MY SEEDLING ORCHARD. 75 



or eighteen inches deep when planting and set the trees four to six 

 inches deeper than they were in nursery. I mulch soon after I get 

 them planted. The way I protect them in winter is by putting 

 poisoned squash seeds around my trees just before the snow comes, 

 and I have no trouble. I prune them as I think they need it. As 

 they grow very differently, some need a great deal more pruning 

 than others. I have about sixty trees that had a few apples on this 

 year. 



Mr. Wyman Elliot : My attention was first called to this lot of 

 seedlings at the state fair, where Mr. Perkins had, in the Goodhue 

 County exhibit, about forty-five samples of them on exhibition. 

 After examining the fruit and testing the cjuality of some I invited a 

 few of the friends of horticulture to examine them also. We all be- 

 came so much interested in them that I concluded to take a trip down 

 there to look at them. So on the 17th day of September I went 

 down there and spent a half day with Mr. Perkins, and I will say 

 that if any one in Minnesota has a nicer seedling orchard it must 

 be a good one. His orchard is protected on the south by his build- 

 ings and other orchards that act as windbreaks. It has an exposure 

 on the west which, if I owned the orchard, I should try to overcome 

 very quickly by putting in a double windbreak. The land is a little 

 rolling, a very deep clay loam, and it is what I would pick out as 

 an ideal soil for orcharding. I went into the old orchard and saw 

 where the original trees grew, and they pointed out the surround- 

 ing trees that furnished the pollen which fertilized the blossoms 

 of the tree on which this fruit grew. In these seedlings we can see 

 the type of the tree from which the pollen came. There are only 

 two or three that resemble the mother tree, the Malinda, and the 

 rest seemed to take on the quality, color, size, shape and other points 

 from the other side. I say to you it is one of the best object lessons 

 in a seedling apple grown that we have in the state. There is only 

 one other that I know of that comes anywhere near it, and that is 

 the Lyman seedling. 



There is one seedlino^ of the Malinda which, if you were to see 

 it now you would hardly believe it to be such so far as color and 

 texture is concerned. It is a fine apple and shows good keeping 

 qualities. There is one other that is almost identical with the 

 Wealthy in shape and color. I have not tested the quality of it, 

 but I should say on a guess that it was a very fair quality. The 

 trees as a whole are the healthiest, thriftiest and cleanest looking 

 lot of orchard trees I have seen in Alinnesota. They have had ex- 

 cellent care and cultivation. After four years I understand thev 

 were seeded down to clover, and when I was there the clover stood 

 eight to nine inches high, and you can imagine what a nice, clean, 

 thrifty lookins: orchard it must have been. It was one of the most 

 pleasing looking orchards I have seen in all my life. The bodies 

 of the trees are from two to three feet high, from which point the 

 branches spread out and make a nice top. There is one remarkable 

 thing about the orchard, and that is that there is very little blight. 



