94 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



MONTEVIDEO TRIAL STATION, ANNUAL REPORT. 



LYCURGUS R. MOVER, SUPT. 



The reports of this station have already called attention to 

 the excellent results obtained by hill-side planting, when care is 

 taken to construct and keep open ditches running diagonally 

 up the hill, so as to gather up and conduct the water which 

 plows down the hill during sudden summer showers toward the 

 trees or shrubs. In this manner we have been able to successful- 

 ly grow the Russian tamarisk on a dry hillside after it had 

 wholly failed on level black prairie soil. A young orchard set 

 two years ago in tough prairie sod on a steep bluff has done so 

 well that we are convinced that the coming orchards in drv 

 southwestern Minnesota are thus to be grown. 



In setting an orchard on this plan a generous hole for the 

 tree should be dug, and the sods taken from the hole should be 

 used to form a permanent embankment on the down-hill side of 

 the hole. In digging the ditches from the hole diagonally up 

 the hill the sods are likewise to be used to raise an embank- 

 ment on the lower side of the ditch, so that the tree when set will 

 stand at the intersection of the two ditches, the ground sloping 

 from every direction towards the tree. The following diagram 

 will illustrate the plan : 





Plan of pif 1 ting tree in sidehill orchard. 



The soil in the bottom of the ditches and on the top of the 

 embankment must be kept carefully hoed, for your apple trees 

 will not grow in a tough sod of perennial grasses, such as is sure 

 to be formed on a wild prairie. 



Blight was unusually prevalent in the apple orchards. The 

 varieties most resistant to this disease are Peerless, Anis and 

 Estelline. Among the worst blighters are Orange crab and 

 Whitnev. 



