GROWING NORWAY SPRUCE FOR PAPER PULP. 3807 
and only .64 cubic feet less than the red spruce at 108 years. What Norway 
spruce might accomplish on Maine soil and under Maine climate or what 
red spruce might do in Minnesota can only be conjectured. 
In closing I would again warn the reader that all comparisons in this 
paper are of growths under different conditions, but at the same time it is 
evident that Norway spruce is a rapid grower and will, under proper condi- 
tions of culture and fire protection, furnish pulp-wood in twenty-five or thir- 
ty years, so that the man who sows the seed may live to participate in the 
results. And I would recommend that this subject of the rapidity of growth 
of economic materials be given a thorough investigation, both by the state 
and by the paper manufacturers themselves. 
FRUIT CULTURE IN LAKE SUPERIOR REGION OF 
MINNESOTA. 
R. H. PENDERGAST, DULUTH. 
The culture of fruit in northeastern Minnesota has not progressed 
enough to show very well what can be done here, or how the results will 
compare with those in the rest of the state. Most of the early settlers 
thought that we were too far north, and that it was too cold to raise tree 
fruit successfully, and it was hard to get any of them to set out anything 
except crab apples and wild plums. For this reason the varieties of large 
apples that have been set long enough to bear fruit are limited. 
Those who did set out a few hardy apples, plums and cherries, find that 
their trees are healthy; and the fruit compares well with the same varieties 
raised in other parts of the state. Most of the trees that were set out first 
were summer varieties. 
The late Mr. Smith, of New Duluth, was always very much interested in 
fruit work, and he set out more trees than any other of the first settlers. But 
he made the same mistake that those who first set out trees in the southern 
part of the state did—he set his first orchard on a hillside with a southern 
exposure, to protect them from the cold; and the result was that most of 
those trees are dead or injured. The next trees that he planted were on 
ground that inclined a little to the northwest. This lot of trees were sent 
to him by Prof. Budd, of Ames, Iowa, and was a collection of Russian 
varieties and such seedlings as were being tried there at that time. 
I was at their place lately, and Mrs. Smith informed me that some of 
the varieties had died, and there were a few trees that did not look well, but 
the most of them showed a healthy, vigorous growth, and they had a fair 
crop of apples last year. We had a very wet, cold season here in 1899, and 
the later kinds did not ripen as well as usual. She gave me a few specimens 
to send down to you to exhibit at the meeting, if you thought best. 
Owing to the cool summer and shorter season for growth, the late win- 
ter apples do not ripen here; but with the moisture from the lake the trees 
make a healthy growth, and I think that those kinds that will ripen will 
produce finer fruit than that raised farther south. 
The interest in fruit culture is increasing, and many ‘are setting out 
trees, so that in a few years this part of the state will make a better exhibit 
of fruit than it can at present. In the older towns along the south shore of 
Lake Superior, in northern Wisconsin and Michigan, fruit culture has de- 
veloped much faster. Especially is this the case in Ontonagan County, 
