300 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



promisingf seedling's in Wisconsin, Minnesota, northern Iowa and 

 South Dakota, thousands of them that are remarkably promising, 

 and we might reasonably expect them to be all right, but they have 

 not stood, as the gentleman has said, one of our test winters in 

 Minnesota. Now it seems to me in lauding these unknown quanti- 

 ties, these things we know so little about, we are wasting much 

 time, time that could be more profitably employed. Our time is not 

 profitably employed in that direction. We should take a few varie- 

 ties of them that are best known and best tried and tie to them for 

 the time being, and wait for the advent of that severe winter which 

 we hope is on us now, (Laughter) something that will try the 

 hearts of apple trees. After that we will then hail the " survival of 

 the fittest," and we will get from that list something that will stay 

 with us and stay with our children. 



Pres. Underwood: We are familiar with the disposition of friend 

 Dartt to climb hills and throw cold water, but we always appreciate 

 hearing from him nevertheless. I do not know why we should look 

 for that hard winter. My idea is that hard summers have as much 

 to do with success or failure in apple growing as hard winters. I 

 think we lose more trees by hard summers than we ever do on 

 account of hard winters. I know of about six thousand fine orchard 

 trees that went to their death on account of the hard summers. You 

 cannot make me believe that if the temperature goes down to 30° or 

 40° below and the tree is frozen up that the cold is going to hurt it if it 

 goes down to 60° below; that will not make much difference. The 

 success of the tree depends upon the moisture it has got, and that 

 amount of moisture has got to be put in the ground before it freezes 

 up. It is all right to sit still and wait for that cold winter, but Mr. 

 Dartt is not doing that; he talks it, but he is not doing it, for he is 

 branching out in experimentation more than any other man in the 

 state; still he says we must not say anything in its favor. I do not 

 feel that way. An old German came to our place last spring to 

 get a few trees, and my son said to me, " I guess there is an apple 

 out here j'ou would like to see." I went out and found a German 

 man who could not talk plain English, and he had a peck of nice 

 apples there that he said he had kept in the cellar, a seedling that 

 he said was growing on his place, and he said the3' kept the year 

 round. I felt like taking my hat off to such an apple, and the pro-, 

 duction of that apple was brought about by a German farmer. That 

 is the way the Wealthy and other varieties were brought out, and 

 we are not fooling away our time, as friend Dartt says, when we are 

 considering this question of seedling apples. We cannot take 

 much time, but Mr. Harris will show you what he has. 



Mr. Harris then briefly described the various seedling apples, 

 which description, as the varieties were not named, would not be 

 of much value in this report. 



Mr. Dartt: I would like to reply that it is the severer cold that 

 kills the trees and explain why, if you will hear me a minute. 



Pres. Underwood: Fire away; I can hear you. 



Mr. Dartt: I think you will. (Laughter). The theory is advanced 

 that it is not the hard winters that kill our apple trees. If it is 



