HISTORY OF HORTirULTL'KE IX MINNESOTA. 13 



trom the sun, than onr forest trees, but of the fact that our best varieties of fruit trees are 

 killed by the sun, as explained, there cannot be a reasonable doubt. 



Fortunately there are easily applied preventives of this common cause of fruit tree death. 



This partial analysis explains conditions known to many, as necessary to successful fruit 

 culture, amons; which conditions are the following;: Northern slopes for orchards, or in other 

 aspects, low headings of trees, or wrapping their trunks: or with our friend of Dakota county, 

 planting them among brush* — all of which are in fact only devices to avoid sudden thawing. 

 A cloudy, mild day after a frosty night, is well known to cause a gradual thaw, and to avert 

 the destructive effects of a sudden thaw. The bioom of trees exposed to the morning sun is 

 often blasted, after a frosty night, while those not so exposed escape uninjured. Soii^e or- 

 chardists plant their trees so as to make them lean Avith the top toward the mid-day sun or 

 Spring, thus avoiding the direct glare of the sun on the trunk. The branches then, as in 

 low heading, shade the trunk of the tree. To save our trees after they have been frozen we 

 have only to use means like those we employ to save our noses and fingers, to thaw them 

 graduallj-. To be able to do this with the least trouble, we must plant our trees in situations, 

 and with such protections that their stems or trunks will, when frozen, thaw gradually. A 

 wrapping of newspapers sufficiently answers the purpose. Our correspondent Mr. Berry and 

 some others had trees last Spring in bloom, but the blossoms were blighted after frosts. 

 Their trees are at the foot of bluffs, or in hollows. Such situations are unfavorable. The 

 cold, frosty night air always sinks into holloAvs, while the warmer air remains on the adja- 

 cent elevations, which are therefore the best for fruit trees, especially the slopes not ex- 

 posed to the early morning sun. Trees planted in the low grounds, exposed to the morning 

 sun, are according to the principles already explained, in the most unfavorable situation that 

 could be selected. 



Fruit trees adapted to our climate tlnish their growth and harden their wood, and their 

 flow of sap approaches the minimum, before autumnal frosts. This we regard as an uuer- 

 ering test of adaptation. Varieties which do not so ripen, but continue to groAv until the 

 season of alternating freezing and tha'ving. are sure to be killed in whole or in part. The 

 immature ends of the branches will always be killed. These are what are called the tender 

 varieties. They are Fall killed by successive thawings after freezings. Such trees do not 

 suit our climate, unless by pinching oft' the ends of the branches we can stop their growth 

 early in Autumn and compel their wood to harden. We have no thaws in Winter to kill trees. 

 Our tree killing from this cause— thawing after freezing— is confined to Fall and Spring. 



Mr. Bell, of Dakota, has a peach orchard three years old, and "intends " to supply the St. 

 Paul market with its delicious fruit. We wish him success. We see no reason to doubt the 

 success of peach culture in our State, if cultivators, will only take the pains to protect their 

 'trees. We regard Mr. Bell's method as excellent. H. F. Masterson, Esq., one of the earliest 

 of our pioneer fruit growers, has settled the lieacli question. He has raised on the blutt's of 

 Summit Avenue as fine peaches as can be grown in New Jersey. The trees were trained 

 near the ground, and covered during the frost months with straw: no more trouble than cov- 

 ering strawberry plants. For the past two Winters he has been engaged away from home, 

 most of the time as attorney for one of our railroad companies, which caused his trees to be 

 neglected and uncovered. They were consequently greatly injured. In all the Middle States 

 the peach crop is very uncertain, but protection here or there would probably make it certain 

 and annual. One moderate crop here would much more than pay all outlay for an orchard, 

 including protection and every other expense. 



DODGE COUNTY. 



Maxtorville, Dodge Co., Oct., 29, 1S65. 

 D. A. Roherifion, E^q.: 



In answer to some of your questions, I will begin by giving a description of my garden. 

 It was grubby hazel brush land, black soil, with clay subsoil, and partially protected from 

 west and northwest and south winds. Garden plowed in the Spring of 1858, when I pro- 

 cured twelve apple trees and one pear from the Rochester, N. Y., Nurseries, spaded the 

 ground up, set them out then, barely leaved out once and died, In 1S60 I bought one dozen 

 more, raised from grafts six miles north of this place, and set them in about the same place 

 I set the first ones. The ground had been spaded and garden vegetables raised each year, 

 and was also manured. When I brought my trees home and set them out they were all 

 killed, or nearly so. They sprouted out at the bottom. The next year the man of whom I 



[Note by Colonel Eobertson]. * The best shelter trees for orchards are evergreens, which 

 may be interspersed with the front trees advantageously. 



