NURSERY CULTURE OF THE APPLE. 337 



the experiment station in Wisconsin we lost two-thirds of our trees 

 by root-kilhng. 



Mr. S. D. Richardson : Was the ground bare ? 



Prof. Gofif : No, it was covered. 



Mr. Richardson : I have never known a tree to be root-killed 

 where the ground was covered. 



Prof. Goff: I have. In the vicinity of our experiment farm 

 ther,e were Duchess that had stood twenty years or more that root- 

 killed, and one died this past summer. I had native plum trees, 

 Americana plum trees, that were mulched six inches deep with marsh 

 hav, that root-killed, only one or two of them to be sure, but to me 

 it is clear that in the nursery is not the only place of danger. In 

 southern Wisconsin we are liable to have trees root-killed long after 

 they leave the nursery, and I find on reading our early horticultural 

 reports that one or two other winters are reported that have done 

 very serious damage by root-killing. It seems to me at whatever 

 stage this experimental work of Prof. Hansen's is at this time, it is 

 of supreme importance to know that we cannot depend upon our 

 common stock for an apple in southern Wisconsin, although we may 

 get along twenty years without such a wanter, and then we may have 

 a winter that will take out whole orchards. 



Mr. C. G. Patten (Iowa) : I think I can answer Prof. Hansen's 

 question, at least to my own thorough satisfaction, as to what he 

 should do and what others should do in the dry climate to the west 

 and northwest of us, as our horticulturists all know to be the con- 

 ditions in Minnesota and the Dakotas. As I said before, I think 

 I have proven on my ground that even fourth hybrids from the 

 Siberian will produce just the tree that Prof. Hansen needs and that 

 we all need, and our attention should be drawn toward the observa- 

 tion of such trees, and we should grow such trees to graft and grow 

 the seedlings of such trees. Now, I believe we can grow varieties 

 from the seeds of such trees, in the way I mentioned, that are far 

 better adapted to the purpose that Prof. Hansen desires than we can 

 get from the small Siberian, because they are so unadapted to the 

 apple that he can never tell when he has a hundred or a thousand 

 seedlings what they are going to be worth until he has experimented 

 with them, and that would involve a great loss. In my mind there 

 is no question but that we can grow from the fourth hybrids seed- 

 lings that are fully as hardy as the Siberian. 



Mr. D. F. Akin : There is one question that has not been con- 

 sidered. Now, all the experience that has been produced here has 

 assumed that the roots of the apple trees were killed by the hard 

 winters. My idea about root-killing is that it is not so much freez- 

 ing as it is the drouth that does the work, and I would like to know 

 whether any of these gentlemen have a record of the temperature 

 and the amount of rainfall at the time or previous to this root-killing. 

 It is certain if the tops of the trees die the roots will, and if the tem- 

 perature and the amount of rainfall are the same for each year in 

 our section it may be it is the temperature which does the business. 

 Several years ago we had a winter the February of which was very 

 cold, some two or three weeks below zero weather, t^e thermometer 



