STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 253 



SELECTION OF SITE. 



Almost any location can be made to answer for an orchard, except 

 the rich creek and river bottoms, and the sloughs and sags in the 

 prairies. The best site however is the high and dry summits of 

 the white oak ridges, where the soil is deep, but only moderately 

 rich. The advantages of such a situation are freedom from frosts 

 in spring and fall, and a soil not so rich as to stimulate an over- 

 growth of the tree; the tree therefore completes its annual growth 

 earlier, and ripens up its wood and is rendered more hardy to with- 

 stand the severe cold of winter. On ridges, also there is not that 

 extreme variation of atmospheric temperature that occurs in bot- 

 tom lands and valleys. In the day-time the temperature in a 

 valley or hollow protected by high blufiFs and trees will be several 

 degrees warmer than on the top of bluffs or elevations, and in the 

 night the case is reversed, and the temperature in the valley will 

 fall five to ten degrees lower than on the bluffs. The highest 

 swells upon the rolling prairie also make good sites for an orchard, 

 but the greater fertility of the soil renders it necessary to cease 

 cultivation earlier in the summer, lest the trees be stimulated to 

 make too late an autumn growth. Another very good location is 

 well up on the side hills of well defined valleys. 



An essential point toward success is in the selection of the soil 

 for an orchard. A good, loamy clay with an open, porous subsoil, 

 or a sandy loam have been demonstrated to be the very best. A 

 soil where sand predominates soon parts with such properties as 

 are essential in the structure and formation of vigorous and healthy 

 trees, and the perfecting of the highest flavor and quality of fruit, 

 and is liable to be injuriously affected by the heat and drouth of sum- 

 mer, and from its dry and loose nature the roots are more liable to 

 receive injury in a severe, snowless winter. Neither is a stiff clay 

 desirable, as itwill retain too much moisture in a wet time, and when 

 dry is hard and impervious to the action of the atmosphere. The 

 deep vegetable humus and alluvial deposits of which much of the soil 

 in the river bottoms and the depressions in the prairies is composed 

 is also unfavorable, as it is too easily stimulated to make a rank 

 growth of immature wood that cannot withstand the asperities of a 

 Minnesota winter. If the location and soil are favorable the aspect 

 is of less importance, but where a choice can be had I should select 

 ground that declined a little to the north, northeast or east. A 

 south-western aspect is the least desirable of any, for the reason 

 that our most destructive wi.nds come from that direction and the 



