RELATION OF EARLY MATURITY TO HARDINESS IN TREES. 23 I 



one hand, and early maturing of the wood, hardiness, on the other. 

 The tree that ripens its wood /ery early and is on that account hardy, 

 is very apt also to ripen iis fruit fairly early and is therefore a sum- 

 mer or fall apple. TriiC, this correlation I have mentioned, this 

 connection between early ripening of fruit and early maturing of 

 wood is not absolute. If it were, there would be little hope of get- 

 ting what you are striving for. We know of summer apples that 

 ripen their wood late and that are therefore tender, and we may ex- 

 pect that some time we shall have the other combination — a tree that 

 ripens its fruit late and its wood early. Unless we do get the com- 

 bination, unless we can break the correlation between early maturing 

 of wood and early ripening of fruit, we will not have the much de- 

 sired l^te-ripening, late-keeping apple that is ironclad in hardiness. 



Mr. A. B. Lyman : I would like to make one point in discussing 

 this subject. A party asked me the other day if the same apple tree, 

 the Duchess, one propagated in Texas and the other in Minnesota 

 would be the same. I stated there would be a difference in the root, 

 and my idea is that many of our Minnesota nurserymen are attempt- 

 ing to grow seedlings not adapted to our Minnesota conditions. 



Prof. Waldron : Have you ever made the experiment of using 

 potash to hasten the maturity of trees ? They use it in Michigan for 

 their peach trees. Once in five or six years they are injured by the 

 winter, and we thought by using plenty of potash it would hasten 

 the maturity of the trees so they would become more hardy. 



Prof. Emerson : I thought I could get more hardiness and tried 

 potash, but did not get any results. I applied potash to some peach 

 trees and nitrate to others, but I saw no difference whatever. The 

 land was so rich where these trees were that they grew too rapidly 

 in the fall, and I think that is the trouble, anyway. I did not see 

 any difference from the use of potash. I used potash in some cases, 

 and nitrogen in others, three or four times, and I could not see that 

 it made any dift'erence. 



Mr. A. J. Philips : We have been talking about children, and 

 Mr. Wedge asked me to tell a little story which he heard me tell. 

 A mother put her little boy to bed, and after a while, ''Ma, bring 

 me up some water." The mother said "No, you had some water 

 before you went to bed. Now don't ask again." 



In five minutes she again heard, "Ma, bring me up some water." 

 Mother said, "If you call for water again, I will come up and spank 

 you." It was quiet for a few moments, and then she again heard 

 him call, "Ma, when you come up to spank me, will you bring me 

 some water?" 



