MINNESOTA SEEDLING APPLES. 303 



is exhausted during- the summer, there is no moisture in the groviud, 

 or not sufficient to sustain the tree during the winter, and a severe 

 winter finishes the killing of the tree; hence, I believe that the prin- 

 cipal injury has been done before the winter sets in; and I want to 

 know if an apple tree that has been supplied with plenty of mois- 

 ture during the summer will be likely to kill during a severe winter. 



Mr. Patten: That is, pre-supposing that all of the varieties have 

 had eqvial advantages as to moisture and cultivation. I do most 

 positively. I think if the coming winter should mark down to any- 

 thing like 40° below, and we should have that temperature two, 

 three or four times in succession, you would see that those varie- 

 ties like the Kaump, Longfield and others would be pretty nearly 

 obliterated, while the Duchess of Oldenburg and the Greening— I 

 did not want to talk about it, I only mention it in connection with 

 hardy.trees; next spring you would find but few hardy trees that have 

 come out in good strong condition; and while they may be injured, 

 as in 188i~5, they will be the trees that will bear the apples for sev- 

 eral 3^ears to come, while many of those varieties that vire call per- 

 fectly hardy will be wiped out. 



Pres. Underwood: I did not suppose we were considering the 

 value of such varieties as the Fameuse or such as we do not in- 

 clude in our list, but only those that we have been growing for 

 twenty-five years. I am talking about the hardy Rvissians and 

 other varieties. Mr. Dartt says they are worth nothing until they 

 have gone through a hard winter. I want to know whether under 

 favorable conditions the hard winter will kill those seedlings. 



Mr. Patten: I am glad you have called my attention to the effect 

 of drouth on trees. After a summer's experience I am convinced 

 that we have known but little as to the causes of our trees being 

 killed. I will relate a little experience. I have a long row of seed- 

 lings that were planted in about 1882 or 1883. They have all received 

 equal cultivation, for each was a different variety; there might have 

 been eight or ten trees from the seedlings of one apple, but some of 

 those trees this last year have died. They have been failing for the 

 last two years, and this year they died completely, while the very 

 next seedling to them has seemed to flourish in all those dry years. 

 From every appearance you would say that tree was under the 

 most favorable circumstances. So we have pretty much to learn 

 as to the effects of drouth on the trees. This was a fact I was very 

 glad to learn in connection with experiments I was making — that 

 one tree would, after growing for eight or ten years, with no drouth 

 or any severe winters at all, would absolutely die, while another 

 seedling standing right beside it would be as perfect as anything I 

 ever saw. 



Pres. Underwood: Did j^ou sa}' that was a seedling? 



Mr. Patten: Yes, that was a seedling of the Duchess of Oldenburg-. 



Mr. Dartt: No. 8. 



Mr. Patten: No, sir. 



Mr. Dartt: How do you designate it? 



Mr. Patten: I designate it by the locality in which it grows. As 

 I said before, this plate is from the Duchess of Oldenburg and this 



