342 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTUBAL SOCIETY. 



has given the subject of hardiness his most careful consideration, as 

 without hardiness of tree no success can be attained in the produc- 

 tion of fruit. 



It has been the poHcy of our society to foster and encourage 

 the planting of apple seed in the hope of producing something better. 

 So far as we have been able to observe, the seed of the Duchess and 

 the Wealthy have produced the best results, though we have enter- 

 tained hopes of good results from crossing or hybridizing. The 

 Waupaca seedlings, of Wisconsin notoriety, are largely from 

 Duchess seed. The orchard of Mr. Lyman, of this state, in fruit 

 from Wealthy seed, compares favorably with the best in the state. 

 We ought to follow in this line and discard useless varieties. The 

 prayer of some of the fruit men is for another test winter, to- rid us 

 of weaklings. The medicine is hard for the nurseries to take, but 

 if they are sick it will do them good. Prof. Taylor says no apple 

 trees for general cultivation ought to be recommended without a trial 

 of 25 years. This statement will not apply to our conditions. Many 

 of us cannot afford to wait so long, and an experience of nearly 50 

 years has shown that varieties that in the eastern states have been 

 cultivated and been highly successful much longer than that, are of 

 no use to us here, and our only hope for the future is in the selec- 

 tion of seeds of the most promising fruit and persistently following 

 in that line of work. And if the winters will not do it, discard as 

 fast as possible all inferior and worthless trash. 



Mr. Lord: Some one said to me once, "You never joke," and 

 this society has never seen me cry. It is too late for me to begin, 

 and when the secretary askea me to write a paper and utter a warn- 

 ing cry I told him the society would not believe it anyway, they 

 would not believe I could cry. 



Mr. S. D. Richardson : lam glad Mr. Lord has read that paper, 

 because we are too apt to forget what has taken place in the past in 

 the shape of severe winters. My first experience in Minnesota was 

 with three feet of snow with about three-fourths of an inch of ice 

 on top of it. We had lived along through lots of open winters, and 

 then in 1881, as a good many here will recollect, we got four feet 

 of snow — and I have seen it go down below 40 degrees in mild 

 winters. That 40 degrees has got to come again, and it will take 

 some of our trees. We have got to keep at it, and when our trees 

 are killed we must go at it again and plant some more. If a farmer 

 tries to raise a crop of corn, and it gets caught by the frost he does 

 not stop planting corn, but the next year he goes ahead and plants 

 some more. If they had done the same thing with apple trees after 

 the winter of 1885, we might have had trees that are profitable. A 

 farmer who raises grain does not act that way. If he loses a crop 

 of wheat one year he plants another crop the next year, and I don't 

 know any other way for us horticulturists to do if we get bit once 



