114 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



hybrids with few seeds. One of the best hybrids I have ever seen 

 was taken from where the earHer seedling crabs originated in this 

 state, down at Hesper, and that had only three or four or, possibly, 

 five seeds. A cross between the Soulard and the common apple 

 had but from one to three seeds, rarely five. I have examined many 

 specimens. The finest barrel of Yellow Bellflower I ever saw grown 

 on Browm Lake Prairie, in Wisconsin, from which I got the seeds 

 and planted them, had from fifteen to seventeen seeds to the apple, 

 and, of course, we could not say that that apple went back to the 

 typical form. It is not the number of seeds an apple contains that 

 makes it better or worse, for that barrel was of as fine a quality as 

 I ever ate and contained as fine specimens as I ever saw. 



Mr. Radebaugh : This is one of my pet theories of active fertili- 

 zation, and I will give you my experience, and others may notice 

 it hereafter, that people who have bees in their orchards usuallv 

 make a success of raising a crop of fruit every year. Mr. Howard, 

 who has his apples on exhibition, I noticed had six plates on which he 

 took first premium right along since he started in in that condition. 

 He has a lot of bees on the south side of his orchard, and I have 

 noticed in different places in the state where they have bees they 

 have good fruit, and my theory is that the little bees help to fertilize 

 those apples, and the result is that the pollen is more evenly dis- 

 tributed, and as they are fertilized they have more seed. I think 

 an apple well supplied with seeds is a strong apple and is more cap- 

 able of sustaining itself and will hold on to the tree better because 

 it is simply more highly developed. I have taken an apple — and 

 you can do the same — and where it was defective on one side I have 

 cut it crosswise, and I have discovered where I think the defect is. 

 On that side there were less seeds, and that was because the apple 

 was poorly developed on that side. 



Mr. Barnes (Wis.) : Just one word more. I see you are all 

 interested in working out the seedling problem. I wish. Mr. Chair- 

 man, you or any one else in this audience would make it a point to 

 visit our section. T believe we possess more valuable seedling apples 

 than any other section, and most of them are chance seedlings and 

 not planted with the idea of raising good apple trees. I think I can 

 offer you some encouragement in this matter. I discovered one 

 seedling tree in the edge of a patch of timber that bore apples this 

 past season, some of which had no seeds whatever, and I am en- 

 deavoring to keep them for our meeting at Madison. It is a large 

 fall apple. The largest apples had no seeds, but the smaller apples 

 contained some seeds. 



The Chairman : Waupaca can make a very nice showing of 

 apples. 



Mr. Barnes : If any one would like to make a trial with that 

 apple I will send them scions. I do not own the tree, but I con- 

 trol the scions. 



Mr. Mitchell (Iowa) : Perhaps mv observations may be of a 

 little value. I had the opportunity'to collect all the seed from five to 

 fifteen bushels of Russian apples for planting. T cut and dug the 

 seed out of about ten bushels. I did not find the largest number 

 mentioned here, but T found as high as fifteen in one apple. I found 



