PROGRESS IN HORTICULTURE. 455 



stations, and the thousands of intelligent men, women and children 

 who are encouraging- the work by selecting and planting seeds, the 

 ideal apple will soon be here, and millions of future generations 

 will rejoice because of the fruits of our labors. 



HARDY FRUITS FOR NORTHERN IOWA AND SOUTH- 

 ERN MINNESOTA. 



CHAS. F. GARDNER, OSAGE, IOWA. 

 (Southern Minnesota Horticultural Society.) 



This is a question in which we all have the deep^t interest and is 

 a subject that requires the most careful consideration. One of the 

 best authorities to which I call your attention is your state horticul- 

 tural reports, which can be had each year on payment of the small 

 sum of one dollar. I feel that a person has but little interest in the 

 subject of growing fruits if he considers it too great a hardship to 

 pay his dollar annually for your magnificent reports. It is true 

 that the experiences as recorded sometimes appear conflicting to 

 the casual reader, but when we consider the difference in environ- 

 ments, that can sometimes be noticed on farms situated within one 

 mile of each other, the soil, the slope, the water line, the underlying 

 strata beneath the surface, being essentially different, then it can be 

 seen why there is a conflict in the reports on the growth and con- 

 dition of the same plant under these circumstances. 



There is still another way to account for these variations in the 

 reports, where all the conditions spoken of, are apparently similar^ 

 except culture and management. One man may thoroughly pre- 

 pare his ground in the autumn by first plowing shallow and then 

 grinding this surface with the pulverizer and afterward plowing 

 again to the depth of twelve to sixteen inches, and thus be able to 

 catch and hold every drop of rain-water that falls thereon. This 

 soaks down into the sub-soil and is brought up again when needed 

 by capillary attraction. When spring comes the fruit trees and 

 plants are set out, and the surface of the earth is kept covered with 

 a dust blanket by frequent but shallow cultivation. This man will 

 report success with given varieties, while the man who plows only 

 once in the fall and shallow at that, or lets his ground alone until 

 spring and then prepares it in the ordinary way, will if the season 

 is dry report his efforts as more or less a failure. 



A man who has interest enough in growing fruit trees to prepare 

 his land the autumn previous as I have described will have the 

 energy to wind the trunks of all trees with a piece of burlap, so that 

 no tree will be girdled by rabbits; he will throw up a bank of earth 

 around each tree to the height of a foot or more to protect from 

 mice and also to protect the crown of the plant from the inclemen- 

 ces of winter; he will wash the trunks and large branches twice a 

 year with strong soapsuds, thus preventing the attacks of the 

 borers; he heads his trees low, so that as soon as possible the stem 

 is shaded by its own foliage, and until this time arrives the burlap 



