THE MINNESOTA 



HORTICULTURIST. 



VOL. 32. MAY, 1904. No. 5. 



PYRUS BACCATA AS A STOCK FOR THE APPLE IN 

 NURSERY AND ORCHARD. 



PROF. N. E. HANSEN, BROOKINGS, S. T>. 



Judging by the many letters received on the above topic, 

 it must be one of paramount importance. There is more or less 

 root-killing of apple stocks in nursery and orchard every winter 

 in the northwestern states, but it is only in such winters as 1898- 

 9, when the severest cold came in early February with no snow 

 on the ground, that the disaster is so wide spread as to compel 

 general notice to be taken of the situation. The losses of thou- 

 sands of farmers who suffer from root-killing of unmulched apple 

 trees do not come to our ears, but when a nursery loses twenty- 

 five acres or more of young apple trees we are apt to hear about 

 it at the next horticultural meeting. Some seem to think that 

 this trouble is peculiar to the northwestern prairie states only. 

 On the contrary, the trouble has long existed in Europe, and, 

 what is more, the problem has been solved to their satisfaction. 

 The various phases of the subject can probably be better con- 

 sidered under headings : 



I. It has been definitely proven by thousands of experiments 

 that the common apple (Pyrus malus) is not sufficiently hardy 

 to endure the cold of our test winters if the ground happens to 

 be bare at the time. In ordinary winters the root-killing is par- 

 tial, so that the trees suffer severely in productiveness and gen- 

 eral health, finall)^ causing early death. Pyrus malus, our com- 

 mon .apple, is a native of the temperate parts of Europe and Asia 

 and has been under cultivation over four thousand years. The 

 form introduced into America by the early settlers is that found 

 in England, Germany, France and other countries of extreme 

 western Europe, where the climate is comparatively mild. In 

 the United States many thousands of seedlings were raised by 

 the early settlers from this race of the apple, giving rise to what 



