ORCHARD FRUITS IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY IN JULY. 285 



There is some blight in these orchards, as well as at Mr. 

 Yahnke's place at Winona, the Wealthy especially suffering- from 

 this cause, and in some cases quite seriously. The Okabena is a 

 variety particularly noticed that had comparatively little blight on it. 

 There are few plum trees in bearing at Lake City this year, and 

 cherries are not productive as far as has been experimented with 

 there. As a cultivator and propagator, Mr. Underwood is not to 

 be excelled. This place of several hundred acres looks like a gar- 

 den, and judging from the evidences of thoughtful care bestowed 

 upon it is successful in results. 



At two o'clock of this same day Mr. Elliot and myself were 

 met at Red Wing by Mr. T. E. Perkins, who drove us out to his 

 farm home, located on the rolling prairie a little beyond the head 

 of a long- incline leading up out of a valley situated between 

 two ridges coming up from the river where stands the city of 

 Red Wing, This location for air drainage and in many other 

 respects is a favorable one for fruit trees. The results of Mr. 

 Perkins' plantings give us sufficient evidences of this fact were 

 there no other in sight. The original Malinda tree, from which 

 the seeds were taken that grew the now famous Perkins' seed- 

 ling .orchard, is no longer alive. Many trees of other varieties 

 show the effects of age and the close environment of a shelter belt, 

 which practically shuts the orchard in from all directions, though 

 not so much from the east. The seedling orchard referred to is 

 protected very thoroughly on the south side by this shelter belt 

 and is located on the crest of a slope lying north of the farm home. 

 It consists of about 1 10 varieties. Other lots of seedling trees stand 

 in the garden on the south side of the buildings, that location also 

 being well protected by a windbreak on the south, though farther 

 away. These seedling trees are eight years transplanted and ten 

 years old from seed. They are a remarkably healthy lot, scarcely 

 a trace of disease about them and very little blight. Most of them, 

 also, are bearing an excellent crop and making a good growth. 

 Their thrifty appearance indicates that there has been no damage 

 from climatic or other causes. There is no shelter, as yet, on the 

 west side of these seedling orchards, but it is probable that, as they 

 are becoming of large commercial value, protection will be pro- 

 vided in that direction also. 



There are altogether about 170 seedling apple trees, all 

 grown from seed of the Malinda apple, sown the same season, 

 growing on this place, and about 150 of these trees are in bearing. 

 No two produce the same kind of fruit, although many of these 

 kinds have resemblance to the shape of the Malinda, while others 



