STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 51 



The}" are not all of equal hardiaess. We gi'ow them four or five 

 years in the nursery. 



Mr. T. : Do you select seed from s edlings known to be hardy, 

 or do you sow your seed selected miscellaneously? Most of us 

 understand just how they are raistd in the nursery from seed 

 planted, but is that seed selected from trees known to be hardy, or 

 from a miscellaneous lot? 



Mr. B. : We usually select our seed from our natural fruit. 

 We consider that the seeds are better fiom natural fruit than from 

 grafted trees. We select the very best apples. When we carry a 

 lot of the best natural fruit to tha cider mill, we select the best and 

 smoothest natural fruit. 



Ques. What proportion of the trees come up to be of market- 

 able size ; how much are th°y thinned out? 



A71S. Perhaps we lose twenty or twenty-five per cent. They 

 vary one year with another, some years we lose more than others ; 

 perhaps twenty-five per cent the average loss in the trees. 



Mr. T. I would like to ask to what extent has been tried the 

 practice of double working of the same varieties, as those that will 

 not stand winters always, on trees that have been grown for ihe 

 purpose of forming a hardy trunk on a seedling root? That prac- 

 tice has become quite prevalent in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The 

 stock they ai-e using is the Siberian and Virginia crab ; they unite 

 readily with the apple. That has become a valuable stock. They 

 take common nursery seedlings grown from their hardiest varieties 

 of apples and root graft with the Virginia or Concord crab and 

 grow them vigorously three or four years, then set them out and 

 top-graft immediately. It has been practiced in Western Minne- 

 sota and is apparently successful. This is double working to 

 secure a uniform plant ; establish hardy trunks. It sends out roots 

 above the union of the scions. 1 would like to know if that has 

 been tried in Maine? 



Ans. We have never made a practice of doing that enough to 

 make a test of the matter. I do not see any benefit in doing so, 

 because I think the seedling tree is better than any grafted tree for 

 the first two years, and the root is improved. The top of the tree 

 affects the root, but the root does not affect the top. 



Mr. T. : It secures a uniformity of growth of the orchard. The 

 Concord trunk has been produced by using the root to start with, 

 then grafting the trunk so it sends out roots from the scion and 



