MISSION OF TRIAL ORCHARDS. 409 
appearance that they came from several different nurseries. | Now tne mis- 
sion of no trial orchard can reach such a man. In his five hundred trees he 
has not a single Wealthy. 
ADVERSITIES OF THE PAST WINTER. 
F. W. KIMBALL, AUSTIN. 
(Read at last annual meeting of So. Minn. Hort. Society.) 
I am asked to write of the adversities of last winter, a theme that for in- 
spiration depends a good deal upon the location in which you lived and 
the varieties of trees that had been planted; many in Minnesota claiming 
little or no loss, while to the south of us in parts of central lowa the destruc- 
tion was almost complete. As near as I can learn this loss is almost, if not 
entirely, due to root-killing. On my own place, those I lost were undoubted- 
ly from that cause, though why one row killed almost entire and another of 
‘same varieties, eighteen feet distant, escaped entirely unharmed, has caused 
with me a good deal of speculation, which has not rendered much satisfaction. 
Could I see a good and sure cause for the one and not for the other I should 
feel that in the knowledge gained I had been at least partly recompensed. 
Where the destruction was most complete there was almost an entire ab 
sence of snow, while, as a rule, the heavy snow of this region saved most 
of our trees. What this winter, in this region, devoid of snow up to the 
present time, may have done is problematical, but I opine that in such sec- 
tions as have been bare of snow, those trees that were at all impaired last 
season will probably pass in their checks this coming spring. 
Now what shall we do to save us in the future in our new plantings? I 
thave all along contended that a hardy root was just as necessary as a hardy 
stock. I am now prepared to say that a hardy root is nine-tenths of the value 
of the tree. How can we get it? I had builded on this principle by using 
a hardy stock to top-work on; hoping to get it on its own roots and thus get 
a hardy foundation as well as a hardy top; but the trial winter came too 
quick for me, and those I lost were mostly Wealthy or Hibernal, though a 
few of other kinds, and while the Hibernal had thrown out roots from its - 
own stock, they had not got sufficiently large to sustain the tree. Now what 
remedy? I would propose that our nurserymen gather their own seed, make 
their apples into cider, thence into vinegar and save their seed for roots for 
root-grafting, and then the short root and long cion would place us a long 
step in the advance toward a tree hardy in root and top. While all roots 
from such seed might not be hardy, I am fain to believe that a large part 
of them would have a strong tendency to hardiness and would aid matetial- 
ly in resisting our hard winters under hard conditions. I believe that the 
patrons could better afford to pay one dollar a piece for such trees than to 
plant the others as a free gift. Just one word about setting of the same. Dig 
a large deep hole, let it be five or six feet across. Set your tree at least one 
foot deeper than in the nursery but do not fill the hole nearer than six inches 
of the top, thus covering your roots six inches deeper than originally and 
leaving this hole to catch and retain all the water that falls about the tree. 
In conclusion, let me request that no one allow last or this winter to dis- 
<ourage him but keep setting, and in the end all that so persevere will come 
out victorious. 
