334 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. A. F. Collman : I would like to ask a question here for my 

 own benefit. After listening to Prof. Hansen and the rest of them 

 this morning, I want to ask the question whether the Virginia crab 

 is not the very best stock to propagate a good orchard on ? Is it not 

 the best stock that grows? 



Mr. Busse : If I were to answer that question for myself I would 

 say it is not. I always thought the Virginia was free from blight 

 altogether, but it is not. It blighted badly last summer in the sum- 

 mer season, and I tried some old varieties top-worked, some were 

 Northwestern Greening, Wealthy, etc. I do not call the Wealthy 

 hardy as far as going into the winter is concerned, but I found the 

 Virginia does not make as good a graft as the Hibernal. The last 

 thing I grafted the Martha and Hibernal and Virginia, but the Hi- 

 bernal, I think, is the best for grafting any variety. The Shields is 

 a good one, it will not blight and makes a better graft than the 

 Martha. I consider the Hibernal the best of all the varieties I have 

 tried. 



Mr. Philips : I told you the other day that Mr. Grimes gave me 

 those Virginia crabs. I have been in this top-working business for 

 thirty years. I have seen the Utter grafted on six different stocks, 

 and in all my work I have never found anything equal to that Vir- 

 ginia crab. It will blight a little. There was nothing on my place 

 two years ago that did not blight, even the Duchess and the North- 

 western Greening had blighted limbs on. I could show you vari- 

 eties that you never heard of blighting that blighted that year. I 

 use my Hibernal, as Mr. Yahnke uses his, to top-work on. If I 

 were going to set out an orchard for money, raise apples for money, 

 I would settle down and plant the Virginia every year to top-work. 

 Prof. Goff, in looking over my premises, said it was the best tree 

 to top-work an orchard on. It grows a better top than any other 

 tree. 



Prof. Hansen : I visited Mr. Philips' place, and I know he has 

 made a success with the Virginia crab as stock. I have had Vir- 

 ginia crab and Hibernal in hand for some time under our condi- 

 tions in Dakota, and I find the Virginia is somewhat subject to leaf 

 scab, and I prefer the Hibernal, as Mr. Busse has said. I rather 

 think it would be better than the Virginia as you go further west. 

 As far as Mr. Patten's statement is concerned, I think we are all 

 agreed that young trees are better than two-year-old or three-year- 

 old, but the difficulty is to make the average planter see it. Here is 

 the practical difficulty, for the average planter looks at the matter 

 from a practical standpoint ; he wants good, strong, healthy stock 

 something that the average farmer is able to see without putting on 

 his glasses. 



Mr. Collman : I wish to say another word about this Virginia 

 crab. I have been in the horticultural business for a good many 

 years, and I have experimented quite a good deal, perhaps a good 

 deal more than I ought to have done, but I have never found better 

 stock than the Virginia crab, and two or three years ago when my 

 boys went on a farm of their own I said to them, "You plant Vir- 

 ginia crabs, and whefi they get to be two years old I will top-graft 

 them, and they will live as long as you will." 



