STATE HORTIOULTUKAL SOCIETY. 201 



Mr. Tuttle. No; I could have washed out $20 worth of seeds in a 

 day, but I have seen enough to satisfy me that it is the worst thing we 

 can get. 



Mr. Smith. I have seen Transcendent roots used, and I never could 

 see any difference between them and others, when the trees were dug 

 up two or three years afterwards. I could see nothing in the growth 

 of the trees for two or three years that militated against them. 



Mr. Tuttle. Well, the difference comes after that. I have seen 

 trees set of the Duchess and Fameuse, grafted on crab stock. Those 

 trees were perfectly worthless as orchard trees; they were scraggy 

 and of no account. It don't make any difference whether you graft 

 in the top or the bottom. I have grafted on the common crab, on the 

 old Transcendent, on the large, the yellow, and the common, and have 

 never found a tree yet that was worth anything as an apple tree, grown 

 upon crab stock. I grafted ten thousand Tetofsky on Transcendent 

 crabs, and those trees proved to be perfectly worthless. Of that ten 

 thousand there isn't, I think, a stem alive in the Tetofsky above the 

 ground — not one. 



Mr. Cutler. I would like to ask what kind you consider the best? 



Mr. Tuttle. I have been in the habit of recommending the Fameuse. 

 I have been experimenting with a quantity of seedlings. Some of 

 them I have great hopes of, but there isn't one of them that T would 

 recommend for propagation to-day, because they haven't had trial 

 enough. I have apples other than the Fameuse that appear to be No. 

 1 in hardness and quality, and yet I would not dare to recommend 

 them. We have had apples which were recommended a few years ago 

 in Wisconsin, which were said to be just what we wanted; men have 

 gone and planted thousands of those trees; if those trees had stood 

 and proved to be hardy, they would have made orchards that would to- 

 day be worth thousands of dollars. I planted five hundred of them 

 and don't consider them now worth anything. We don't dare to 

 recommend these seedlings; it takes years of trial to fully test them. 

 Understand me, I don't object to men planting seedlings; I don't care 

 how many. I am planting lots of them myself, but I say it takes j^ears 

 to test them, and I don't expect to live long enough to see a seedling 

 that is thoroughly tested in Wisconsin; and yet, I would not discour- 

 age anybody from planting them. There may be something that will 

 come from it; we have been working for twenty years and we haven't 

 got much of anything we can depend upon now. The seedlings of Mr. 

 Gideon, crossed with the crab, undoubtedly are as valuable as anything 



