ROOT-KILLING OF NURSERY STOCK. 467 



about our ironclad apples, forgetting that, like the Merrimac in Re- 

 bellion days, our armor plates reached only to the ground line. The 

 little Yankee Monitor, at an opportune moment, was able to slip in 

 a lucky shot through the unprotected planking of the Merrimac, 

 and thus to decide the fate of Rebellion and of slavery. Jack Frost 

 has acted the part of the Monitor the past winter, and, as the result, 

 many of our nurseries have suffered the fate of the Merrimac. The 

 moral is clear enough, however difficult it may be to carry out, and 

 it throws a vast responsibility upon our experiment stations. 



The roots of the crab apple are hardier than those of the common 

 apple. Had apple stocks generally been grown on crab seedlings 

 instead of common apple seedlings, the damage from root-killing 

 would probably have been greatly reduced. Would not seedlings 

 grown from various kinds of crabs, like the Virginia, be preferable 

 for root or crown grafting to those of the common apple? The seeds 

 could not, of course, be obtained so cheaply at the present time, but 

 the crabs are very prolific, and nurserymen could easily grow their 

 own seed. By growing the Virginia crab from seed, in isolated 

 groups, it would in a few generations, at most, come near enough 

 true from seed for all purposes of grafting. If it can be shown that 

 trees thus grown are better able to endure winters like the past, the 

 demand for the trees would doubtless soon create a supply of the 

 seed. In like manner, we should experiment with the sand cherry 

 and the wild red cherry as stocks for the cherrj^, and we should con- 

 fine the plum to Americana stocks. 



2. It is dangerous to leave the ground of the nursery bare during 

 winter. Several correspondents have stated that nurseries and 

 young orchards that had been allowed to grow up to weeds last au- 

 tumn suffered less from root-killing than those that were cultivated. 

 This means that the nurserj' should have a cover crop during winter, 

 and this, in turn, encourages damage from mice. We can easily 

 secure the cover ciop by sowing oats about the middle of August, 

 and the mice could probably be prevented by sowing corn soaked 

 in a solution of strychnine, at the commencement of winter. 



3. AIJ means should be used to cause snow to remain upon the 

 ground of the nursery during winter. If half of the snow that ac- 

 tually fell up to February the past winter, in southern Wisconsin, 

 could have been retained, it would probably have been enough to 

 save our nurseries. Planting fruit stock on north slopes that are 

 traversed east and west by frequent evergreen windbreaks would go 

 far toward accomplishing this end. A cover crop on the ground 

 would still further encourage the snow to remain 



4. The superior hardiness of the raspberry as compared with the 

 blackberry has been strikingly brought out in a multitude of cases. 

 Many have reported almost total destruction of the blackberry, 

 while the raspberry was comparatively little injured. The Loudon 

 raspberry among reds and the Older among blacks have estab- 

 lished their claims for remarkable hardiness, and if we might 

 judge from the past winter only, there would seem little necessity 

 for giving these varieties protection in the northwest. Indeed the 

 importance of protection for the rubus fruits has suffered a serious 



