430 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The grape is indeed a beautiful fruit ; and how it makes chil- 

 dren "rally round" a plate of grapes red, white and blue, — and 

 grown people, too. Have you ever noticed a few clusters of grapes 

 added to a plate of apples ? What a grand difference it makes. If an 

 artist was to paint just one picture of fruit, I think he would prefer 

 to paint the grape ; and probably in a basket tipped over on its side ; 

 and if that picture was put in a golden frame on a fine wall, every- 

 body who saw it would say : "O, see those beautiful grapes !" 



ROOT-KILLING IN THE APPLE ORCHARD. 



O. W. MOORE, SPRING VALLBY. 



(S. Minn. Hort. Society.) 



This is a theme upon which much has been written, many theories 

 advanced, and still, under various conditions, we yet have root-killing 

 with us. We all know that the cause of this injury to the trees of 

 the fruit-grower is a climate that is not wholly adapted to his pur- 

 pose. But the question before us is, how shall we proceed to assist 

 the roots of our apple trees to withstand said climatic conditions? 

 The practice of a portion of our nurserymen of late years, to my 

 mind, has not been for the best interest of the fruit-grower as to 

 "hardy roots. Said nurserymen, instead of growing their own seed- 

 lings from apple seed selected from our most hardy varieties, send 

 to Missouri or Kansas and obtain seedlings by the thousand grown 

 in the above stated warmer climates and are surely of tender varieties 

 adapted to said localities. And then they root-graft those seedlings 

 roots on to Minnesota grown scions, using a short piece of root and 

 a long scion with the hope that the short root will simply start the 

 scion, and the latter will put forth roots, and that the grower in time 

 will have a tree upon its own roots. Now this sounds very well in 

 theory, but in practice as far as my experience goes the reverse is 

 true : and that is, that the piece of root that the scion is grafted 

 upon in most cases forms the root system of the tree. And I appre- 

 hend that it would be much better to do away entirely with all piece 

 root-grafting for the best of reasons, that it is not nature's way of 

 growing trees. 



The most natural way that nature grows trees is from seed. It 

 looks to me then to be a very plain and successful proposition for our 

 nurserymen, the amateur, the experimenter and our young people, 

 one and all, to plant apple seed. Plant Minnesota, Hibernal, Vir- 

 ginia, etc., all seed of our hardiest apples, each variety by itself in 

 small plots. Transplant to the nursery row the first season, shorten- 

 ing the tap root slightly, thereby starting a branch root system. 



