liXPERIMENT WORK AT COLLEGEVILLE. 443 



wish I could induce others of our society to get some of that 

 pear seed and try it. I imported the seed from Mr. Fr. Lucas, 

 Reuthngen, Wurtemberg, Germany. Mr. Fr. Lucas has a 

 pomological institute and has about 900 varieties of pears alone 

 in cultivation. So if there is any variety of pear in the world 

 that would produce a hardy seed and tree for Minnesota it ought 

 to be found among the 900 varieties. The seed is very cheap, 

 one kilo of seed with postage will cost only about seventy-five 

 cents, enough seed to start from 3,000 to 5,000 seedlings. 



It seems to me that farmers and planters of fruit trees in 

 general make a grave mistake not to order their stock for 

 planting to be delivered in fall. There is more time all round 

 for the nurseryman as well as for the farmer. Stock well heeled 

 in comes out of the winter quarters full of sap and vigor, ready 

 to start into active growth at once. It is my experience for the 

 last fifteen years that such trees will make a growth from six 

 inches to three feet for the first season, when the trees are well 

 pruned at the time of planting. The necessary root pruning should 

 be done in fall and not in spring. Compare such a growth with 

 the growth of the newly set trees the farmers generally get the 

 first season, think of the consequent success in the one and the 

 frequent failures in the other case, and the great advantage of 

 fall delivery is evident. Hence it should be much more prac- 

 ticed by the nurseryman and his customers than it is done at 

 present. 



The prevailing conditions and the varied efitects of our se- 

 vere winters produced on fruit trees have modified my views of 

 the same considerably. It seems to be a fact, at least in my 

 mind, that not the cold and the cold alone is responsible for the 

 killing of our fruit trees, but rather the dryness — the dryness 

 in connection with the cold. And this killing effect of the dr\' 

 cold is intensified greatly by the Avinter's blasts and blinding 

 storms. As the evaporation is by far greater in a strong cur- 

 rent of air in summer, so, too, is the evaporation increased by 

 the winter's storms. The ground is frozen to a great depth, 

 the roots cannot get the required amount of water lost by evap- 

 oration, and the poor tree is simply pumped dry of all the mois- 

 ture. Although a hardy tree that would under normal condi- 

 tions easily endure the cold of our climate, it cannot success- 

 fully combat the deadly effects of the drying cold. This I con- 

 sider the reason why fruit trees, although coming from as cold 

 or a colder climate than our own — for instance, from Russia or 



