286 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I believe there are more apple trees injured, and I might say 

 killed, by pruning, slashing and bruising trees in the wrong time of 

 the year than by all other causes. Who does not know that an apple 

 tree cut or bruised any time from May to September will bleed and 

 turn black and that insects gather around and suck up all of that 

 elixir of tree life, that nature intended for wood growth or fruit. 

 Many of those unwise cuts made at the wrong time of the year 

 give the death blow to many young and thriving trees, because in 

 many instances the wood turns black, which extends to the heart 

 and the tree is doomed. 



The time to commence to trim trees is in September when the sap 

 begins to recede to the roots and on until January while the wood is 

 ripening up. Then the wood at the wound is dried and seasoned and 

 new bark grows over in a healthy condition. 



WINTER OR ROOT-KILLING. ■ 



I contend that cold weather never killed an apple tree if the 

 conditions were right. The conditions are mainly right when the 

 wood of the tree is thoroughly ripened after a season's growth and 

 the surplus sap has receded into the roots for their benefit. 



The nature of an apple tree is to remain dormant nearly six 

 months in the year, and if it can be kept so seven months all the 

 better, we will have the less loss by freezing and more fruit. If 

 apple trees grow and all do well in as high a latitude as 65 north, 

 why should they freeze to death in Minnesota when it lies 20 degrees 

 farther south. The great damage is done to our trees in March and 

 April by thawing and freezing. The hot rays of a March sun that 

 we get here in Minnesota penetrate to the roots nearest the sur- 

 face where trees are not mulched and start the sap to flowing up- 

 ward, and buds often swell, and when a sudden freeze comes the sap 

 in the limbs is frozen, which later in the spring turn black, often ex- 

 tending to the roots. That is your so-called "root-killing." 



PROPAGATION BY PLANTING APPLE SEEDS. 



I am inclined to think that the best way for Minnesota to make 

 the greatest and surest advancement in producing apples in quantity, 

 and quality as well as long keeping is by propagation from the seed. 

 Let every farmer be encouraged to sow apple seed profusely in ad- 

 dition to setting a few two or three year old trees from root-grafted 

 nurseries. Let the state experimental farm furnish that seed and 

 send it to every farmer that asks for it, with directions for plant- 

 ing, grafting, etc. In this way each farmer may produce a new 

 and a valuable variety — but provide that no nurseryman shall secure 

 a patent right on it. 



