FALL PLANTING THE ORCHARD, 297 



not being able to get a supply of moisture from the roots, must 

 surely die. 



How, then, shall we obtain the benefits of the fall planting and 

 avoid its disadvantages? 



In November of 1897, we planted an orchard for ourselves in the 

 following manner: After having the ground plowed we made a deep 

 dead furrow, north and south, for each row of trees. Then we ran 

 a subsoil plow two or three times in the bottom of the dead furrow 

 until the ground was thoroughly pulverized. The preparation thus 

 far was made with the intention of planting the next spring should 

 covering for winter not prove practicable. We then took a few of the 

 largest trees we were intending to plant, being an inch or two in 

 diameter and five to six feet high, and planted them in the bottom 

 of the dead furrow, leaning them strongly to the southwest with 

 their tops directly over the bank of the dead furrow. 



After planting, the slanting tops were carefully pressed down on 

 the bank and covered with earth. It was so much easier planting 

 in this mellow soil — that worked like a bed of ashes — that the whole 

 job of planting and covering was much less work than simply 

 planting would be in the spring, when the ground is heavy, that we 

 at once put out the whole orchard of ten or twelve hundred trees 

 and covered the tops with earth. 



After planting we covered the ground well with manure around 

 and over the trees. In the spring as soon as the frost was out we 

 scattered the manure so it would harrow in. We then raised the tree 

 tops, leaving them slanting well to the southwest, and they com- 

 menced growing about as early as trees that had not been trans- 

 planted. 



With tops in perfect condition, and .'oil well settled around the 

 foots, the tree having the benefit of all the spring rain, it is but nat- 

 ural that they should make better growth than trees planted at .the 

 usual time in spring when the soil works well, which is when the 

 excessive moisture is out of the ground, and when the fall planted 

 tree has been enjoying wet weather for two or three weeks and is 

 now bursting its buds and starting a growth that will not be equal- 

 ed by the spring planted tree. 



REPORT, 1898, CHIEF FIRE WARDEN OF MINNESOTA. 



GEN'L C. C. ANDREWS. 



The fourth annual report of the Chief Fire Warden of Minnesota, 

 for 1898, is at hand, and we find it an entertaining and interesting 

 volume. The most notable thing in regard to forest fires in Minne- 

 sota is the fact that, although there were a few weeks of dry and 

 dangerous weather in the northern part of the state, both in the 

 spring and autumn, our state escaped any very serious fires, while 

 in the adjoining state of Wisconsin forest fires occurred in the fall 

 of enough magnitude to be heralded as a calamity. The forest firea 

 in Wisconsin, the million-dollar forest fire in Michigan in 1896 and 

 the extensive fires in South Dakota would impress a candid person 



