432 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
cultural Society assures us that in the near future we will have new species 
of apple trees which will be especially adapted to our climate. While waiting 
for these, we avail ourselves of the most hardy species and such as are least 
susceptible to blight, and on to these we top-graft other species. Thus we 
jog along the best we can, and if our expectations are not too great we will 
no doubt be satisfied with the results. 
The President: As Mr. Solem is not here in person, perhaps 
Mr. Hoverstad can tell us something of the conditions existing in 
the Red River Valley. 
Mr. Hoverstad: I have nothing particular to add to that paper. 
My experience in apple tree growing in the Red River Valley is 
very limited, and I have had very few results as yet, excepting dead 
trees. There were a number of trees planted at the experiment 
station in Crookston in 1896 and some in 1897, and of those planted 
in 1896 there are none alive except a Hibernal. Out of the other 
trees I think I have left one of the Duchess and one of the Wealthy, 
and those are killed back badly and are not at all promising. The 
only tree that looks really well is a Patten’s Greening. We planted 
three in 1897; one of them is dead, but the other two look excep- 
tionally well, and this fall they were the best looking trees we have 
on the ground. They are in an exposed place and receive no pro- 
tection whatever. We have some low growing green ash and cot- 
tonwoods on the south side, but on the north side there is no pro- 
tection, and they are growing where there is a good deal of alkali in 
the soil, and where cottonwoods would not grow at all. Down on 
Mr. Solem’s place he has done a great deal of work in growing 
apple trees, and the Arctic is the one most promising with him. 
So far the orchard is not old enough to come into bearing, but the 
trees look very well and have stood the winter in good shape. Last 
winter, according to the reports of people who spent the winter 
there, they had a temperature of fifty degrees below. Now if those 
trees can stand that amount of frost it would certainly seem that 
they were perfectly hardy. However, there was one thing in their 
favor, we had a great deal of rain during the fall so that the ground 
was very wet when it froze up, and that may have helped some, so 
the test was, perhaps, not so severe as if the soil had been dry. 
There are so many things to try that we cannot go into apple grow- 
ing at the present time. The Hyslop and Transcendent have been 
recommended. We planted six last year, and they all died. 
Mr. Dartt: What difference is there in the altitude of the 
valley, how much higher is the highest land than the lowest land in 
the valley? 
Prof. Hoverstad: There is no difference or very little. There 
is just a difference of a few feet in the valley from the east to the 
Aas 
