56 ANNUAL REPOKT 



FALL OR SPRING DELIVERY OF TREES AND PLANTS, OR 

 WHY DO HARDY FRUIT TREES DIE IN MIN- 

 NESOTA. 



BY M. PEARCE. 



Answer, from various causes; I can answer all of them satisfactory to myself, 

 but probalih' not all to the public, and what I am about to say on tlie numerous 

 causes, are my own views after years of experience; various experiments, and close 

 observation. 1 ask no one to endorse them unless they coincide with their own 

 views and experience. I am fully satisfied that more hardy fruit trees are killed, 

 or fatally injured during the intervening laeriod, from the time the trees are taken 

 up in the fall, and commence growing in the spring, than from anj^ other cause. 

 It is generally believed that when trees are taken up in the fall and heeled or 

 pitted in, tliej' are secure, and will come out in good condition in the spring. 

 This depends in what condition the trees and ground are in when placed in winter 

 quarters. If the wood was ripe when the trees were dug, and the ground suf- 

 ficientlj- moist, and the trees heeled in as they should be, thej- will come out m 

 perfect condition. But if the trees were stripped and dug at the time when they 

 were making their healthiest and best growth, about the twentieth of Septemlter, 

 I do not think it is possible to keep them in anything like good condition, by any 

 known means, such as is practical by nurserymen and fruit-growers. A careful 

 examination of all parts of a tree at this time will present a wonderfully imperfect 

 structure, torn from its mother earth and all supplies, just at a time when it. was- 

 pvitting forth every effort to complete its numerous organs, to give it protection 

 against heat, cold, damp, drying winds and sun, when the earth is frozen and all 

 nourishment is stopped from the r( ots. Thus prematureh' removed, it is at the 

 mercy of every element, like a cake of ice exposed to a June sun without any 

 power of resistance. Such trees, to say the most I can in their favor, are worth- 

 less for piautiug, and the best use I know for them, is to use them for pea brush. 

 Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of such trees in years gone by, have found 

 their way to Minnesota, and not only destro^-ed the business of honest nurserymen, 

 but created a distrust in apple raising throughout the State, which in realit}- has 

 no fovmdation. 



About the middle of October, is about the usual time fruit trees are dug. In this 

 State it is too soon; the Avood is not ripe with the exception of a few varieties. 

 Trees dug at this date, so far as outward appearance is concerned, are all right in 

 the spring, Init inwardly are affected, and it will make its sppearance in the future 

 as will appear hereafter. 



Fruit trees injured on the south side and other parts (this is my opinion) is the 

 result of four or more causes, namely: digging the trees too early in the fall, plant- 

 ing out too early in the spring, setting too deep and reversing the position of the 

 trees as they stood in the nursery. To illustrate my views, experiments, and re- 

 sults on this sul>ject more fully, and to show the power of resistance there is nat- 

 urally in a tree, take for an example, six Wealthy apple trees, three years old; this 

 variety is about ten days later in ripening its wood than the Duchess of Oldenberg. 

 Dig three of those trees about the lOlh or l.'ith of Octol)er, the other three after the 



