1!)4 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



and quality. One man. an artist by profession, who spends his winters 

 in Washington, D. C, where he paints thousand dollar portraits, has. a 

 farm of 1,500 acres in the cut-over sandy lands of Minnesota. He has 

 spent fifteen summers there and has given his attention to creating a 

 hardy and luscious plum and now is receiving his reward in large crops 

 of large fruit which sell readily at $2 per bushel, and he can hardly 

 touch the demand. 



Mr. Penning of New Ulm has given the best part of his life in im- 

 proving this fruit. He is an enthusiastic German, and when he gets 

 agoing he. Is a regular cyclone, and his mouth is hardly big enough to 

 pour out his torrent of enthusiasm. He raises hundreds of bushels and 

 gets his $2 per bushel for them. 



In the meeting great interest was shown in a new race of ever- 

 bearing strawberries which were found to be very prolific and profitable. 

 They must have peculiar treatment. The buds must all be picked off 

 until July and August, and then they are let go, and the result is great 

 crops until froPt comei^. This department of horticulture is now securing 

 much attention; for strawberries out of their normal season bring large 

 prices, and we do not wonder at the keen interest taken in their pro- 

 duction. 



TOP GRAFTING. 



Wlien scions of tender trees are grafted on a hardy stock, like 

 Virginia Crab or Hibernal, they can be grown 300 miles further north 

 then when grafted on common roots. One man bought ten Miss- 

 ing Link apples and planted them. Every one died. He took the pre- 

 caution of grafting on the Hibernal and all lived and are bearing im- 

 mense crops. The northern pioneers have had to feel their way along 

 through thousands of experiments until now they have a sure founda- 

 tion. 



Probably the finest orchard in the world was that of Mr. Phillips of 

 northern Wisconsin. He was obliged to sell it on account of old age. 

 The man who bought it knew nothing about fruit. In the fall the ground 

 was covered with splendid, large and perfect apples. He let the neigh- 

 bors come in and take off double wagon loads for a dollar a load. Later 

 fruit buyers came in and took his winter apples at a good price. Prob- 

 ably at no time on earth was there such a marvelous crop of splendid 

 fruit from such a number of trees. 



The northern men have taught us a lesson. First, get ironclad roots 

 for a hardy stock, top graft on these trees and you have both hardiness 

 and abundance. We must study economy in orcharding. The ordinary 

 cheap twenty-five-cent tree takes up bo*.h time and room, and in nine 

 cases out of ten gives us nothing. A first-class apple tree, double 

 worked, should cost about 50 to 75 c.^nls. In ten years one tree will be 

 worth about ten cents and the other $10. 



