APPLE STOCKS IN THE NORTHERN NURSERY. 245 



incidentally selling the seed to northern nurserymen. Good New 

 York seed brings from $7.00 to $10.00 per bushel, and native Min- 

 nesota seed would bring a good deal more. The necessary mill, 

 press, etc., are inexpensive, and with a little practice we have found 

 from our own experience that first class cider and vinegar may be 

 made from such varieties. 



I might mention another besetting difficulty that is experienced 

 by the northern grower, which is the oft recurring trouble in pro- 

 ducing roots in one season that will match up in size with the scions. 

 A rainy season like the past, which with us makes a heavy growth 

 of branches on the older trees from which scions are cut, has the 

 opposite effect on the small seedlings. About the best way we have 

 found for meeting this problem is to grow three or four times as 

 many seedlings as it is expected to use, and also by keeping a vigi- 

 lant eye on the grafting to see that the largest stocks are saved for 

 the largest wood. Eastern growers regard this as a needless ex- 

 pense, and that is pne of the many items that makes the northern 

 grown tree cost more and, as we insist, worth more. 



To sum up the few real points that have been made in this paper 

 I would call attention to the following : 



First. The ''best" stock for apple grafting in the north has not 

 yet been agreed upon by orchardists or nurserymen. 



Second. We do not condemn a variety which winter-kills below 

 the ground unless we are certain that it was grafted on a hardy root. 



Third. The ideal stock for the Minnesota nurserymen is one that 

 is vigorous as well as hardy, some especially hardy kinds being prone 

 to show a slow and cautious growth. 



Fourth. A tree grown from a short^root piece graft throws out 

 many side roots above the union, and the true effect and value of 

 the stock used is not as easily discernible as with trees crown-grafted 

 on whole roots. 



Fifth. While some of our horticultural experts maintain that 

 stocks grown from eastern seed are just as good as those from seed 

 grown here, both the variety and the manner of grafting have an 

 important bearing on the strength of the assertion, since a very hardy 

 variety when piece-grafted produces many roots of its own which 

 are by nature hardy while the same would not be true of a less vigor- 

 ous sort. 



Thinning Apples— Where apples set heavily, and particularly in com- 

 mercial orchards, it pays to thin to such an extent as to insure good size. The 

 cost of thinning a well-loaded apple tree should not exceed 50 cents, and the 

 returns for this work are much more than that. The work should begin with- 

 in three or four weak? after the fruit sets. The color of thinned fruit is much 

 better than than that of unthinned. 



