260 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Haas, one; out of six Minnesotas, one; out of 200 Ben Davis that 

 had been top-grafted on Hislop and Transcendent not one sur- 

 vived; all other kinds except a few Transcendent were killed. 



In the fall of 1885, after gathering six bushels of apples from 

 my seedling, the hogs undermined it, without my noticing it, and 

 when the spring of 1886 came I found my seedling tree dead. 

 That gave me the blues the worst kind. I had then paid out for 

 fruit trees over $1,000. I wanted to sell out and leave the state, 

 but as luck would have it no buyer came. I pondered. Then I 

 began to set out more apple trees, and have been planting some 

 every year since. 



I did not hear from Mr. Cook after he acknowledged the re- 

 ceipt of my scions. A year ago last October I called at a house 

 to renew some insurance, and the lady of the house brought in a 

 dish of apples. As soon as I got my eyes on them I felt as a per- 

 son does meeting a long lost friend. I inquired where the trees 

 came from. The answer was, "They came from the Rochester 

 Nursery"; were set out in either 1883 or 1884. The trees are now 

 twenty-two years old, are in a healthy condition, from sixteen to 

 twenty feet high, and the tops cover a space of ground from sixteen 

 to twenty feet. One of the trees, one foot above ground, meas- 

 ures thirty inches in circumference. 



Apparently Mr. Cook's successors did not know anything 



about our agreement; the trees were labeled by guess and sold. 



Six of those trees w : ere bought and set out seven miles from my 

 place. 



Last winter I cut scions from those trees, sent some to twenty- 

 seven different parties in Minnesota, Iowa, Dakota and Manitoba, 

 and top-worked them on some sixty of the smaller trees in my 

 orchard. The question arose in my mind, why did my seedling 

 and some of the Duchess and Wealthys survive the cold winter 

 of 1884 and '85? The ground, location and other conditions were 

 all the same. The difference must have been in the roots. The 

 roots of these trees were endowed with those prerequisites neces- 

 sary to endure the cold during such winters as those heretofore 

 mentioned. 



Mr. Wilfert : I promised some of my friends to show them 

 how I do my grafting. I am not a nurseryman, but I have been 

 in the orchard business since I came to Minnesota. I heard some 

 nurserymen remark that if they Had thirtyvthree per cent of their 

 grafts grow they were fortunate.' A year ago I grafted one hun- 

 dred, and I saved ninety-eight trees. I will tell you the way I do 

 it. In the fall I get some sand and put it in the cellar, and in 

 the spring when the time comes to cut the scions I cut them and 

 store them. When I put up ice in the winter I leave out a block 

 in the top layer. The blocks are twenty-two inches square, and I 



