302 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



the conclusion that a person is destroying a g^ood many apples by 

 cutting these seedlings off and grafting on theni hardy varieties. 

 These seedling apples have never been in cold storage, and they 

 apparently will keep. Here is a sweet apple apparently sound and 

 solid for a year. This is a very productive apple. 



Mr. J. S. Harris: In my search after seedling apples I find a great 

 many seedlings that are from the Utter. They have the character- 

 istic of the Utter in that they are free frotn blight. There we have 

 an apple that nearly reproduces itself. We can scarcelj-- tell there 

 is a difference by the looks, and, therefore, if we have a variety 

 that nearly reproduces itself, I believe by selection we can nearly 

 bring the varieties up to the original. 



Mr. C. G. Patten, (Iowa). I concur mainly in the remarks made 

 by Mr. Harris when he first began his talk on the subject of seed- 

 ling apples. I thought, however, while he was giving us to under- 

 stand that he was considerably contracted, that he was rather more 

 limited in the area than I would like to confine myself to, strictly 

 to Minnesota. 



Mr. Harris: They only gave me five minutes. 



Mr. Patten: I do not see why we should have to go to Minnesota 

 to get our hardy varieties for Iowa, from this fact: I find some of 

 your varieties, the Wealthy, for instance, is doing better in south- 

 west Minnesota, all along from Albert Lea to the west portion of 

 the state, it is doing better by fifteen per cent than it is doing in 

 Floj'd county, Iowa, and clear down to the Illinois Central railroad. 

 So 5^ou have sections in your state that are fully as favorable, and 

 even more so in some instances, as north Iowa, so far as develop- 

 ment of fruit and growth is concerned. 



I have here two plates of apples that represent more than the 

 apples do themselves. There is more in it than the apples would 

 show of themselves. This one is a seedling of the Duchess of 

 Oldenburg; it was tour years old when the winter of 1884—5 came 

 on, — and I want to remark here that the storm of the j^ear 1876-7 

 proved more disastrous than the winter of 1884-5. It has been 

 remarked here that the hot summers prove more disastrous to our 

 trees than the winters. I believe with Mr. Dartt that the winters do 

 kill our trees. The winter of ISSl-S and 1876-7 killed most of our 

 trees. I had a great many varieties; I had the Duchess, the Wealthy, 

 the Kaump and many other varieties. Those varieties were all 

 treated exactly alike. I also had the Longfield, and that winter left 

 marks on all of them. The Kaump was completely obliterated; the 

 Longfield was hurt a great deal. I am very positive that the hard 

 winters will kill, and the next hard winter we have will give us 

 many serious lessons to learn. 



Pres. Underwood: May I ask you a question, Mr. Patten? If the 

 trees had a sufficient quantity of moisture through the summer — 

 let us take this winter for instance. The trees this summer had all 

 the moisture they needed and made a good, strong, healthy growth; 

 they have gone into winter quarters with plentj' of moisture in the 

 groun'd. Do you think under these circumstances a severe winter 

 would kill the trees. The point I want to make is that the vitality 



