296 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



MY DUCHESS ORCHARD. 



ELI STONE, EXCELSIOR. 



My father had two orchards planted on his farm in Pennsyl- 

 vania, one sloping to tne east and the other sloping to the west. 

 The orchard that sloped toward the east bore well nearly every year, 

 while that on the western slope would bear once in four or five 

 years. This I observed, and it contradicted to some extent the 

 idea that Minnesota fruit men have in that they claim that a 



DIAGRAM SHOWING METHOD OF ARRANGING TREES WITH BASIN AND 

 V-SHAPED DITCHES RUNNING TO EACH TREE IN MR. STONE'S 

 DUCHESS ORCHARD. 



northern slope is the best situation for the orchard. So when I 

 planted this little Duchess orchard I had a small piece of land 

 with about twenty degrees slope to the east, and I concluded that 

 would be a good place to set out my trees. I planted forty-five 

 Duchess trees there in 1882. In 1879 I had planted an orchard of 

 Wealthy trees, about one hundred in number, on the opposite side 

 of my driveway wh'ere the ground was level, and those Wealthy 

 trees came into bearing readily, and in 1883 they bore forty bushels 

 of very nice apples. That fall was the killing time in Minnesota. 



