62 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



with a mound of earth two feet high and five or six feet across, and 

 the trees were in splendid condition and bearing large crops of 

 very fine fruit. Those not protected showed some injury from 

 root-killing. Would it not be a good plan to so protect our seed- 

 ling roots until we have trees on roots that will need no protection? 

 I visited many of the apple orchards in the east and found many 

 of the old orchards failing. Some have been cut down, and many 

 that are left do not pay for the land they occupy. Very few young 

 trees have been planted in the last twenty-five years. I also noticed 

 that the orchards which were properly cultivated produced fine, 

 large apples and were paying the owners well, but the neglected 

 orchards gave very little good fruit, mostly a lot of inferior, un- 

 salable stuff that was a loss to the grower. 



Blight. I noticed several years ago that Transcendent crab on 

 its own roots never showed any blight, but all Transcendents on 

 seedling roots blighted very bad, and I had to grub them out. I 

 never have had a trace of blight on any Transcendent on its own 

 roots, although blight has been very bad all over this section on the 

 Transcendents. I think the blight is caused by uncongenial stock. 

 We have several thousand seedlings of Pyrus baccata and the 

 hybrids, which we are using for stocks for the large apples. We 

 shall make a thorough test with them in many different ways to de- 

 termine their adaptability as stock. Our work with them so far is 

 very satisfactory. I am also trying the wild crab as stock , and the 

 results are better than I expected. This crab grows wild here and 

 seems better than those farther south, the fruit being larger. 



We have added twenty-five new varieties of apples to our or- 

 chard the past year, mostly to try their hardiness and some to 

 produce pollen to cross for new seedlings. 



Most of the apple trees ripened their wood early and went into 

 winter with plenty of moisture in the soil. 



There is no doubt we will make many mistakes in carrying for- 

 ward this work, but we are determined to keep everlastingly at it 

 with the expectation of finding something that will be of value to 

 us up in this cold north; we realize that we will have to work this 

 problem out ourselves. 



Prof. N. E. Hansen, South Dakota, sent us fifty pknts Prunus 

 Besseyi for trial. Prof. S. B. Green sent fifty P. baccata, fifty 

 Acer ginnala, besides apple scions for our experimental work. 

 Quite a large number of new specimens are to be added to our 

 collection this year. 



Plums again bore heavily this season; the Cheney, Rockford 

 and Wyant bore an immense load on the young trees. Ocheeda 



