338 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



grafts top-killed by freezing back, but this seldom happens if they 

 are properly cared for before the ground freezes. 



The way we renew top-killed trees in the orchard is as follows : 

 If the tree is not badly damaged by freezing back, blight or other 

 causes, we cut it back to sound wood ; however, if badly damaged 

 from any cause, we dig it up and plant in its place one that in our 

 opinion is a good tree. We do not believe in trying to save a dying 

 tree by top-grafting. This method seems to me like the girl marry- 

 ing an inebriate to save him from a drunkard's grave and then dis- 

 posing of him with the butcher knife or something of that sort. She 

 eventually has to replace him with a sound man or do without. 

 When we top-work a tree, we take a good sound tree to work on. 



In the nursery, where a tree is top-killed it is liable to be root- 

 killed, and we dig it up and put it on the brush pile ; if it is not 

 root-killed, we cut it back to the ground. 



We have been very favored in our locality by not having much 

 blight, with the exception of the summer of 1905, and also have 

 lost very few trees by too cold weather. 



I do not want to convey the idea that a blighted tree cannot be 

 saved by cutting out the blighted wood, but I do think that where 

 a tree blights badly and keeps it up that the best way to renew 

 the tree is to dig it up and plant a good one in its place. 



In conclusion, I would say that in ninety-nine times out of one 

 hundred, dig up and burn up your top-killed trees. 



Mr. Geo. A. Kellogg (Wis.) : I would like to ask whether in 

 replacing an old tree he sets the new tree in the same hole. 



Mr. St. John : Yes, I set the tree in the same hole. 



Mr. A. J. Philips (Wis.) : Would you dig up an old tree and 

 set a young one in the same place ? 



Mr. St. John : Why, yes, but where I live the trees are young, 

 and I have scarcely lost a tree. I have not averaged one in fifteen 

 years, but they are not old enough to tell what success I may have. 



Mr. Philips: Well, you won't have much success. You want 

 to move away from the old place from five to eight feet. 



The President: Can't you fertilize the soil? 



Mr. Philips: Yes, but you can get another place easier. 

 (Laughter.) 



Mr. St. John : Then you don't helieve in the doctrine that you 

 can put a tree in the place of an old tree. 



Mr. Philips : Yes, you can, but you have to renew the soil. It 

 takes an element out of the soil that manure does not put back. 



Mr. St. John: By properly fertilizing can you not put the ele- 

 ments back again? 



Mr. Philips: If you knew what they were, but I don't know 

 all that. 



Mr. Kellogg: O, just put in a wagon load of new soil. 



