220 ANNUAL REPORT 



The following paper was read by Mr. Dartt: 



SEEDLING APPLE TEEES. 



By E. H. 8. Dartt, Owatonna. 



If we have planted the seed of the apple, reared the trees and 

 eaten the fruit thereof, and have grown old in this kind of labor, 

 we certainly know something about seedling apple trees. But 

 if what we know is compared with what we do not know then 

 our ignorance must greatly predominate, for wherever life exists 

 there the mysteries of life creep in. We are told that the sins 

 of the parent shall be visited upon the children down to the 

 third and fourth generation, and we do not know how much 

 further the evil may extend. It seems that the same i)rinciple 

 exists in regard to the apple tree — that there are certain defects 

 or taints that have crept all along up from thf, most insignifica.nt 

 crab of the remotest period to the present time. These defects, 

 some of which may have laid dormant for hundreds of years, are 

 so likely to crop out that artificial hybridization becomes very 

 uncertain in its results and many believe that i)lanting the best 

 seeds and judicious selection will soonest secure that adaptation 

 we are all looking for and perhaps restore the apple to the per- 

 fect condition it may have been in when Adam's transgression 

 caused the ruin we read of in the Garden of Eden. 



In the planting of seeds we naturally expect the best results 

 from planting seeds of our hardiest Minnesota apples. And 

 though that may be true as a rule, yet I will mention one or two 

 exceptions. 



Over thirty years ago a Mr. Bixby, in the south part of Steele 

 county, purchased a barrel of apples in the market and planted 

 some of the seeds. One tree proved remarkably hardy and bore 

 heavy crops of good winter apples for .many years. It passed 

 through all the hard winters without much injury till about 

 1885 and died a year or two later from the effects of climatic in- 

 fluences and old age. About 1870, S. N. Yearly, one mile south- 

 east of Owatonna, had a seedling tree in bearing which had 

 come with trees from an eastern nursery. It also bore a good 

 winter apple, seemed perfectly hardy and for many years pro- 

 duced remunerative crops. Scions of this tree were obtained 

 and root grafted and grown three or four years in nursery and 

 transplanted to orchard. They had but just commenced bearing 

 when they were entirely killed by one or two severe winters. 

 From these instances we may conclude : 



