HOW TO PRODUCE THAT $1,000 PREMIDM APPLE. 467 
pense with it in regions where the severest freezing is apt to come when 
there is no snow on the ground, which is often the case in the Dakotas and 
most of western Minnesota. In Russia the Russians themselves have been 
forced to go entirely outside of their own apples to find a stock proof against 
root-killing, and have found it in the pure Siberian crab (Pyrus baccata). 
In cultivation this is represented in Minnesota and other parts of the north- 
west by the old Yellow Siberian, Red Siberian and Cherry crabs. The de- 
ciduous calyx distinguishes it from the hybrid crabs, such as Transcendent, 
which have a persistent calyx. Small one-year seedlings passed safely 
through the winter of 1898-99 at Brookings. Last year a few were budded 
to several standard apples and have made a strong growth this summer. 
There is no dwarfing effect in the nursery. I am glad to know that some ot 
our progressive Minnesota nurserymen are testing this method of propaga- 
tion, and we will soon know its value for American conditions. My present 
opinion is that piece-root grafting will soon have to be abandoned over a 
large part of the northwest. A writer in the Wisconsin Horticulturist speaks. 
of losing apple-root grafts four years in succession froin root-killing. Then 
what about the planters who plant trees in regions where the severest cold of 
the winter often comes when there is no snow on the ground? It would bea 
blessing in disguise if root-killing winters would come oftener. 
So let us not put our apple seedlings to too severe a test and expect 
them to have a hardy top as well as a hardy root. Mulch. 
The coming apple for the northwest, so earnestly sought for by all, will 
probably have in its make-up the blood of both American and Russian ap- 
ples and, probably, the Siberian crabs. The further north we go, the more 
the Russian blood will be in the ascendancy. At the extreme northern” 
limits, say in parts of the Canadian Northwest, the Siberian blood will neces- 
sarily prevail. For a large part of the northern Mississippi valley, which 
some began to whisper is not a winter apple climate, it may be necessary to 
include the native crab, as that is most certainly a winter apple. By the term 
“American apple” is, of course, meant seedlings raised in America from va- 
rieties originally brought over from the milder climate of western Europe by 
the early settlers. Before that time the Indians had tasted no other apple 
than the native crab. Some think that it would have been a good thing had 
it proven impossible to import the cultivated apple, which has been culti- 
vated from prehistoric times in Europe and Asia, because then the native ap- 
ples of this continent would have received attention and have ere this given 
rise to varieties suitable for cultivation. However, their natural range is far 
short of the possible limit of the Russian and Siberian types, so that a con- 
siderable part of the prairie northwest in that case would have been with- 
out apples of any kind. De Candolle in his noted work on “The Origin of 
Cultivated Plants” states that the northern limits of wild species ‘have not 
changed within historic times, although the seeds are carried frequently and 
continually to the north of each limit. Periods of more than four or five 
thousand years, or changements of form and duration, are needed apparent- 
ly to produce a modification in a plant which will allow it to support a great- 
er degree of cold.” 
We all have had illustration of this in planting southern seeds of trees 
alongside of seeds of the same species from northern sources. Northern 
red cedars are perfectly hardy; those from Tennessee, for instance, winter- 
kill badly. Hence, we should strive to use the hardiest known type of the 
