434 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
water; it was all one lake, so that we are laboring under the dis- 
advantage on that farm of having very poor drainage. The soil 
is a very heavy clay soil without any sand, and in some places there 
is a good deal of gumbo, and here and there over the farm there is 
a great deal of alkali; consequently, we have a great deal to contend 
with in attempting to grow fruit on that particular farm. I fre- 
quently get letters from nurserymen all over the country asking 
me if we cannot try this or that, because if we succeed in growing 
certain trees they will grow in any part of the country. 
Mr. Dartt: It seems to me the most good we can do for the 
Red River Valley is to decide what place or what particular locality 
will afford the best location for apple trees. I have an opinion 
which I will give you, and if it does not meet with the approval of 
the society I hope they will object to it. My opinion is that if in 
that locality they will plant a protection on the south side and one 
on the west side and then plant their trees, starting in to plant them 
about fifteen or twenty feet from the windbreak on the south and 
west, put their trees along that windbreak a few rods to the north 
they will be most likely to be successful. I had trees that succeeded 
well just a few rods north of the windbreak when a little further 
north they killed out. This windbreak will be likely to catch the 
snow and hold it, and moisture is a great protector of trees. If my 
opinion agrees with the opinion of the society I think we ought to 
advise the people in charge of that experiment station to set their 
trees in that way. 
Mr. Latham: I have been in correspondence with Mr. Hagan, 
of Halstad, and he has talked in a very cheerful way of growing 
apples. He planted his trees so the snow would blow over them, 
but he has had to contend with a little animal known as the jack 
rabbit, and fencing was of no avail, as they would even step over a 
ten-foot fence, and the more snow that drifted in the higher he had 
to build his fence. He is planning now to roof it. (Laughter.) 
CONDITIONS NECESSARY TO THE SUCCESSFUL 
WINTERING OF A MINNESOTA ORCHARD. 
E. H. S. DARTT, OWATONNA. 
My theory is that orchards are killed out by drouth, by drying out in 
summer and freezing dry in winter, and the main thing to have an orchard 
in good condition is to have moisture. I believe that good cultivation is 
the best thing in the world to retain moisture in the ground. If any doubt 
that, let them go into an orchard that is seeded down in dry weather and 
see if the grass has not pumped the moisture all out of the ground. If you 
look at an orchard that is well cultivated you will find more moisture; 
it holds it better. Another point: manuring makes the soil hold moisture 
