242 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and protect one another and themselves, and this would prevent 

 blight and sunscald during the hot sunshine of July and August. 

 I carefully followed his directions. But the following spring I vis- 

 ited an orchard that was planted and cared for in this wise and had 

 been growing six or eight years without trimming. Well, it simply 

 had the appearance of a man whose finger and toe nails had never 

 been trimmed, and his hair and beard had never been shorn. 



I immediately transplanted every other tree in my orchard, leav- 

 ing the trees now 20x24 feet apart, and I now wish they were even 

 farther apart so as to let in all the sunshine that even July and 

 August will furnish. I also pruned the trees severely and cut out 

 all the brush wood. When I first planted those trees I mulched 

 the trees very liberally with rich barnyard manure after I had lightly 

 covered the roots with ground, and then I again covered the mulch- 

 ing with ground. When I transplanted them, every other tree, I 

 found that where the mulching had been applied the most liberally 

 the trees had grown a good, strong root system of fine fibrous roots. 

 This goes to show that liberal mulching and good thorough culti- 

 vation, and proper pruning, will keep the apple trees in a healthy 

 and sanitary condition, and enable them ta withstand even a drouth 

 during July and August, and live through a severe Minnesota 

 winter. In my experience a tree thus cared for will quite success- 

 fully withstand that most destructive disease called blight. 



Now let me give you the results. A year ago the past summer, 

 blight was very prevalent all over this state, and other states. I 

 have an orchard, located near my buildings, which is sheltered from 

 winds by an oak and evergreen grove on all sides. It slopes very 

 slightly to the north. I have a number of large apple trees in this 

 orchard, and I have trimmed out all the brush wood, so I can take 

 a pail in hand and walk up through the center of those trees, step- 

 ping from one branch to another, and pick the large red apples. 

 Those trees thus pruned blighted but very little and others that were 

 trimmed less, blighted more. This goes to show that we should 

 keep our trees well trimmed and "let the blessed sunshine in." 



I also have another orchard that is entirely surrounded by an 

 oak grove. The first and second rows of trees on the south side, 

 which are shaded by tall oak trees, were almost ruined by blight ; 

 the others blighted less. My other orchard, where I transplanted 

 those trees which I mentioned, did not blight at all, and this orchard 

 is sheltered from the south winds only. 



Many varieties of apple trees, especially the Wealthy, are given 

 to overbearing, and we get quantity at the expense of quality. In 

 this case the fruit should be thinned by picking off the surplus 



