I06 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Orcharding on the farm, does it pay? Let us see for ourselves 

 and compare the outcome with what could be raised on the same 

 ground in other crops, if the orchard were not planted. For ex- 

 ample, ten acres of land is laid aside; if a north slope is to be had 

 so much the better. Nine acres is set to apple trees, which, if set 

 twenty feet apart, will require 981 trees; the other acre, to our 

 hardy native plum, sixteen feet apart each way, which would re- 

 quire 170 trees. 



The apple trees should be varieties recommended by our Min- 

 nesota Horticultural Society and grown in this latitude or near it 

 and set out with as much care as a farmer sows his grain. For in- 

 stance: a hole two feet deep and two feet square should be dug and 

 six inches of good top soil placed in the bottom of it. Then set 

 the trees by spreading the roots out as they were before they were 

 dug, and slant the tops to the southwest, or two o'clock sun. 

 First throw m good top dirt and sift it through the roots until 

 covered, tramping the dirt firmly about them; then more dirt, and 

 keep on tramping as though you were setting a post until yovi get 

 to the surface, when the ground should be left loose and kept loose 

 all summer by occasional hoeing and cultivating. 



Now the first four seasons we plant four rows of potatoes, corn 

 or some other hoed crop between each two rows of apples and 

 three between each two rows of plums, thereby getting two crops 

 on the same ground and at the same time; and when cultivating 

 the hoed crops we cultivate the trees. Four seasons have gone by, 

 and the trees have shown but little fruit, yet the land has not been 

 idle, for we have been growing corn and potatoes on the ground, 

 and all the while our trees have been growing. In the fifth sum- 

 mer we are very apt to get a nice lot of Wealthy, Longfield, Pat- 

 ten Greening, Duchess and Anisim, which, if placed on. the market, 

 will bring 6 per cent interest on the original investment and, per- 

 haps, more. 



The sixth summer rolls round, and our orchard is nearing the 

 age for profits. If it be an apple year the early bearing varieties 

 will pay the original cost of the trees. Now at the end of the sixth 

 year our trees have not only paid for themselves but have paid us 

 interest on the investment, and after this period they are a con- 

 stant source of profit. True, orchards do not bear heavily every 

 year; but will bear some each year and heavily every other year 

 if properly handled. Each tree should get the same amount of 

 cultivation as a hill of corn and should be sprayed with a mixture 

 of one pound London purple to 160 gallons of water about three 

 times each season : first, about the time the fruit is setting ; second, 



