6 
damp moss envelope the roots, and large lots 
of trees are packed in boxes, or in sacking 
secured tightly around them. They gener- 
allyjreach their destination in good condition. 
A package of 300 trees went to California 
last spring, and were three weeks on the 
road, but throve well after being set out. 
I have several certificates showing the satis- 
faction of purchasers who have from small 
trees raised splendid fruit. One gentleman 
told me at the State Fair that he had 500 of 
Bryant’s trees, and gathered from them fifty 
barrels of apples, and that he was offered 
five dollars per barrel for them. Those who 
buy the trees now expect them to live. The 
losses from a weakness in the constitution of 
the tree are very slight, so that agents often 
warrant the trees when sold in large lots, 
and have to furnish but few new trees. The 
general sentiment is that Bryant’s trees will 
grow where any trees will grow, therefore if 
they die, that soil and that man ought not to 
be trusted with trees. 
CRAB STOCKS. 
There are a few inquiries that are often 
made, and which should be considered in 
this connection. ‘They are these: 
lst. Does grafting on the Siberian crab 
root make the tree hardier? 
2d. Does it make a long lived tree? 
3d. Does it dwarf the tree? 
4th. Does it injure the quality of a nice 
variety of apples to grow upon it? 
Ist, then, does it make the tree hardier? 
There is no tree hardier than a crab apple 
tree. It flourishes in Canada, and grows of 
such size that as many as thirty bushels of 
apples have been harvested from a tree. In 
Vermont I have found several crab trees that 
apparently came by chance, and some of 
them bear a fruit of considerable value. 
Recent travellers in Kansas assure me that 
there are groves of crab apple trees in that 
State that are very old—some a foot indiam- 
eter—all bear a green sour apple from three- 
fourths of an inch to two inches in diameter. 
Scores of years have pused since these trees 
started from seed sown by natural means; 
no man’s labor aided their propagation. We 
can then call this a native of the American 
soil. Although belief is expressed by some 
ited by an intelligent population who had or- 
chards and grafted upon the crab stock, the 
good fruit has all passed away, leaving the 
nore hardy crab tree with its symmetrical 
top and profusion of fruit as the only vege- 
tion that has survived until the present time, 
as the fruit of their labors. Iam told that 
by burying the apple in the ground a few 
weeks the bitter and extreme acid taste is 
taken away and they become quite palatable 
and of a bright yellow or golden color. 
Ben Perley Poore, who wrote of the agri- 
culture of the Indians, (Agricultural Report, 
1866, p. 499,) says mishimin signifies apple, 
and old accounts of early voyages “reckon 
apples among the early native fruits.” And 
unless crib stocks were found it does not ap- 
pear how the large orchards mentioned by 
carly writers could have been made produc- 
tive sosoon. In 1635 a Mr. Wolcott wrote, 
“T made 500 hhds. of cider from my own or- 
chard. This was not more than five years 
after settlement. 
While all admit the hardiness of this tree, 
they are not so well agreed that by engraft- 
ing the English or standard apple upon the 
crab root the tree growing therefrom will be 
hardier than upon a stock grown from a 
common apple seed. 
Some say that the root of the tree does not 
die, even if the top is killed by untimely 
freezing or other adverse circumstances. “If 
a tree die there is hope that it will sprout 
again,” and a succession of tops flourish and 
pass way from the same root, therefore its 
hardiness is proved. Not so: If the tree 
stands in a poor barren soil, where grass and 
weeds make but a stunted growth, it may 
grow a year or a few years, but there is not 
enough fertility to cause a continuous growth 
of healthy wood and luscious fruit. Such 
barrenness of soil brings disease .and decay 
to the tree. It dies; the root again throws 
up vigorous sprouts that flourish for 2 while, 
then pass away to be again succeeded by 
other sprouts. 
Soil and root bear a relation to each other 
like a small pasture that can support a calf 
or yearling, but in which the full sized ox 
instead of developing into splendid beef 
would die of starvation. The pasture cannot 
that in former times that country was inhab- 
furnish food for a mature animal of that 
