Sixteen Years' Expekibnce in Feuit Culture. 33 



a similar remark, there are no apples ia St. Croix county, and 

 as far as regards standard apples, it would be almost literally true; 

 and yet we do raise apples in St. Croix, such as they are, and shall 

 harvest a bountiful crop this year, if not prevented by the blight. 

 My experience as a fruit grower in the northwest dates back to 

 1859, when I procured a few trees of apples, pears and plums of 

 B. B. Olds, of Clinton, and set them out in Washington county, 

 Minnesota. This first experiment settled the question for me, so 

 far as pears and plums were concerned, for though the trees lived 

 several years, some of them, they killed back every winter, so as 

 to render them worthless. But some Duchess apple trees thrived, 

 and, in 1861, I raised the first apples of that variety ever grown 

 in that locality. After the war I removed to St. Croix county 

 and started an orchard and nursery at Iludson ; mostly of Sibe- 

 rians, but with a few standard sort, such as were then thought to be 

 hardy. At that lime Dr. Otis Uoyt had the only bearing orchard 

 in the county, mostly seedlings of his own raising ; some of them 

 very good apples, and supposed by him to be hardy. But they 

 proved otherwise, and have all disappeared. Of the orchard I set 

 there, all the standard sorts died out in a few years except the 

 Duchess, some of which have borne several crops, but have since 

 mostly died. Thinking the soil in that locality — a light sandy 

 loam — unsuitable for apple trees, I removed, in 1872, to my pres- 

 ent location, ten miles east of Iludson, where I started again on a 

 larger scale, setting an orchard oE one thousand two hundred trees, 

 and a few thousand in nursery rows. The season was propitious, 

 and both orchard and nursery were successful so far that nearly 

 every tree grew, and I began to hope that I was on the road to 

 success. But the following winter, 1872-3, was one of the most 

 severe in twenty years, and changed the aspect of things con- 

 siderably. Most of the standard trees in the nursery rows were 

 killed back to the ground, or nearly so, and the orchard received 

 a check from which it has never fully recovered. But though my 

 faith was somewhat shaken, I determined to persevere; so replac- 

 ing in the orchard such trees as had succumbed, and cutting back 

 my nursery stock and adding more to it, I started anew. But, so 

 far as standard varitties are concerned, the enterprise has been a 



3 — HORT. 



