334 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



they grew more vigorously than anything on the c6mmon seedling 

 roots, but at three or four years old they began to show failure in 

 vigor. The vigorous roots succumbed, and on many trees the root 

 was dwarfed to a single stem. I tried it for two years, grafting at 

 least 70,000 crabs ; perhaps not quite as many as that — but the re- 

 sult of my experiment was an utter failure. There were a few trees, 

 of course, that did better than others, but the result, as a whole, as 

 I stated, was a failure. 



Mr. Harris : As I remember, the Wealthy did better than any 

 other variety worked in that way. 



Mr. Patten : The Wealthy and the Saxton did the best. Now. 

 I believe if we would go a step farther and use the seeds of such 

 hybrids as the ^Minnesota, Briar Sweet and the Whitney No. 20, 

 that are really hardy and represent 75 per cent of the apple, we 

 would make a forward step. There is no cjuestion in my mind, be- 

 cause I have demonstrated the fact by planting Briar Sweet and 

 Whitney No. 20, and they have produced seedlings fully equal in 

 hardiness to the first cross of the Siberian with the apple and with- 

 out their defects. I think herein lies the road to improvement of our 

 stocks with the apple. 



The President : Do you think anything of advantage can come 

 from this double grafting? 



Mr. Patten : No, sir ; I do not believe that any advantage is 

 derived from double grafting with the true Siberian stocks, but there 

 might come some advantage by selecting these best seedlings and 

 grafting them six inches or a foot above the ground, giving to the 

 root a more even balance with the top. There is a great deal in 

 that. In my experiments with top-grafting the crab my attention 

 was first called to it on Mr. Tuttle's ground, where he had the Wal- 

 bridge grafted scarcely two feet from the ground on those Siberian 

 crabs, and in my own experience later on in grafting on the stem of 

 the Siberian I found if a variety would not succeed when grafted on 

 two feet or three feet of the stem it would not succeed if grafted 

 in the limbs of the trees, and they would nearly all finally blow off. 



Mr. J. S. Harris : I would suggest for the benefit of the nur- 

 serymen who want a crab seed that there is nothing better than the 

 Dartt's Hybrid, and they bear a striking resemblance to the original, 

 and I believe they would make a good seed for the nurserymen to 

 use for stocks. 



Prof. N. E. Hansen (S. D.) : In Bulletin 65 of the South Da- 

 kota Experiment Statfon, on root-killing, I introduced two points 

 but they are both in the experimental stage as yet. I must insist that 

 from all my experience and from what I have been able to learn, not- 

 withstanding the experience of Mr. Patten and Mr. Watrous, I must 

 insist that that piece root-grafting will not do for several reasons. 

 Now, if you bud on the ground so that -evers'thing is below the 

 ground, you are going to get a smaller tree, but I think it would be 

 a better tree than you could get by piece root-grafting. I got hold 

 of the German experience since I published the bulletin, which is, 

 that the tree will be intermediate in size between the ordinar\- dwarf 

 tree and the ordinary tree, hence it may be preferred for severe situ- 



