98 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Wedge: I would like to ask Mr. Nordeen what their 

 practice is with apple trees in the nursery. Do you cut them 

 back to the ground so as to get a straight trunk? 



Mr. Nordeen: Sometimes we cut them off to the ground. 

 When we are short of scions we cut them clear down to get 

 scions, and that does not seem to hurt them any. 



Mr. Wedge: What sort of tree do you get from that the sec- 

 ond year? 



Mr. Nordeen: That depends upon the condition of the tree 

 when it is cut back. If it is in a favorable condition, if you 

 have a good season, you can make a pretty good tree out of that 

 the second year. If you cut it back, it does not seem to get as 

 strong a root. 



Mr. Wedge: Would you recommend that as a common prac- 

 tice or not? 



Mr. Nordeen: I would not, because there are some winters 

 when the weather is so cold and the ground freezes so hard 

 that it disturbs those roots so that some of them are injured. I 

 would not recommend cutting back the trees. 



Mr. G. J. Kellogg (Wisconsin): If it injured the stock, would 

 it injure the tree? 



Mr. Nordeen: Not so much. 



Mr. Philips: How would it do to wait until spring to cut it? 



Mr. Nordeen: We never practice that. 



Mr. Wedge: You do not think there is much advantage in 

 cutting back? 



Mr. Nordeen: No, not in this state. 



Mr. Philips: Don't you think with the Hibernal and Long- 

 field it is of advantage to cut back to have them grow straight? 



Mr. Nordeen: That may be true of those varieties; it may 

 be of advantage to them. 



Mr. Harris: Don't you think if you gave those Hibernal a 

 long graft it would save their cutting off? 



Mr. Nordeen: We tried that one year. I made fifty grafts 

 of the whole root, and selected some good roots and made fifty 

 piece grafts, and we could not see any difference in them at all. 

 In the fall I examined them both, and the piece roots had thrown 

 out a nice system of roots, while the whole root had thrown 

 out a weak root. 



Mr. Philips: Mr. Pearce said the tap root was the only root 

 to grow the tree from. 



