AN ORCHARD EXPERIENCE OF ONE-THIRD CENTURY. 259 



AN ORCHARD EXPERIENCE OF ONE-THIRD CENTURY. 



ANDREW WILFERT, CLEVELAND. 



Progress, the watchword of the nineteenth century ! Progress, 

 in every branch of industry ! Even the backwood's farmer is fur- 

 nished not only a cheap newspaper, but he can sit and read by a 

 gas lamp about the nice fruit that was on exhibition at the state fair. 



I am a farmer. From my earliest recollections I entertained 

 the idea that no farm was complete without an orchard. In 1856 

 I came to Minnesota, and I found the most exuberant vegetation 

 I had ever laid eyes upon ; I did not imagine an obstacle existed 

 that would hinder us from raising fruit trees. 



As soon as I had a piece of land that I could call my own I 

 wrote back to Indiana for apple seeds. They grew, but winter- 

 killed to the roots nearly every winter. 



In the fall of 1865, when I came home from the south, I 

 bought 100 trees that had been grown near Garden City, Minn., 

 purported to be perfectly hardy. Two of them lived long enough 

 to produce a few apples, then winter-killed. 



The same fall I bought a barrel of Ben Davis apples. Every 

 seed in them was saved and planted. Over 1,000 germinated. In 

 the spring of 1867 I found about one-third of them winter-killed, 

 root and branch; the most of the other two-thirds had winter- 

 killed to the ground. I took care of them for four or five years, 

 and then I left them in disgust. In the spring of 1872 I concluded 

 to grub them out. While at work I found one about six feet high 

 and as straight as a whip stock. I could see that it had always 

 started to grow from the very tip, and so I set it out. In 1876 it 

 produced three apples. In the fall of 1879 Captain Ts G. Carter, 

 from St. Peter, came to my place and saw the tree with about 

 one-half bushel of apples on it. I informed him that they were a 

 winter apple, and he pronounced the tree the most valuable tree 

 in Minnesota. He took a few of the apples to the winter meet- 

 ing of the horticultural society. Martin Cook, from Rochester, 

 Minn., proposed to me to exchange scions; he had what he claimed 

 hardy kinds. I exchanged with him on condition that he should 

 not dispose of any young trees from my scions without my con- 

 sent or on such conditions as I might impose. The scions I got of 

 Mr. Cook were carefully grafted on Transcendent trees, but none 

 of them stood our winters. 



In 1884 I had 700 apple trees on my place; in the spring of 

 1885 I had twenty-one alive, as follows: my seedling; out of 100 

 Duchess trees, nine; out of 100 Wealthys, nine; out of twelve 



