Minnesora Stare HorticutTurat Society. 79 
- The first work in growing an apple tree, like building a house, is a good foun- 
~ dation. If this is built on a sandy foundation it will not stand, so if an apple 
tree be grafted on a tender root. The winter of 1872-3 taught us in Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, Northern Illinois and Iowa, a very expensive lesson which ought to 
be turned to profit in the future. The winter of 1874-5 should teach the same 
lesson m Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, lowa, and even New York. 
_ Now I will call up my first witness, F. R. Elliot, he says: “The growing 
of trees from grafting or budding upon roots of seedlings grown from the refuse 
seeds of apples or pears from the mill is no better towards the improvement and 
reliability of varieties, than that of growing stock or mankind from haphazard 
meetings. Selections of all future life must be made to secure advance, by grow- 
ing, in the vegetable as well as the animal, from pure and hardy stock, free from 
contamination. 
** All the records of growth and longevity of orchar aa may be traced to the stock 
upon which they have been worked. It is the same in the vegetable as the ani- 
mal kingdom. If the native healthy character is not kept up by the knowledge 
of the proprietor and manager, then decay must exhibit itself in a large percent- 
age of the stock.” 
’ From this want of knowledge of the origin and hardihood of the stock comes 
the great loss of trees in our orchards, 
- As the origin and hardihood of the stock is Mr. Elliott’s main idea, let us next 
enquire of Charles Downing about that. He says : 
‘‘Transplanted into a warmer aspect, stimulated by aricher soil, reared from 
selected seeds carefully pruned, sheltered and watched, by slow degrees the sour 
and bitter crab expands into a golden pippin.”’ Now to attain this great excellence 
in quality of fruit how much have we lost in hardihood of tree, and this is the 
next object of enquiry. We lost in our nursery the winter of 72-73 about 60,000 
trees by root killing. They were grafted the common way on apple roots ; about 
40,000 were one year old—nearly all killed, while say 10,000 seedling crabs same 
age along side went through without injury; about twenty three-year-old crab 
seedlings top worked with Tetofsky came out all right, while 120 same age and 
variety grafted on apple roots were nearly all killed. 
In the orchard consisting of about 1,500 trees, all ages from a “few years up to 
15 years, about 1,000 were root killed, even transcendents 10 years. old; these 
leaved out in the spring, set fruit a little later; seeimg that the leaves niet fruit 
did not increase in size, I took my spade and found the roots all dead. Charles 
M. Hambright, of Gould’s Nursery says: ‘‘I might add that side by side in our 
yearling seedling block thecommon apple seedlings were 95 per cent killed, and 
not one of thecrab with about the same proportion of loss in our three and four 
year old grafts.” 
Pres. Tuttle says: ‘‘Root killing is often mistaken for blight, for the outward 
form of the injury is much the same in both cases.”’ I might multiply testimony 
almost indefinitely from my scrap book, but will stop on the root question after 
quoting extracts from two letters. The first is from Charles Downing ; he says : 
“T should think you are on the right track, that is, obtain the hardiest root stock, 
then graft your best and hardiest kinds on that stock.’’ Samuel Foster writes : 
“T learned some years ago from D. W. Adams of Alamakee county, Lowa, that in 
that region they would not depend on the seedling roots to graft on except to put 
in a long cion and plant deep, then the cion would take eoot. Your plan of crab 
roots is no doubt best. I have sometimes top dressed the crab and have seldom 
or never known their roots to kill. 
