256 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



think they are good. They are a nice red, fine looking apple, and 

 the boys on the streets sell them more readily than any other 

 apple. Then another good thing about it is that you can't kill it. 

 If it kills down, it will grow up again and bear fruit. 



Mr. Seth Kenney: A great many years ago this society rec- 

 ommended the Ben Davis as ironclad. I bought three hundred 

 trees, and the winter of 1884-5 killed out every one of them. I 

 don't want any more Ben Davis in mine if I know it. 



Mr. Yahnke: My Ben Davis were killed in that winter of 

 1884-5, but the same trees that killed down that winter bear the 

 best fruit now. If those who have Ben Davis would take the ax 

 and chop them down and then let them grow up again, they would 

 find they had the best kind of trees on the place. I took the ax 

 and chopped down all of mine, and they have been bearing for 

 years and years from three to five barrels of apples. 



Mr. A. J. Philips (Wis.): Mr. Kenney was unfortunate. There 

 are some of us fellows that attend these meetings that knew so 

 much, and we did not want any more Ben Davis. The men who 

 planted Ben Davis in 1886-7-8 are the men who have made the 

 most money out of their trees; trees that bore from ten to fifteen 

 bushels each, which they sold for a dollar a bushel. We fellows 

 that knew so much about it, because we thought they would not 

 stand the winter missed it. The men who set them in 1886 to 

 1888 are the men who are making the money now. 



Mr. Wyman Elliot: I want to call your attention to what was 

 the result of that killing of 1885. We all recollect what our ex- 

 perience was with the Wealthy in that year. Mr. Dartt had over 

 two thousand Wealthys, and because they killed down that winter 

 he grubbed them out, and he admits that he lost thousands of 

 dollars by so doing. The Ben Davis are standing fairly well, and 

 so are the Wealthy, and I think the Ben Davis is nearly on a par 

 with the Wealthy in good locations. It will not stand in all loca- 

 tions; I do not think it will stand in many locations, but if I were 

 to plant an orchard on clay land on a high elevation I should put 

 in a sprinkling of Ben Davis. 



Prof. Hansen: About the Ben Davis, there is some valuable 

 experience I wish to quote here from Mr. E. D. Cowles, of Ver- 

 million, S. D. He said, in the southern edge (of South Dakota) 

 we can raise Ben Davis as a bush but not as a tree. It is success- 

 ful in the southeastern part of the state for a strip of from ten to 

 fifteen miles along the Missouri river. I think if this society rec- 

 ommends anything for the farmer on the prairie, they had better 

 not open the door for the Ben Davis in any shape or manner. 

 Better not recommend any winter variety at present; we may have 

 another 1884-5 winter by and by. 



Mr. C. H. True (Iowa): We had Ben Davis where the roots 

 were killed but the body was sound. 



Mr. O. F. Brand: I have had no courage since 1873 to plant 

 Ben Davis. I lost thirty thousand in 1873; all the orchard trees 

 killed out, root and branch. I have only seen two Ben Davis since 

 1884 that came up from the stump. 



