60 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



Mr. Philips (Wisconsin): Who did the crossing- of that King 

 of i'ompkins County .'' 



Mr. Yahnke : i hat is more than I can tell. The tree was on my 

 place. 



Mr. Oliver Gibbs : Does it taste like the I'earmain ? 



Mr. Yahnke : Yes, it tastes like the Pearmain. 



Mr. Philips : That is the apple you swear will bring twenty 

 cents a bushel more than the Wealthy and comes into bearing about 

 the time the Wealthy quits. (Laughter.) 



Mr. Yahnke : It bears very heavily ; I picked fifteen bushels 

 this year. Mr. Howard and Mr. Lord have seen the tree in bearing. 



Mr. J. R. Cummins : How old is the tree ? 



Mr. Yahnke : The original tree is about twenty-five years old, 

 and the sprout is sixteen years old. 



Mr. Cummins: How old was it when it began to bear? 



Mr. Yahnke : The original I do not remember, but the others 

 bore seven years after grafting. 



Mr. O. M. Lord : I have seen the tree spoken of by Mr. Yahnke. 

 According to my idea it is apparently a healthy apple tree. The 

 trees grow on the side of a slope in a peculiar soil, and whether they 

 are adapted to general culture remains to be seen. It requires some- 

 what diflferent treatment in the production of the apple on the open 

 prairie from what it does along the river or the side of the blufif. 

 This shows us very clearly something of what nature is doing to 

 aid in the production of the apple. We all know that plant life is 

 adapted to certain soils in our climate, and if they are not adapted 

 to that soil it will dwarf the production. The probability is that the 

 best apple belt is about the middle of the temperate zone, but in the 

 production of apples we find that nature will take care of^iierself, 

 producing from the seed dififerent varieties that are adapted or will 

 adapt themselves more or less to the climatic conditions. A few 

 years ago we heard a great deal about acclimating fruit to this coun- 

 try. I remember hearing a great many people say we could not 

 raise apples in Minnesota. They were mostly from New York and 

 Ohio, where apples were plentiful, but they did not take into con- 

 sideration the methods adopted by nature to produce its kind, to 

 perpetuate the species — that is the primary object of plant life, to 

 perpetuate the species. We find this principle implanted in the seeds 

 of plants, that will adapt themselves more or less to the conditions 

 surrounding them — and by other principle:; we are enabled to carry 

 the production of fruits further north than nature itself would ac- 

 complish.. That idea of acclimating fruit I personally hardly take 

 much stock in, from the fact that a good many vears ago I pro- 

 cured some apples from Georgia, the Shockley. They were, how- 

 ever, recommended in the south as being a very fine winter apple, 

 and, although small, that Shockley at my place is fully as hardy as 

 the Wealthy, and fully as productive and resembles very much the 

 old Connecticut Seek-no-further. So we do not always know 

 whether an apple is adapted to the climate until it is tried, and my 

 personal opinion is that it depends more upon the character of the 

 tree than it does upon any other condition that we can Ijring aliout. 



