40 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Death of Mrs Clarence Wedge. — Those of our members who were 

 present at the annual meeting recall the shock of sorrow that struck the 

 assembly when our president was suddenlj- called away from the meeting on 

 Wednesday noon by the receipt of a telegram from New York announcing 

 the death of his wife. Mrs. Wedge had been in failing health for some time 

 and about a month before the meeting had gone to New York City to visit for 

 a period with some brothers in the hopes that an entire relief from home 

 cares might be of some benefit to her. She apparently improved for a short 

 time and then was taken with violent headaches, and at the time President 

 Wedge came up to the meeting her situation was known to be critical, but no 

 immediate change was expected. On the morning of Wednesday Mr. Wedge 

 had received a reassuring letter from her friends there speaking of her im- 

 provement, so that the telegram announcing her death received a few hours 

 later came as a great shock. In this irreparable loss Mr. Wedge is assured of 

 the kindest sympathy of the entire membership, with many of whom he had a 

 warm personal acquaintance. The remains of Mrs. Wedge were brought back 

 to Albert Lea, where she was buried on Sunday, December 6. 



Plant Premiums Given to Members — There are twelve different 

 plant premiums offered to our members this year. Every new member is en- 

 titled to select two out of these twelve premiums, and every old member is 

 also entitled to the same selection in case the membership is renewed prior to 

 April 1st. Attention is called especially to the Pyrus baccata seedlings, in- 

 tended for budding or grafting. These crab seedlings are grown from the 

 genuine Pyrus baccata seed that Prof. N. E. Hansen secured in his travels in 

 Siberia and Russia. We wish that every member of our society might test by 

 actual trial the value of these as hardy roots for Minnesota apple trees. Much 

 has been said about the Pyrus baccata as furnishing hardy roots for orchard 

 trees in the northwest in recent publications of this society, and considerable 

 will be said on the subject the coming year. Don't miss this opportunity to 

 make the experiment for yourself. Since writing the above the following note 

 has come to Prof. Hansen: 



"The Siberian crab seedlings I reserved for you are some I grew 

 from seed imported from Irkutsk, Siberia. This is near Lake Baikal in the 

 continental region far from the ocean. My hope is that the trees will be used 

 partly as experimental stock for budding and grafting at the collar after being 

 established one season in the nursery row; and part to be planted out for fruit- 

 ing, so that in time there will be an abundance of these small hardy Siberian 

 crab apples to furnish seed for stock. The old Cherry crab is a large fruited 

 representative of this species. 



"To tell the whole story in a nut shell: A considerable area of the prairie 

 Northwest experiences severe freezing weather with no snow on the ground, 

 la such regions apple trees suffer from root-killing, wholly or in part. It has 

 been "the worm at the root of the tree" all these years. In the course of two 

 trips to Russia, in 1894 and 1897, I learned that the Russians had successfully 

 solved the same problem on the northern limits of the apple belt by using the 

 Siberian crab as a stock, especially the pure Siberian crab, Pyrus baccata, 

 although the hybrid Siberian crab, Pyrus prunifolia, is also used. Piece-root 

 grafting in the winter is not practiced nor recommended. The grafting or 

 budding is done in Russia at the surface of the ground on seedlings already 

 established in th? nursery row. In the above mentioned region of the North- 

 west it will pay to give this Russian method a fair trial. Piece-root grafting 

 in the winter, however, is not a fair trial of the method." 



