154 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



FRUIT LIST FOR WEST CENTRAL MINNESOTA. 



D. T. WHEATON, MORRIS, 



I am requested to prepare a fruit list of six apples and four 

 plums for the west central Minnesota. In preparing such a list 

 it is very largely attempting to do something that time alone can 

 verify, as experience in fruit growing here does not extend back 

 much over twenty years, and many of the varieties that promise 

 well have a much shorter record. 



My experience covers a period of twenty-three years, at which 

 time I began planting apple trees on the open prairie of western 

 Minnesota, and I have kept at it ever since. I have found no 

 trouble in getting trees to grow, and I have not any special way of 

 setting trees. In fact the trees have grown too well, for I set 

 my trees close together, expecting that half or more of them would 

 die out in a year or more. But they have continued to live, and the 

 result is that I have trees standing much too close together. The 

 test winters have not seemed to come, or the trees have stood them. 



I have something over eighty varieties of apple trees growing, 

 and about half of them have fruited. The first trees were set twenty- 

 three years ago, and the last the present season. Nearly all of the 

 trees that I have lost died of blight. I do not think a single tree has 

 died from root-killing, and I have used no protection except the 

 covering of leaves and snow. Only a few trees have blighted much. 



My location is on the open prairie on high ground sloping to 

 the north and east ; clay sub-soil and a slight windbreak on the 

 north and west. ^ 



In naming the six varieties I am well aware that the Hst will 

 contain some sorts that some of you will not think worthy to be 

 grown, but it will be the result of my observation and experience. 



1. I give the first place to the Duchess, as it is the apple for 

 the common people at the present time. It is hardy, productive, of 

 good size, a good cooking apple either green or ripe and brings a 

 good price in the home market till there is an over supply, which 

 stage has not been reached yet except when they were shipped in 

 from the south. The tree blights very little. Its chief failing is 

 that the fruit is perishable, its season being only a few weeks. 



2. The Wealthy I place second, although a better apple — good 

 to cook or eat — but it is not as hardy and is somewhat subject to 

 blight. I have trees that are nineteen years old, and they have 

 proved profitable, and I see no reason why it is not a safe tree to 

 be generally planted. 



