MINNESOTA SEEDLING APPLES. 301 



not the hard winter that kills our apple trees, why in the world do 

 we need a special list? A little south of us, they do not get those 

 severe winters, and they raise ever3'thing-. Here we get an oc- 

 casional hard winter, and there are very few varieties that we can 

 grow successfully. The winter of 1884:-5 was a hard winter, but 

 everything since then has boomed; our tree men have got out 

 hundreds of nice seedlings, given them nice names, and the next 

 hard winter that conies along will wipe them all off the face of the 

 earth. It is the extreme cold that kills the apple trees. The}'- freeze 

 dry. It is the winter drouth that kills them. The summer drouth 

 kills a good man}', but the winter drouth kills a great many of our 

 hardy apple trees; they freeze dry. The old lady washes her gar- 

 ments and hangs them out on the line, and if it is extremelj'' cold 

 they freeze dry. The freezing of an apple tree one time might not 

 kill it, but it is the freezing dry repeatedly that kills it. We have had 

 extremely cold weather lately, and our apple trees are pretty well 

 started toward freezing dry. If the next month gives us a good 

 many cold days, extremely cold days, 30' below, and then a thaw after- 

 ward brings out the frost, the moisture, and then another extreme 

 cold spell takes out all the moisture there is in them, when spring 

 comes they will never start a bud. Of course, you can laud all 

 those new and untried things you want to; it will not do any harm, 

 and it will not do any good. 



Pres. Underwood: We have in the state a great many men who 

 are planting seeds and producing seedlings. Mr. Akin, of Farm- 

 ington, has some here which he will show you. 



Mr. Akin: (Exhibiting seedling apples). These seeds were 

 planted in 1872. Here is a seedling from the Haas. You can pick 

 it and put it in for a Haas. It is a little better keeper and of a finer 

 grain. The Haas bore at eight j^ears old from the seed, producing 

 a peck of apples that year; the next year it did not bear; it is a 

 biennial bearer. 



Pres. Underwood: Are they perfectly hardy? 



Mr. Akin: Apparentl}'; they came up in 1872 and have stood there 

 ever since. 



Pres. Underwood: Are they prolific? 



Mr. Akin: Some of them seem verj"- much so. Two of the seed- 

 lings, that are not represented here, stand within twentj' feet of each 

 other, and one of them bore at ten years old from the seed. The 

 tree is perfectly hardy without any protection whatever except 

 some willows on the west side, and some of them have borne as 

 much as twelve to fourteen bushels. This year they had from five 

 to seven bushels. 



Mr. Gardner: Do the trees stand where the}' came up from the 

 seed? 



Mr, Akin: They were all transplanted. That is where I think a 

 majority of horticulturists miss it. I think if they waited until the 

 trees fruited and then grafted them they would do better. I have 

 thirty-six or thirty-eight seedlings, and every one of them has 

 borne apples. I have never kept the seed separate, so I do not 

 know what seed an apple is from, except this Haas. I have come to 



