GROWING APPLE SEEDLINGS. 221 
whose fruit hangs fast to the tree, and cross-fertilize it with one of our good 
hardy seedlings which bears large apples. 
Before I close this paper I would like to emphasize that we have to con- 
sider the roots of a tree as much as the top. A tree which drives its roots 
deep into the ground like an oak will stand the hard winter better than those 
with spreading roots. We see this on the Russian crabs, which all drive 
their roots deep into the ground. On the contrary, the Russets, which 
spread their roots, are very easily winter-killed. 
Mr. Wedge: I feel like endorsing what Mr, Yahnke has said 
in every particular. My predecessors have experimented a great 
many years with the eastern type of apple and very little has re- 
sulted from it; possibly the Wealthy may be an exception. By tak- 
ing the hardiness of the Russian varieties and combining it with 
the qualities of the American apple by cross-fertilization, it seems 
to me we cannot possibly fail to get what we want, if we simply plant 
enough seed. 
Mr. Harris: A considerable number of years ago Mr. Peter 
M. Gideon said he had gone as far towards getting the apple we 
want as he could go with the material at hand, and he said if the 
state had a station a little further south where he could mature some 
varieties and cross-fertilize them with those here, he would soon 
have the apple we were looking for. At the time I did not think 
much about it, but now I think Mr. Gideon was right, and if we 
would secure that large sized and good keeping apple that we want, 
if we could have it cross-fertilized with such varieties as they are 
raising in the south, in southwestern Iowa and Arkansas, I think 
it would solve the problem. I have no doubt there are some apples 
that could be top-worked on Mr. Gideon’s trees and live long 
enough to produce fruit in the natural way. If we can mature some 
_of those choicest large varieties that are sopopular on the market, 
the first thing we know we will have it. 
Mr. Sherman, (Iowa): I would like to know what the objection 
would be to gathering the pollen in the south and sending it here? 
Mr. Harris: Our average farmers and horticulturists have not 
the time to do that. Our experiment station might do it and get 
good results. But after all the best things we have man did not 
make. The wind and insects and the atmosphere surrounding us 
all have their share in that work, and nature has a way of doing 
things that man cannot do. When we think of the progress that 
strawberry culture has made it is almost beyond conception. Many 
of us remember when there were only a few varieties that were 
cultivated, and now they run up into the thousands. 
Mr. Burnap, (Iowa): It is nearly time when it is necessary for 
me to take the train, but before going I feel that I must thank this 
