480 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



that they have been swindled enough by nurserymen, which is too 

 true. But I am not defeated and shall not surrender." 



Frances L. Town, Hewitt. 



"I have put out an orchard of 160 trees, on account of attending the • 

 horticultural meeting- last winter. I think nurserymen ought to get 

 trees to the planter in better condition, as many were dry and dead 

 that came to this neigborhood. This discourages the planter and 

 others who would try them. We think there is no society in the 

 state run with as much profit to the state as the Horticultural So- 

 ciety." Wm. Tomlinson, Hutchinson. 



"lam thinking better of the Philips' seedlings. The Avista.blights 

 some, but not so bad as it gets older. I think in a favorable place^it 

 would do pretty well, and the apple is a good keeper. I have some 

 in my cellar now (July 8, 1899) that are sound and good, and that 

 without extra care. The sweet apple,which I suppose is the Eureka, 

 is also a good keeper, and the tree has no bad faults. If I were 

 planting a new orchard, I would plant a good many of them." 



Sidney Corp, Hammond. 



"I would recommend the planting of none but the hardiest varie- 

 ties, and then top-work tender ones onto them. I would not do this 

 all in one year, but in three or four, and even then leave some of the 

 orchard stock. I would not use one kind but a number of kinds on 

 the same tree. I have thirty varieties of young apple trees. Tender 

 varieties worked on Virginia crab, with Duchess and Hibernal on 

 the same tree, came through the winter in good order, while young 

 root-grafts killed to the ground." Jens A. JENSON, Rose Creek. 



"I would recommend all fruit growers to weed out all trees that 

 summer-blight and dig out all that winter-kill. About forty-five 

 years ago I read a discussion of Wisconsin horticulturists upon the 

 merits and demerits of the Ben Davis apple. It was considered 

 hardy by a very small majority. Now, what I would like to impress 

 upon tree planters is, where the hardiness of a tree is questioned to 

 leave it out of the list. I had a fine Ben Davis tree, fifteen years old, 

 a beautiful tree. It bore one crop and then 'kicked the bucket'." 



John C. Walker, Rose Creek. 



"I commenced here on the wild prairie thirty-five years ago to 

 open a farm with my naked hands, and at the same time and up to 

 this time tried to demonstrate that soine fruit could be raised in 

 Minnesota, all in the face of the earnest advice and best iudgment 

 of my friends that apples, at least, could not be raised in this state 

 and surely not on the open prairie. Of course, it was uphill work the 

 first twenty years — but I persisted in planting seeds and root-grafts 

 until I have actually raised apples. Last season (1898)1 exhibited at 

 our county fair 233 varieties of apples, and this last June had forty 

 varieties keeping well in our warm farm house cellar and had a few 

 varieties still the first day of August. This season our crop is very 

 light — had to pick close to get 163 varieties to exhibit and very few 

 to sell. I furnished the seed in 1852 that raised the old Wolf River 

 tree and have the oldest Wolf River trees in the world, now that the 

 old tree is dead. I have hundreds of wild plums growing and be- 

 lieve we should, as a people, raise more plums and have been lately 

 setting all the grafted kinds. J. S. Parks, Pleasant Mounds. 



