PYRU8 BACCATA AS A STOCK FOR THE APPLE. 179 



Mr. A. F. Collman (Iowa) : In 1872 when I moved from 

 Illinois to Iowa I was too busy to do my own grafting, so I 

 bought a number of grafts from my neighbors, and I planted 

 them in new ground, cultivated them thoroughly, and I had a 

 pretty fair stand, and they made a good growth. That was fol- 

 lowed by one of our hard winters, and I lost every one of them. 

 The next year I did my own grafting, using a short root and a 

 long scion, and ran them down as deep as possible, and I had 

 no trouble from root-killing. I would not set up my experience 

 against that of some of the men here, but I never knew but 

 what the root of a Duchess tree was hardier and more valuable 

 than some of our common trees that are not hardy. I do not 

 quite believe it; I believe the root of the Duchess stock is better 

 than one of the Maiden Blush or common seedling. I know that 

 seedlings of apple seeds were used to propagate on that were 

 not hardy, because we could not obtain hardy seeds in sufficient 

 quantities to do a commercial business; so I know that the seed- 

 lings are more tender than our hardy stocks we should propagate 

 on. I used to think we could not get a good tree unless we had 

 a good root. You may raise a valuable horse and have all his 

 points good from his feet up, but if his feet are poor he is not 

 worth much. It is about that way with our apple trees. But if I 

 were going to raise an orchard just for my own use, regardless of 

 expense, I would plant a quantity of those hardy crab apples and 

 work my scions on them, and I think it would be much better. 

 The trouble is we cannot do that where we grow them for com- 

 mercial purposes. A man here in Minnesota cannot compete 

 with Missouri propagators who will sell you apple trees not on 

 hardy stocks. When you buy apple trees from those traveling 

 men you generally get that kind of trees, and that is why you do 

 not succeed. You are doing a fine work here, and I appreciate 

 what Prof. Hansen is doing and what Mr. Patten is doing. I 

 believe you are on the right road. I would not plant the trees 

 that men from other states wish to sell you and pretend to 

 say that they are hardy stock. Get your trees right at home 

 from stock that you know is hardy, and you will find that in the 

 end they are the cheapest trees you can buy. 



Mr. Kellogg: Forty years ago Mr. Barber, of Milwaukee, did 

 a good deal of this crab root-grafting, and in the nursery row 

 they found it dwarfed the tree a good aeal, and they went back 

 to the old system. I believe in this hybrid root, and the more 

 you can grow of them the better. I know it is difficult to get the 

 seed. I have thought the Vermont seed was better than any we 

 could get, but I do not know that it is better than the French 

 seed. I have been using it a good deal, but I really could not 

 tell which is the best. We used 75,000 trees; five years ago this 

 winter, following that drouth, everything was killed ; Pyrus bac- 

 cata and everything else was killed in our nursery. We had no 

 Pyrus baccata stock left ; I do not know that we had any stock 

 but what was entirely killed out that winter. It was dry root 

 freezing- By this system of propagation of Pyrus baccata stock 



