344 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



PLANTING AND CULTIVATION OF THE APPLE, PLUM, 



AND CHERRY. 



A. W. KEAYS, EI.K RIVER. 



(Read before the Horticultural Club of Constance, Anoka County, 



Minnesota.) 



For an orchard I would select good, rich soil, where I would 

 plant my garden. Plant the trees not closer than sixteen feet apart. 

 I should plant the rows twenty-five feet apart. The rows would be 

 better to run north and south ; they would protect each other from 

 the sun. 



I dig off a foot of the top soil, making my hole three or four 

 feet across and two feet deep. I throw away the bottom soil, using 

 only top soil to set my trees. Put in a little top soil, and lean your 

 tree a little to the southwest, and the sun will not strike them so 

 fairly and cause sunscald, and our hardest winds come from the 

 southwest, which will make them lean in the opposite direction. 

 I always set my apple trees ten inches deeper than they grew in the 

 nursery, if the soil is not too low, and plums and cherries three 

 inches deeper. I like a short body for the trees ; two or three feet is 

 best ; the trees do better in this part of the state with the limbs low 

 down. 



Leave six or eight inches of the hole that you do not fill up. 

 It will hold the rains in the summer and make the trees root down 

 deep ; in the fall fill up the hole before it freezes and bank up the 

 trees a foot higher than the level of the surrounding ground. This 

 will protect the trees from mice in the winter, and the water must 

 not stand around the body of the tree ; it might freeze and crack the 

 bark. Be careful and straighten out the roots nicely, and cover 

 them with some fine soil ; then press the dirt down carefully and 

 firmly all around the tree, leaving the soil loose on top. Stir the soil 

 around the trees every week with a garden rake and hoe and do not 

 let weeds and grass grow near the trees — it is poison to the trees. 



I grow all my garden in rows among my trees, and cultivate 

 with a horse. Do not grow corn near your trees, it saps the ground 

 too much. You can plow the land in the spring, using one horse 

 near the trees. I cover the land with fine dressing late in the fall, 

 which puts it in fine condition for the garden in the spring. 



When the trees begin to bear give them a liberal supply of 

 dressing ; they require it to bring their large crops of fruit to. ma- 

 turity. The fruit will be much larger. Wood ashes is a good fertil- 

 izer to spread around the trees in the summer when the fruit is 

 small. 



