The reason that my attention was called to the Virginia as being vigorous was, when I attended the meeting of this society about thirty years ago—I think it was at Rochester—Mr. A. W. Sias, who was an active nurseryman and one of the pioneers of this society, offered a premium of $5.00 for the best growth of a crab apple tree, and then, in order to win the money himself (which he did), he brought in some limbs of a Virginia that were six feet long that grew in one season; and I figured then that a tree that could make that growth in one season was a vigorous tree, which it is. Nothing can outgrow it, and that was one reason why I commenced using it.
Mr. Brackett: I have one trouble in grafting the Wealthy to the Hibernal on account of its making that heavy growth. I lost some of them by blight on that account.
Mr. Philips: Which was blighted, the Hibernal?
Mr. Brackett: No, the Wealthy made such a big growth that it blighted. I cut the top back and put grafts in, and they made a good growth, but they blighted. Did you have any trouble like that?
Mr. Philips: No, sir, I think my soil is different from yours. My soil is of a poor order, a heavy clay, and it don't make the growth.
Mr. Brackett: How many of those large limbs could you cut off in one year and graft?
Mr. Philips: Cut about half of the growth of the tree if not too large, don't cut enough to weaken the tree too much. Next year cut the balance off.
Mr. Crosby: In grafting, suppose you get scions from an Eastern state, what time would you get those scions, say, from Maine; Maine is on a parallel with Minnesota?
Mr. Philips: I prefer cutting scions in the fall before they freeze.
Mr. Crosby: How would you keep those scions?