428 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



CARE AND CULTURE OF APPLE AND PLUM TREES. 



O. W. MOORE. SPRING VALLEY. 

 (Southern Minnesota Horticultural Society.) 



I have been interested in fruit culture in the state for the past 

 thirty-five years. I began here in Spring Valley in 1872. All that I 

 have left of that planting is three Duchess apple trees. Five years 

 ago this coming spring I began planting a young orchard of one 

 hundred trees. My soil is what is commonly known as hazel brush 

 land and clay subsoil and rock within about five feet of the surface. 

 My varieties are mostly those recommended by our state horticult- 

 ural society, all of which are doing well. My method of culture has 

 been to cultivate to hoed crops for the first two years, mulching with 

 stable litter (three-quarters straw), just after a few inches of snow. 

 By so doing I am never troubled with mice, as they will not work 

 under the mulch when placed on top of snow. As soon as the 

 ground becomes workable in the spring, I remove all mulch and 

 work the soil thoroughly, removing all grass roots within a circle 

 of some six feet or more, after which I apply a dressing of wood 

 ashes. I cultivate those circles about the roots of my trees about 

 once a week through the months of May and June, after which time 

 I return the mulch and protect the roots and retain the moisture 

 through the hot and usually dry months of July and August. The 

 balance of the ground between the trees I have seeded to red clover 

 and alfalfa with good results. 



In alfalfa we have a plant that when well established will last 

 many years. Mine is three years old now and is improving every 

 year. I am not troubled with June, or blue, grass working in, as al- 

 falfa has a tendency to work everything else out. The first crop is 

 ready for cutting about the time of our first red clover cutting, and 

 in ten days, with favorable weather, the second crop will shade the 

 ground. It is better to sow it early in the spring, that it may get a 

 good start before dry weather. Do not sow it with any other crop, 

 but by itself on a good seed bed. It puts down a long tap root into 

 the subsoil, and will endure drouth after it becomes well estab- 

 lished. 



The Yellow Transparent is the only variety of apple that has 

 troubled me with blight thus far, and that not seriously, but the 

 apple gouger disfigured nearly my whole crop the past season. 



I have a plum grove of fifty trees, of some ten different varieties. 

 My method of culture is very much the same as that of my apple 

 orchard, except that I have been cultivating the whole plat to hoed 

 crops, and am now going to try mulching with straw deep enough 

 to keep down all vegetation. 



The aphis, or leaf louse, has been troublesome the past year, but 

 by practicing Prof. Green's method of smoking my trees with to- 

 bacco stems I effectually cleaned them of this pest. My plan 

 is to procure a light grade of muslin or eheeting, cut off and 

 sew together, making a canvas large enough to envelop the tree; 

 throw it over the tree and then throw dirt on the bottom (or two or 



