404 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



is kept in circulation. By applying a small amount of extra electric 

 energy to our tender fruit trees the sap is kept in circulation and the 

 life of the tree is preserved. 



In January we make root-grafts, pack them in the cellar, and 

 when about the first of May we take them out we find they are 

 healed and have grown together. When the splice was made, circu- 

 lation between the two pieces was established ; electricity had not 

 forgotten them but did its work. 



On the 30th day of November, 1901, I top-grafted four limbs 

 of a Duchess tree; one of them grew. On the 15th of February 

 I put on two more grafts and both of them grew ; circulation had 

 been established, circulation of the sap kept the scion from dying out,, 

 otherwise they would have been as dry as a twig of a crow's nest. 

 In the fall of 1890 I wrapped up some rose bushes. I concluded to 

 deprive one of them of its thorns to see whether it would live without 

 them. When spring came this bush was dead. I had some buck- 

 thorn bushes. The next fall I carefully removed their thorns, and 

 when spring came my bushes were dead. Thirty-five below zero 

 was more than they could endure without their thorns. I was then 

 confident that my investigation would lead me to success. I found 

 that forty-five below zero would kill hawthorn bushes that had 

 been deprived of their thorns. Imagination is the motive power 

 which leads men to think out possibilities and find practical solutions. 

 Our hardy apple trees are quite thorny when young ; the native plum 

 trees are thorny to a certain age ; then their thorns dry up and the 

 fruit begins to be smaller, and in a few years the tree is past its use- 

 fulness. 



In the spring of 1896 I set out nine pear trees, and nine apple 

 tree, three Delaware Red, three Ben Davis and three Northwestern 

 Greenings. On two of the pear trees, and on one of each kind of 

 the apple trees, I put a substitute for thorns. All of them wintered, 

 and when the next cold winter of 1898-9 came all trees that had the 

 remedy for winter-killing applied came through the winter without 

 being injured. The other seven pear trees were dead to the ground. 

 The Ben Davis tree that had the remedy applied was uninjured, 

 while the other two had the growth of 1898 killed. The uninjured 

 one bore fruit for three years while the other two have not blossomed 

 yet. 



In the spring of 1898 I set out twelve Jonathan trees, two Winter 

 Bananas, and two Arkansas Black. On eleven of the Jonathan 

 trees, and on one of each of the other kinds I applied the remedy. 

 The next spring all of the trees so treated were uninjured, while 

 the other three trees were dead. 



