Minnesota State HorricuLtTuraAL Sociery. 95 
very much, but of late years, I have made it a business as soon as discerned, to 
heal or cure them right up, which can be done in the growing season as easily 
as a cut or bruise in the flesh. Itis simply this: With a sharp pruning knife, 
remove all the diseased parts to sound, healthy wood and bark, and then apply 
a good coating of grafting wax, melted, quite warm, witha brush, Keep the 
wax on till all is healed. 
The wax is made as follows: Two pounds resin, one pound beeswax, third of 
a pound mutton tallow or Venice turpentine; first melt the resin, then add the 
beeswax, and last the tallow or turpentine; when melted, pour into a pail of 
water and pull and work like taffy. 
Mulching. 
_It is said that an ounce of preventive is worth a pound of cure. On this 
principle mulching is introduced. It is a preventive in the broadest sense, when 
properly applied and at the right time. It should be administered at any time 
during the growing season at the approach of extreme heat or drouth, and 
removed when the danger is over. Mulching should also be applied late in the 
fall or early in the winter, after the ground is well frozen, to prevent it from 
thawing out during the winter or too early in the spring, and thus keep back the 
flow of sap till the danger of freezing is over in the spring. 
Propagation. 
In conclusion of my scattering remarks, I wish to say a few words about 
nurserymen and what they are doing, also about windbreaks around orchards 
and buildings. Nurserymen have done a good work in producing hardy fruit 
trees for Minnesota. But still they are far from being satisfied. They are put- 
ting forth their best efforts to produce fruit trees that will not root-kill. They 
are experimenting in various ways to accomplish this end,some with short roots and 
Jong scions, striking root from the scion; some are planting crab seed and using 
crab stock to graft on. E. Wilcox, of Trempeleau, Wisconsin, goes still farther; 
he uses crab stocks, grafts with known crab scions, and when those are two years 
old, buds into the branches with standard apples. All of the above plans 
may possibly make the roots more hardy, but from a philosophical standpoint, 
I have my doubts whether anything is gained by using crab stock. Long scions 
with short roots, set deep in good fruit soil, worked deep, ditched if necessary, 
and the trees kept well cultivated, as a general rule, will strike root from the 
scion, and the fruit trees will be the same variety, root and branch, on which I 
doubt if there can be any improvement to make them more hardy. 
For winbreaks, set out four or five rows of Scotch pine seedlings, about five feet 
apart, from six to nine inches high, around your orchard and buildings, at a cost 
of about twelve dollars per thousand, cultivate well, and in a few years you will 
have a windbreak that is a windbreak. 
DISCUSSION. 
Saeding Down. 
Mr. Fox. I know of an orchard that was sown to oats three 
years in succession and then seeded down. It has never been eulti- 
