302 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. G. A. Anderson : I have planted several thousands of these 

 trees, and they are all about the same. 



The President : How long have you had them planted ? 



Mr. Anderson : Three years, and some of them were four years 

 old when planted. They are making" a very fine growth. 



Mr. Husser : If you were to take the stock of the wild crab 

 apple as it grows in the woods and graft upon it a scion of a tender 

 variety of apple and let it grow in the nursery two or three years, 

 or until the union was completed, and then transplant that tree into 

 the orchard, if the scion had a well started root would it make 

 any difference in the growth of the tree even if the crab apple roots 

 should stay back? 



The President : I think Mr. Elliot can answer that question. 



Mr. Elliot I cannot answer it because I have not had ex- 

 perience, but I wish some one who has had experience would answer 

 it. 



Mr. W. J. Moyle (Wis.) : In that case the scion would throw 

 out roots, and the wild crab root amounts to nothing. As soon as 

 the scion throws out roots for itself, the crab apple root immediately 

 dies ofif. Now, in regard to these crab apple roots. I had occasion 

 to buy trees from a Minnesota nursery, I think it was the Minne- 

 sota crab, and those trees have thrown out roots just like that, and 

 the indications were they were roots from the scion. However, they 

 all had roots similar to these. They were the most awkward things 

 to pack I ever saw. That is the characteristic of the crab apple. 



Mr. Philips : I asked the question what the soil was in which 

 these trees grow for the reason that we have in northern Wis- 

 consin, on what we call the Peninsula, the ideal fruit land of the 

 state. It was originally covered with pine and maple timber, the 

 limestone comes in some places to within two feet of the surface, 

 and in those places you will find that the young trees are damp at 

 all times during the summer. Now, the root of the tree that 



grows on that ground is a root just like this, with some strong 

 leaders and a great many fibrous roots. When I planted the trial 

 orchard at Wausau I obtained trees from dififerent nurseries in the 

 state, and among the trees which I planted were some which came 

 from this same nursery, but when we took that tree from the soil 

 where it originally grew so well and put it in a different soil it 

 did not do so well as trees taken from the same soil into which 

 they were again planted. They grew more slowly ; their root system 

 did not seejTi to catch on to that heavy soil, but it would do very 

 well in a lighter soil. I would like to ask the young man who said 

 he had planted several hundred of these trees whether they were 

 planted in similar soil to that in which they originally grew. 



Mr. G. A. Anderson : They are only about eight miles apart. 



Mr. Philips: No limestone in the soil? 



Mr. Anderson : I don't think so. 



