172 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



keep three years; but I would not say they are a third cheaper, 

 because it costs more to graft them. They will not branch out 

 for a year, and the expense of grafting is so materially larger 

 that we would not feel as though we had a cheaper tree by graft- 

 ing it in that way. 



Mr. Elliot:' Then you would infer that the increase would 

 not be over one-third? 



Mr. Underwood : The average ought not to be if the shrink- 

 age is not too large. The general difference between the apple 

 and the plum is that nurserymen can set out an acre of plums 

 and calculate to get a stand of from 85 to 90 per cent, while you 

 cannot depend upon that amount from the apple, because it is 

 more susceptible to drouth, protracted drouth in summer and 

 extreme conditions in winter. 



Prof. Hansen : This apple top may be a little tender in 

 winter? 



Mr. Underwood : Yes, unless the variety is extra hardy. 



Prof. Hansen : The grafting on anything else than on Si- 

 berian roots would be useless. A budded apple tree on French 

 crab or Vermont seedling in New York lasts part of one winter. 

 If you bud or graft on the plum in European fashion it must be 

 on some extra hardy root, and you will not find anything to 

 equal the Siberian crabs. Those Irkutsk crab seedlings I would 

 like to scatter out in small qtvantities. I cannot experiment on a 

 large scale with this as can the nurserymen. I cannot do the 

 whole thing, and I would like you nurserymen to take up the 

 matter, at least in a small way, and I am glad you are doing so. 

 You must understand, however, that you must . be cautious. 

 You know the old method" is worthless for the north, so the new 

 method can be no worse than the method used commonly in the 

 severer sections of Russia. In the south, where they raise apri- 

 cots and French pears, anything will do. 



Mr. S. D. Richardson : I would like to ask Prof. Hansen a 

 couple of questions. I would like to know what effect a hard 

 winter would have on the very heavy top that grows on nursery 

 trees in the summer? Would it ripen up sufinciently so it would 

 stand our hard winters? And how would those trees transplant? 

 A nurseryman knows that in a root-pruned tree, if we trans- 

 plant it, we must cut the tap-root and let it throw out side roots. 

 If you want to transplant a seedling walnut you can cut the tap 

 root with a spade and let it stand a year, and it will transplant 

 readily,' but you cannot transplant it well the same season. 



Prof. Hansen: In case of the black walnut some nursery- 

 men now run through with a tree digger the first year from seed. 

 The German and French nurserymen transplant apple seedlings 

 much as we would tomato plants from hot bed and cut off the 

 tap root. Our way is the cheaper way, simply dig the seedlings 

 in the fall of the first year, take a bunch and chop tops back on a 

 block, then take a jack knife and prune them off at the root and 

 set them out. Some of the seedlings will be already branched 

 out, and these side roots can be cut back at the time of tran.s- 



