "tree peddler." 

 In following my vocation from day to day, people are constantly 

 telling me this climate is too cold for apple trees to do well. Now, 

 I do not believe it. I think that the injury done tO' our trees results 

 from cold only in the ratio of about one in ten, and the other nine- 

 tenths may be attributed to a lack of moisture more than to the cold. 



We hear much about the dry atmosphere of Alinnesota, and 

 therein lies the cause of our troubles as w^ell as of our joys. While 

 the dry, sunny days bring out the unexcelled color and flavor for 

 which our apples are noted, they are. at the same time, trying on 

 our trees. Trees do not freeze as potatoes, for instance, do, but they 

 dry out. The sap of a tree is circulating, to some extent, both 

 summer and winter and constantly evaporating into the air. When, 

 therefore, in the winter the conditions become such that the root 

 system is no longer able to send up and replenish this lost sap. the 

 tree dries out just as it would in very dry summer weather. One 

 reason, I believe, why some varieties are so much more hardy than 

 others is that they contain in their make-up a large amount of 

 w^ater. Take a Hibernal tree that has been kept in a storage house 

 over winter, cut it in two with a knife, and it wall immediately look 

 sappy where it is cut. It is hardy because it has the ability to carry 

 a large percentage of water in its system; it does not soon dry out. 



The statement that the cold does the damage is put to me so 

 frequently that I have, so to speak, been forced to consider whether 

 or not it is correct. Isly occupation takes me each year to both the 

 extreme northern and southern limits of the state and affords me 

 an opportunity to observe the conditions of the trees and the meth- 

 ods used in handling them on almost everv dav of the vear. INIv 



