saved as nature may have smiled with
indulgence upon your efforts and created the desired variety. I am
watching with great interest a tree of very vigorous, smooth growth,
from seed of Talman Sweet top-grafted on Duchess. You would not expect
to get anything hardy from seed of the Talman Sweet, but the entire
hardiness so far of the young trees propagated from the original
seedling, makes me impatient to see the fruit. A blend of Talman Sweet
and Duchess ought certainly to bring something good, but they will not
all be hardy or all good. The fact that there are so many different
lines of pedigree available to us in our apple work, makes it all the
more necessary for us to divide the work.

Let us gather inspiration from the story of Johnny Apple-Seed--one of
the patron saints of American horticulture--who about one hundred and
twenty-five years ago forced his way through the wilderness of Indiana
and Ohio and planted many bushels of apple seed as he went along, so
that when settlers came they found their orchards ready for them. The
story of John Chapman and his unselfish efforts in planting the seed of
apples and other fruits in the American wilderness should give us
courage and patience to give a little of our time to this work. Make a
record of what seeds you plant, and when the seedlings are one year of
age plant them out in a row where they can be cultivated. Select the
best ones as they fruit and bring to the state fair or horticultural
meeting. You may not win the grand prize, but you will have the
satisfaction of having made some contribution to the common welfare.

* * * * *

In localities where cottontails are sufficiently abundant to be a
continual menace, the safest and most nearly permanent method of
securing immunity from their ravages is to fence against them. It has
been found that woven wire netting of one and one-half inch mesh and
thirty inches high will exclude rabbits, provided, that the lower border
of the fence is buried five or six inches below the surface of the
ground. In cases where a small number of trees are concerned, a cylinder
of similar wire netting around each tree, if so fastened that it cannot
be pushed up close against the tree, serves the purpose more
economically.

Standardizing Minnesota Potatoes.

A. W. AAMODT, UNIVERSITY FARM, ST. PAUL.

(Gideon Memorial Contest.)

The potato is one of the large farm crops of the country, rating ne