Marshall says, “The fewer standard trees in the garden the better.”  Also that the dwarfs are less trouble to keep in order and are generally more productive, and that “placed eight or nine feet distant, pruned and kept in easy manner, they make a fine appearance and produce good fruit.”  W.C.  Drury, highly regarded as a modern English authority, writing in 1900 says:  “For the private garden or for market purposes the dwarf, or bush, apple tree is one of the best and most profitable forms that can be planted.”  He also says:  “The bush is one of the best forms of all, as it is of a pleasing shape and as a rule bears good and regular crops.”

Mr. Clausen:  Don’t you have trouble with the mice?

Dr. Huestis:  No, sir, have never seen any.

Mr. Clausen:  I had an experience a few years ago.  My neighbor made a mistake; he was hauling straw around his apple trees, and he happened to take one row of mine.  We had no fence between us—­and he laid the straw around the trees.  I found when I came to examine these trees in the spring they were all girdled around the bottom.  I am afraid to mulch.

Dr. Huestis:  I never have taken any chances.  Ever troubled with the mice at your place, Mr. Weld?

Mr. Weld:  A little.

Dr. Huestis:  I have never had any trouble with the mice.  I always put on a lot of old screen that I take from the cottages that is worn out and put a wire around it so the mice can’t get through it.  We must protect from mice and rabbits.

Mr. Kellogg:  How soon do your dwarf trees pay for themselves?

Dr. Huestis:  I don’t know.  I reckon these four have paid about twelve per cent. on fifteen or twenty dollars this year, and they have right along.  They have paid me better so far during the eight years than the standards.  That might not apply in eight more years, but for a city lot, a man who has fifty square feet, how many apple trees could he put in that seventeen feet apart?  Nine standard trees.  In that same plot of fifty feet square he could put in sixty-four dwarfs, and it would be a nice little orchard.  I think it is more adapted to the city man.  The ordinary farmer would neglect them, and I should hate to see a farmer get them, but I would like to do anything for the man living in the city with only a small plat of land—­my vocation being in the city, my avocation being in the country.

Mr. Kellogg:  Are those honest representations of the different apples from the dwarf and the standard?

Dr. Heustis:  I don’t know.  Those are a fair sample of those I found in a box on exhibit and are Red McIntosh.  They are better colored than mine, most of them are like this (indicating).  I find the Yellow Transparent that I have budded on the standard better on the dwarf than on the standard.

Mr. Kellogg:  Does it blight any?

Dr. Huestis:  No blight; there hasn’t ever been a blight.  I think that is one reason why I feel I could recommend them quite conscientiously.  Other trees have blighted when the conditions were favorable.