HISTORY OF HORTICULTURE IN MINNESOTA. 45 



J. M. I'Dderwood, Lake City. . Geo. Buck, Winona 



J. W. Harkness, Faribault. Dead. Lewis Martin, "' 



IL E. C. Barrett. 



O. F. Brand. 



G. W. Wemple, 



H. n. Lowater. Red ^YiD£C. 



J. S. Shearman. Rockford, Ills. 

 J. S. Stickney, Wauwatosa, Wis. 

 R. B. Sabin, Sparta, 

 E. Wilcox, Trerapeleau. 



A. Stewart, of Hennepin county, moved to appoint a committee of three to 

 arrange subjects for discussion. Tlie motion was carried : A. Stewart, D. A. 

 J. Baker, of St. Taul, and P. A. Jewell, were appointed by the chair. 



Truman M. Smith, of St. Paul, moved that the Society sit three times per 

 day, at 10 a.m. and at 2 and 7 p.m., which motion was carried. 



A. Stewart. Chairman of Committee on Arrangement of Subjects for Discus- 

 sion, presented for consideration, morning and afternoon of the first day, 

 apples, and in the evening small fruits. Report adopted. 



L. M. Ford, of GroTeland, moved to take up first on the list of apples, the 

 Duchess of Oldenburg, and discuss its hardiness, which motion was carried. 



J. S. Shearman presented his credentials as delegate from the Northern 

 Illinois Horticultural Society, which were read and accepted, and he was 

 cordially invited to take part in the deliberations of the meeting. 



A. Stewart thought that the Duchess does well in some localities, especially 

 where the trees stand upon clay soil, and are protected from the wind. Did 

 not consider them hardy on sandy ground. 



Truman M. Smith stated that he planted the Duchess in 1«61, and they had 

 stood full as well as the Crabs. He did not believe any apples would stand, 

 grown on sandy ground, no more here than in Xew Jersey. Clay is the soil 

 for fruit. 



L. M. Ford was disappointed with the Duchess. He had set several thou- 

 sand, some brought from Rochester, Minn., and some from Wisconsin, on 

 soil neither saud nor clay. All his larger trees are dead, and some of his 

 younger ones have died where thej' stood above the snow, at a temperature 

 of only 15 deg. below zero. At the request of Col. D. A. Robertson, of St. 

 Paul, he cited several places where the tree had failed. He insisted that the 

 Transcendent and Hjslop are the apples demanded for the State. The best 

 trees he knew of these kinds are on sand, some of them bearing several bushels. 

 VVm. Harrison, of Minneapolis, sold .';^130 worth of this fruit last fall. 



Col. D. A. Robertson thought it a great ac(iuisition to find a tree that would 

 live here, and expressed his determination to visit personally every place 

 mentioned by Mr. Ford where the Duchess of Oldenburg is said to have failed. 

 Had found nothiug in the course of his investigations to justify Mr. Ford's 

 conclusions. It was a fact that one half the apple trees planted anywhere 

 die ; trees die everj^where. The analysis of the common apple tree shows 

 its wood to contain from 45 to 50 per cent, of lime. Saud is silicia, of which 

 there is very little in the apple tree. Hence, a soil to grow the common 

 apple well must contain lime ; which clay soil does to a large extent. Clay is 

 therefore the soil for an orchard. Believed the Duchess to have succeeded 

 in this State as well as any tree in any part of the United States. Its origin 

 can be traced to Northern Russia, and from thence ta Siberia. 



