166 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
same Anis was grafted onto a little less stock of the Virginia crab. The 
former grew quite smoothly, while the stock over-grew the latter, and in a 
few years the top will be starved out. After nine years’ trial, in neither case 
have they been fruitful. 
Top-graifting will rarely, if ever, make a shy bearer fruitful. Fruitfulness 
is a characteristic. 
Willow Twig and large yellow crab, five to six feet in the limbs, is be- 
ing choked as in the last case. Had it been grafted in the stock at three feet 
from the ground, it would have been a splendid success. 
Borsdorf unites exceedingly well on Siberian crabs and would likely work 
high up on Virginia, but is a tardy bearer. Yellow Transparent works well 
upon Virginia, but it is still inclined to blight. Utter works well on this 
stock and is productive. Fameuse is scarcely a success on it, but does fairly 
well on Duchess. The latter is far better in the north for a stock than in 
central Iowa. Talman Sweet works well on Virginia. 
In some cases a variety has been prolific on one stock and not on an- 
other. The more blood of the American apple there is in the hybrid 
Siberian the better stock it will make, providing it is a hardy, vigorous tree. 
Russian and Siberian hybrids are generally too thorny, small and gnarly 
in wood, and Russian apples are too nearly a distinct race to be congenial to 
most of our American kinds. 
We should be looking thoughtfully and earnestly to our American seed- 
lings (hybrids) for the highest perfection in stocks. If in this article I have 
done more to invite attention to principles than I have in statements of 
demonstrated facts, I shall feel fully satisfied. 
Mr. Philips, (Wis.): Mr. Patten speaks of a variety that is not 
fruitful and that top-working will not make fruitful. My attention 
was called to that in the case of the Malinda apple. I was sent by 
the Department at Washington to investigate the Malinda apple. 
In looking over the old orchard I found some trees that had been 
planted twelve to fifteen years before, and every tree was dead, and 
ground was used for pasture, but there were four or six Malinda 
trees with sprouts growing around them that were bearing those 
apples. I found the reason it was discarded was because it was so 
long incoming into bearing. I took some scions home, and I found 
by top-grafting on the Virginia I got fruit in four years from the 
scion, and in four to six years I had a barrel of apples from the tree. 
Mr. Lord: Mr. Patten’s paper suggests the question why some 
varieties will not assimilate, or why they will not succeed top-grafted 
on others. I think Prof. MacMillan’s paper throws some light on 
that subject, that the pollen of flowers constitutes the plant, and that 
it is the growth of the pollen in the proper vehicle that produces the 
plant. I think it is understood that the bud which the scion con- 
tains is equivalent to the seed, that is, it will produce the same as 
the seed will produce. Prof. MacMillan stated that pollination was 
a different process from fecundation, that the plant might be pollen- 
ized and not fecundated, or the variety perpetuated. If that is the 
case, it shows simply that the bud in the scion being the seed is not 
connected with the proper form on the other side that we attempt 
to combine it with so that the growth may assimilate. As our presi- 
dent remarked, there is food for a good deal of thought in this con- 
