352 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The most northerly point visited was Argyle, a small town 

 fifty miles north of Crookston, and about the same distance from 

 the Manitoba line. On the places of H. L. Melgaard and his broth- 

 er there I ■ found some very healthy apple trees, planted some six 

 years and generally bearing fruit, of the Hibernal, Charlamoff, 

 Duchess, Wealthy and Ostrekoff varieties ; and also Patten's Green- 

 ing, Anisim, and University, which had not fruited as yet. There 

 were also trees in bearing of the De Soto, Forest Garden, Wyant 

 and Aitkin plums. On these grounds also were a large variety of 

 ornamental shrubs, roses, etc. The apple trees were not struggling 

 for existence, but were healthy and. vigorous. The Red River Val- 

 ley, as our readers must know, is a level plain, without timber, ex- 

 cept a thin fringe along the banks of the streams that run into the 

 Red River, and usually a very good belt of timber along the Red 

 River itself. 



The places referred to at Argyle were fairly well protected 

 from winds in all directions, though there was nothing like any for- 

 mal windbreak or close protection around them. But incidentally, 

 being in the village, there w r ere many trees and buildings that broke 

 the force of the winds. 



At Halstead, about forty miles south of Crookston, on the open, 

 flat prairie, I found a most interesting orchard on the place of Rev. 

 O. A. Th. Solem, an old resident of the valley, and for many years 

 a member of this society. Without being able to state exactly, I 

 judge there were from seventy-five to 100 trees in his orchard, the 

 oldest having been planted about ten years. They were Hibernal, 

 Patten's Greening, Duchess, Arctic, and a number of varieties of 

 crabs. The oldest of these trees had attained a normal size for their 

 age, and were very healthy and vigorous trees, not fruiting very 

 much, as I saw them, but, I understand, had borne a good crop the 

 year preceding. Trees a little younger of a number of other varie- 

 ties of apples were doing well and promised practical results. This 

 orchard is exceptionally unfavorably situated, it would seem, as it is 

 entirely open to the north for a long distance, a mile or more, at 

 least, and devoid of any kind of protection, giving a tremendous 

 sweep of wind in that flat country. But it is unusually well protect- 

 ed on the south by a row of deciduous trees near by, and a few rods 

 away by other rows of deciduous trees interspersed with ever- 

 greens, making a very close windbreak at that distance. In this arti- 

 cle I am not making special reference to crab apples, though many 

 varieties of these were found at all the points referred to, my pur- 

 pose being to show the condition of the pyrus malus, the common 

 apple, found growing in this northern region. 



