32 HISTORY OF HORTICULTURE IN MINNESOTA. 



was taken up. Mr. Ilamiltoii su«;gc8ted that it would be a good plan to 

 select some one paper to publish articles to be written by members of the 

 Association. 



Mr. Stewart sug:gested that the Farmer's Union published at Minneapolis 

 would be a suitable •medium, being an Agricultural paper and having a large 

 circulation. 



Mr. Mott thought it would be difficult to organize efficient branch Associa- 

 tions . Faribault was a good town, but it was difficult to keep up an organiza- 

 tion here; thought the best plan was to invite all persons to join our State 

 Association. 



Mr. Harkness concurred in this view. 



Mr. Wheeler proposed to instruct the committee on Resolutions to prepare 

 a series of questions bearing upon Fruit Growing to be distributed with a 

 request for information. 



APPLES, AND THEIR TREATMENT. 



Mr. Hamilton gave his method. He would not set out trees over three 

 years old; would take them up in the Spring, if the nursery was near; if not, 

 in the Fall ; he would secure all the root possible. If the ground was not too 

 wet would mulch ; would only prune in June, and prune but little then ; would 

 mulch his trees sometime in the Winter and leave till Spring. The great 

 cause of the killing of the trees, is that the sap starts too soon ; the sap is 

 frozen, and the bark starts off. If mulched the sap is kept back ; the principal 

 is the same as in burying grape vines. A great many advocate raising a hoed 

 crop in the orchard. His impressions were not favorable to this. Some of 

 the best orchards in the State were seeded to clover. A good nurseryman 

 never cultivates his trees except to keep the ground clean about them. He 

 would let trees groAV up like bushes, and head within a foot of the ground. 

 Those apples [ referring to some fine specimens of the Perrj^ Russet and 

 Northern Spy upon the table ] were raised by Mr. C. P. Buck, of Winona, 

 than whom no one was more careless as regarded the cultivation of his garden. 

 They hung as full as any trees he had seen in Michigan, and were as thrifty 

 and smooth in their bark. 



Mr. Hubbard would take issue as to the cultivation of an orchard. He 

 thought grass poison to an orchard tree. Did not object to mulching, but 

 one could not go far enough ; with trees of a moderate age in an orchard the 

 roots interlock, and one would have to mulch the whole orchard. In Fond 

 du Lac county, Wisconsin, his father seeded down his orchard, and the re- 

 sult was that he did'nt raise his own apples, when he should have had a hun- 

 dred bushels to spare. The trees grew lousy ; many died, and the others 

 made no growth. Finally ploughed it up and manured it, and now raises fine 

 crops. Trees wont bear pruning as well in the West as in the East. In New 

 York one could cut off limbs as large as his leg with impunity. In Wisconsin, 

 trees are safely trimmed from mid-winter to last of June. Trees should be 

 headed low, so as to shade the ground from the sun. Our soil is black, and 

 consequently too warm. Does not think a tree makes good wood on such a 



