e not well ripened indicate lack of hardiness.

The winter of 1884-85 was preceded by a late, wet autumn that kept trees
of all varieties growing very late, so that winter came before the wood
was ripened. In all the literature on this subject, I have been unable
to find any method by which a hardy variety could be distinguished from
a tender one of the same species, or, in other words, there is no
correlation between morphology and hardiness.

Although we do not know what determines hardiness, we may still go ahead
with our experimental work. We do not really know what electricity is,
but inventors in that line have enough of a theory on this subject so
that they are able to work very successfully with this gigantic force of
nature. We know there is a difference in hardiness between the red cedar
of Tennessee and the red cedar of Minnesota, and that it is safest for
us to plant the tree as it is found at the north. The same applies to
many other trees that are found native over a wide area. At Moscow,
Russia, the box elder as first imported was from St. Louis, and it
winter-killed. Afterwards they got the box elder from Manitoba, and it
proved perfectly hardy. Although botanically both are the same, yet
there is a difference in hardiness.

My way of securing hardiness is to work with plants that are already
hardy. I like to work with native plums in my plant breeding experiments
because there need be no concern about their hardiness. We know they are
hardy, or they would not be here after thousands of years of natural
selection in this climate.

The other way of obtaining hardiness is by crossing a tender variety
with a hardy one. When we cross the native plum with the Japanese plum,
we obtain seedlings that combine in a fair measure the hardiness of the
native plum with the size and quality of the Japanese plum.

In many states of the Union the question of varieties for commercial
orchards has been to a large degree settled. There is always room for a
new apple, but for commercial purposes the varieties already in
cultivation are sufficiently satisfactory as to size, color and quality
as well as in keeping and shipping capacity. So the main effort in their
horticultural societies is along other lines, such questions as
marketing, packing, spraying, insects, fungi and orchard management. But
in this region the winter apple question is still a vital one.

Some promising winter apples have appeared recently, and it