158 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



able way, makinaf them one homog'eneous compound that no man 

 living could separate by any known science sufficiently to form any 

 definite idea as to their origin or make up. While we can most 

 easily dispense with any and all of our native seedlings, we can illy 

 afford to give up a few of our iron-clad Russians, which we now 

 have made to be our most obedient to distribute our choice varieties 

 over the northwest. If our new seedlings so inuch boomed and sold 

 at extravagent prices are only a trifle more than half-hardy, who 

 can show us a base froin which we can work with any assurance of 

 success in the near future? If there is a person present, now is an 

 opportune moment to take the floor and give us light. For my part, 

 the more I investigate the less confidence I have in reaching success 

 in the near future by seedling production. If we ever reach per- 

 fection in hardiness with our native apples and suit them to the 

 northwest, it will come through three distinct lines of work: first, 

 by judicious crossing; second, by the moat intent cultivation; 

 third, by the long and tedious route of growing seed, first along 

 the north line of successful apple growing, and by planting each 

 successive generation a few miles farther north. But why continue 

 this long and tedious work when we have presented you a plan to 

 reach success by fifty years sooner than the one now persisted in 

 by our seedling friends? Our plan can be reached in three years' 

 and so direct and plain that every child may follow it successfully. 

 These choice, tender varieties we have here on exhibition should be 

 prima facie evidence, grown as they have been so near you and on 

 sites that grade no higher than No. 3 (on a scale froin one to seven). 

 Bearing in mind every one of these varieties by their sides went 

 out in '85 on their own stems, while those top-worked bore both 

 before and since and are as sound today as the Duchess are stand- 

 ing by their sides, set at the same time and cared for by the same 

 hands. 



[At the recent meeting of the South Minnesota Horticultural 

 Society, at Albert Lea, I had the pleasure of examining exhibits of 

 choice apples grown by Edson Gaylord and Edwin R. Heiss, of Nora 

 Springs, Iowa. The display was especially interesting from the fact 

 that the varieties shown were nearly all quite tender, and, as stated 

 by Mr. Gaylord, they were all grown top-worked on hardy stock and 

 under different conditions and miles apart, the varieties most tender 

 as well as most superior in quality on sites not specially favored. 

 The following kinds were shown: Fall Orange, Seek-no-Further 

 Grime's Golden, Jonathan, Minkler, Willow Twig, Ben Davis, 

 Rawlin's Jannet, Wrightman's Russett, N. W. Greenings, Benton 

 Co. Seedling. Sec'y]. 



The Germans prune all fruit trees except the peach in order to 

 check wood-growth. One-third of the season's growth is clipped 

 with the pruning shears between buds. The circulation of sap is 

 slower, the tree is forming buds for next year's growth. This causes 

 a stronger flow of sap, which is distributed to the remaining buds, 

 which are strengthened and sometimes changed to fruit buds. 



