220 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



all the rain falls. He trims back more than half the last year's 

 growth and sets the tree some six to nine inches deeper than it stood 

 at the nursery. What dirt came out of the hole he spreads on the 

 surface around the tree, not putting any of it back into the hole. 

 As a result of this method of planting he says, "They will grow, 

 I can tell you." The orchard is used for growing vegetables, in- 

 suring good cultivation, and a good dressing of manure is put on 

 every other yea*r. With this treatment a Malinda tree planted in 

 1895 has already borne three crops of apples ; the last two years they 

 bore over a bushel each year. Tree planters can get some profitable 

 hints from Mr. Miller's experience. — Sec'y. 



HORTICULTURE IN SOUTH DAKOTA. 



p. J. BENTZ, PRESIDENT SOUTH DAKOTA SOCIETY. 



(A talk.) 



It gives me great pleasure to appear before you, but it would 

 give me more pleasure to listen to you than to speak to you, and 

 while we have a great gusher in our town and have a good many 

 other good things, we have not got many horticulturists, and while 

 we can afford plenty of water we cannot afford much cider, but 

 by the grace of the South Dakota horticulturist we propose in time 

 to furnish the apples, and as an initiatory step we have planted some 

 apple trees. I will just state that one nursery, and I am sorry to 

 state that it is a foreign nursery, has shipped in two thousand dol- 

 lars' worth of trees in one year in our little county of sixteen town- 

 ships, and a great many of our people buy directly from nurseries, 

 and then home nurseries sell trees there to a greater or- less extent, 

 and it is a fair statement to say that we have planted from $2,500 

 to $4,000 worth of fruit trees in our county of Sanborn. If all those 

 trees were planted by South Dakota horticulturists or by people 

 who read Minnesota horticultural literature we might expect in a 

 very short time to be able to produce some apples, but I am sorry 

 to say a great many of those trees are nlanted by people who have 

 no more knowledge of what is adapted to the northwest and its con- 

 ditions than they have of growing oranges in Florida, and as a con- 

 sequence we do not expect to raise many apples in the near future 

 at least. In order to accomplish something along practical lines 

 the South Dakota Horticultural Society has very kindly agreed to 

 meet with us in our town this winter, and we hope by having a 

 little horticultural experience related by old timers in our state and 

 from vour state the people will be somewhat educated along the 

 line of fruit they ought to plant. 



I am a new recruit in the field of horticulture, and I am not en- 

 titled to the distinction that the society has placed upon me by elect- 

 ing me president, unless it is in this respect, that I am somewhat 

 of an enthusiast and will keep the ball rolling:, but as far as practical 

 experience goes I have not much to boast of ; although I have lived 



