404 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
I also believe that one great mistake people make in setting out trees 
on our steep hillsides is in not setting them deeper in the ground. Most 
always the hole is measured from the upper side; in that case the roots are 
but little more than covered. The depth of the hole should always be con- 
sidered from the lower side without reference as to the depth on the upper 
side, otherwise the roots will grow too near the surface, which makes them 
more easily affected by drouth and injured by severe freezing. 
I have apple trees growing on all kinds of slopes from nearly a dead 
level to a 45 degree incline, and I also observe that where the incline is 
steepest the tree is less vigorous and healthy, and that the nearer you 
get to the foot of the hill the more vigorous and healthy the tree, regardless 
of which way the ground may slope. I think that results.from the fact that 
the gradual wash of soil from above not only makes the soil richer and 
stronger, but it has the benefit of more moisture, two of the most important 
conditions necessary to tree growth. 
When traveling through our hilly country you will very frequently see 
trees leaning at about the same incline as the ground on which they stand, 
and on examination you will find that it results from too shallow planting 
and cultivating too close to the tree, in connection with the gradual wash- 
ing off of the soil until the tree can no longer maintain itself, mostly because 
the tree was not planted one-half deep enough. I think the same mistake is 
made in setting trees on prairie farms. 
There has been a great deal written and much said in regard to some 
kind of winter protection for apple trees. When I first commenced growing 
and setting out trees in Minnesota I was made to believe, until I thought it 
was an actual fact, that an orchard could not be made to grow or live with- 
cut some kind of windbreak—that there were three things that were abso- 
lutely necessary to success in growing an orchard in Minnesota: first, a 
steep north hillside; second, the young trees must be protected by a double 
row of willows or cottonwood trees; third, you would need to locate in 
some deep valley or mountain gorge, if you could find one, where it never 
got warm in summer or cold in winter. So that for one to think of putting 
cut an orchard on the higher ground in the timber or planting an orchard 
on the prairie without first having his hollow square well fenced in with a 
double row of willows would be considered a little bit luney, or that one 
had money and labor to throw away. Experience and observation have sat- 
isfied your humble servant that those old time windbreaks are not essential 
to the growth of an orchard in Minnesota or any other state; that good 
cultivation and a good wire fence are the only protection necessary to the 
growth of a good, healthy, long-lived orchard. By good cultivation you 
grow a vigorous, healthy tree, you add moisture to the soil and at the same 
time prevent the tree from becoming choked to death with June grass; 
while the fence prevents the stock from taking possession and destroying it. 
While traveling through our part of the country I have noticed that 
those who have succeeded in growing an orchard have filled the two above 
requirements, and have no complaints to make why their trees have not done 
well. 
I do not consider it essential that every one should attend horticultural 
meetings or read articles written on tree culture in order to know how an 
orchard can be raised that will pay good interest on the money invested. He 
needs but observe how others do that succeed in that line. He can soor 
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