304 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



plate ill iny right hand represent two distinct lines of apples, one is 

 Russian and one is American. This in my right hand is from the 

 Perry Russet; the tree was four or five years old when the winter of 

 1884-5 came on. I think you can learn something of a tree when it 

 is five or six years old if you will examine the tree after a severe 

 winter. If the tree shows bright wood after a severe winter, you can 

 safel}'- propagate the tree, and it will endure. 



Pres. Underwood: Do you think you could tell anything satis- 

 factory to yourself as to the hardiness of the tree by the looks of 

 the tree and the growth of the wood? 



Mr. Patten: No, sir; I do not. 



Pres. Underwood: If it resembled the wood of the Duchess 

 would it be more hardy than if it resembled the wood of the Haas? 



Mr. Patten: I have examined into that point very particularly. 

 M}'- first experience commenced with the Pewaukee, and they 

 seemed as hardy as anything I ever saw, but when the hard winters 

 came along the Pewaukee were entirely wiped out. To show you 

 another tree that represents the other side, I will mention a tree as 

 a good example, and that is the Anisim. You know it has lightish 

 limbs and rather soft wood. It is one of the most hardy trees we 

 have. It is the most profitable of all of the Russian varieties. I 

 gather now that that is his idea, that it will affect hardj- trees. It 

 will affect forest trees. I am entirely surprised at my experience 

 this year; for instance, limbs growing two or three feet, where last 

 year and year before one tree would be cut nearly to the ground, 

 while the other tree would be perfect almost to the tip. It was the 

 same with the Russians. So, as I say, there is a variation in the con- 

 stitution of (he trees, whether they are forest trees or fruit trees — and 

 that is another feature about trees that we have to comprehend, the 

 vigor of the trees. We have not made a proper distinction between 

 the hardiness of trees and the vigor of trees. The Duchess is a 

 hardy tree, but it has not sufficient vigor, whereas, if the Duchess 

 had vigor so it would make a growth of eight to ten inches more 

 than it does, it would stand 48 degrees where it now stands 40 de- 

 grees, and that very fact should be a lesson to us that in our exper- 

 iments in propagation we should take the seeds from those trees 

 that have endured all those conditions, the drouth of summer and 

 the extreme cold of winter. For instance, I have one of these seed- 

 lings that is ten years old. It has stood all those conditions in the 

 most perfect manner. It has shown great vigor. That is the tree I 

 would select seeds from for the future trees of this countr}'. If you 

 begin with that tree, you make sure that tree will stand equal to the 

 Duchess. 



Mr. Dartt: You speak of a tree ten years old that has never borne 

 a crop that is perfectly hardy and all right. Now.if that tree should 

 bear a heavy crop of apples and then a hard winter should succeed) 

 would you not consider it more likely to winter-kill? 



Mr. Patten: Yes, sir, I would. Give me a tree that can bear a 

 good crop of apples; without saying anything of its other merits I 

 know nothing beyond the Greening I originated in that respect. I 

 wish to speak of this Perry Russet seedling. When I began with 



