APPLE GROWING NORTH OF ST. PAUL. 233 
APPLE GROWING NORTH OF ST. PAUL. 
CLARENCE WEDGE, ALBERT LEA. 
(Read before Meadow Vale Horticultural Society.) 
Two years of rambling over the state with the Farmers’ Institute has - 
given me some ideas on orcharding that may be of value to the planters of 
Anoka and Sherburn counties. I have found many good and profitable little 
orchards north of you, and fully believe that on good high land with a clay 
or limestone subsoil you can easily grow what apples your families need if 
careful attention is given to avoid the mistakes that are everywhere made. 
In the first place, begin with the right kinds. Our state horticultural so- 
ciety is a very safe guide in this matter, and I enclose herewith several of 
their fruit lists. The hardiest and best of the large apples is the Hibernal; 
indeed it is the only winter variety that is recommended for general plant- 
ing, and wherever I have seen it planted it is doing finely. It has borne 
fruit in Crow Wing county and in Manitoba, as well as in many places all 
over the southern part of the state. It is a large, handsome fruit, best for 
cooking and fair to eat out of hand when fully ripened. The tree, in addi- 
tion to being of first hardiness, is also a very early bearer; trees set out 
seven years have borne a barrel of apples at my place. 
The Duchess is an old standby and should be planted as a mate to the 
Hibernal. The Wealthy is the finest of northern fruits, but scarcely hardy 
enough to be largely planted in your latitude. Longfield is almost equal in 
quality to the Wealthy, and as it bears so very early and so abundantly de- 
serves a small place in the orchard. The Repka is nearly as hardy as the 
Duchess and a true, hard, all winter keeper. If there was any nursery that 
: had trees large enough to sell I should recommend you to plant some of it. 
Among the crabs the Virginia stands at the head with the Martha a 
close second. Do not plant the Transcendent when you can get so much 
better kinds at the same price. 
Beginning thus with the right kinds, do not fail to give the trees careful 
cultivation. The idea of leaving orchards in sod is rapidly becoming obso- 
lete with intelligent men. As before indicated, high land with a clay or 
limestone subsoil is indispensable to the best success, but were I living on 
a river bottom I should still try a few Hibernal apples and the rest crabs. I 
now wish to impress one point in the care of the trees with the greatest, em- 
phasis: in our dry, clear, western climate the trunks and larger branches 
should always be shaded. It matters very little what device is used, corn- 
stalks set up about the trees and tied to them with durable twine will answer 
the purpose perfectly and will last two years or more. If this plan be fol- 
lowed, we should advise using a wrapping of wire net‘ing about the lower 
part of the trunks before applying the corn stalks, in order to insure the 
trees against girdling by mice. At our own place we use a.wrapping of lath 
held in place by a weaving of stove pipe wire. This serves as a protection 
against rabbits, mice and borers, as well as shading the trunks. Do not for- 
get that as the trees get older the larger branches will need the same shade 
that the trunk of the tree always requires. This idea of shading the trunks 
of our fruit trees is no fad. The thousands of sunscalded trees to be seen 
all over Minnesota and the northwest bear abundant testimony to the neces- 
sity of providing a cool and grove-like condition for this delicate portion of 
tree anatomy. 
