FOUR MINN. ORCHARDS IN FIFTY YEARS. 425 



After we had talked business I said to him, "Mr. Gideon, I have an 

 orchard which I think is very promising, and I would like to have 

 ■you look at it." He made a critical examination of every tree and 

 said, "Mr. Chowen, you have the finest prospect for an orchard I 

 ever saw in my life." This came from pretty good authority, and I 

 thought myself 1 had a pretty good orchard. 



The trees were growing nicely, and they began blossoming when 

 they were six years old, some of them. I guess there are enough here 

 who remember that about that time Father Abraham had had a little 

 difficulty with the people down south, and he sent an agent to me who 

 said, "Mr. Chowen, we would like to have you help us.'' I shoulder- 

 ed a gun and went south, and when I left home I had the finest pros- 

 pect for an orchard. The prospect could not have been better. I 

 think they were all in blossom that spring. I went awav in July, and 

 there were a good many trees that had apples on that summer. 

 When we got things settled down there so I could come home — and 

 I came home in July — there was not a single tree alive, they were 

 all gone. The roots were alive when I dug them out, but the trees 

 were gone. They had apparently decayed from the heart, because 

 there was some of the outside bark that was alive when they were 

 broken down. Some of them were not down, but they had not leafed 

 out. 



That was the first orchard. I concluded to have another, so I 

 hunted around for somebody who had young trees to sell. I finally 

 found a man who had some. I got the same number of trees and 

 set them out — and there is no use talking it all over again, but the 

 same results followed as in my first experience. Thev started very 

 vigorously, they were nice young trees, and about the time they 

 began to blossom they also began to break down. I think they were 

 probably eight or nine years old when all of them were gone ex- 

 cept two. I had two trees that were green and promising as any 

 I ever saw, and that was the Haas and what w^e would have 

 called down in Wyoming county a harvest apple. It ripened in 

 August, and it was as fine an eating apple as^ I ever tasted in my 

 life. It was a small tree, it did not grow large, and the apple 

 was of medium size, and when ripe the apple had a sort of yel- 

 lowish bloom. 



I concluded to have an orchard, so I began to talk with some of 

 the leading men of this society, Mr. Gideon, Mr. Grimes and others, 

 and I think I talked also with Mr. Elliot. They advised me to get the 

 Wealthy and Duchess. I thought I would do so, and so I ordered 

 a number, I do not know how many I ordered, but I know I paid 

 a hundred dollars in cash for them to somebody in this state. I do 



