342 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY . 



an apple that I sent out as the largest hybrid, as large as the 

 \\'ealthy. I had plenty of Duchess trees at that early time, and I 

 wanted to increase this variety, so I budded a large number of 

 Duchess trees just above the collar with that apple. It did very 

 finely, indeed, for four or five years, then those trees one after an- 

 other began to die, as has been remarked here before about the 

 Siberian dying. I could not tell the cause, but they simply failed 

 and died, and nearly all of them passed out. So I think we have 

 top-worked enough to know that we do not know a thing about the 

 Siberian until we have proven it. I have sent to the experiment 

 station for trial a few scions of the Briar Sweet that I have full con- 

 fidence will meet the demands of a more rigorous climate than we 

 have here. 



Air. Frank Yahnke : How old are your oldest trees top-grafted, 

 of any kind ? 



Air. Patten : I have some that have been grafted twenty years. 



Air. Yahnke : Are they doing well ? 



Air. Patten : Some are, and some are not. 



Air. T. E. Cashman : Is it not a fact that where you have 

 orchard trees and your nursery goes into winter quarters protected 

 by a heavy mulching of snow that the trees come through without 

 any danger? That is the experience I have had, although limited, 

 that where the young trees or the orchard are well covered with 

 snow or mulch no damage comes to the roots. Two years ago I had 

 a large setting of grafts on Siberian roots. I had no buckwheat 

 protection or any kind of cover. In January came a thaw of four 

 inches, and immediately after that thaw I examined the trees, and I 

 found even,- root in this ground where it had thawed had been 

 killed, while below the thaw the roots were all right, and at certain 

 corners where there happened to be a good covering of snow the 

 trees came through uninjured. Last winter the trees were pro- 

 tected with buckwheat, and we had this same thaw, and then it froze 

 up and the thermometer went down to 20 degrees below zero, and 

 while at our place it did not get quite as warm as it did further south 

 we had more snow. I found where the snow staid on the ground I 

 did not lose any trees, but where the snow thawed ofif I lost the 

 trees. I also found this past summer that where the orchard trees 

 were thoroughly mulched the trees came through in good shape and 

 showed no signs of injury. While these gentlemen who are running 

 the experiment stations are experimenting with these Siberian crabs, 

 the pyrus baccata, how can we bring our trees through the severe 

 winters? In dry falls I mulch neavily about this time of the year, 

 and if necessary put a wagon load of manure around the tree, and 

 although I may have to take it away in the spring, I believe we can 

 protect our apple tree roots by giving them a sufficient covering to 

 prevent thawing and freezing. 



