HORTICULTURE IN SOUTH DAKOTA. 221 



in tliat section of the country nearly twenty years I commenced to 

 plant apple trees only a few years ago. I note that the people who 

 did plant apple trees in that section of country in the early days are 

 almost of one opinion that it is folly to fool away time and money 

 in planting fruit trees. I presume the people of Minnesota have 

 had the same experience, and I regret to say that my Hmited knowl- 

 edge of horticulture in the northwest prevented me from planting 

 anything, except that I planted cottonwood, box elder and ash, but 

 I eked out an existence for half a life time without making any 

 effort to raise an apple. and very few flowers. The reason that we 

 are just beginning to do something along the line of fruit culture 

 is because heretofore we have not had any way to gain experience, 

 and we are just gaining a knowledge from the experience of those 

 people who know what is the right sort of method and which are the 

 correct varieties to plant. 



Our state has made no provision for publishing horticultural re- 

 ports, and the only source of revenue we have to sustain our society 

 is the small membership fee, and if it were not for the Minnesota 

 societv we w^ould have no horticultural literature. The meeting at 

 Woonsocket next January will be the beginning of the extension of 

 horticultural lines to the northwest. It will be the furthermost out- 

 post at which the horticultural society has ever met. Th^it is not 

 saying they cannot raise fruit there. Within twelve miles of our 

 town is an orchard that produces from 500 to 1,000 bushels of apples. 

 (Applause.) The way our people look at that thing is that this 

 particular orchard is located on sandy soil, and they say there is 

 something peculiar about the soil in that section that will permit 

 the trees to do well, and the gentleman upon w^hose farm the orchard 

 is located has an artesian well, and they say it is his artesian well 

 and the peculiar soil that permits him to grow trees and raise fruit. 

 West of us there is an orchard that produces two hundred bushels 

 of apples. The owner of this orchard cultivates the first season and 

 puts on a deep mulch of straw, thenjie cultivates and remulches. 

 He mulches the whole surface of the ground. He raises apples in 

 abundance, but they say he lives near the hills, if he were out away 

 from the hills he could not do it. There is a peculiarity about the 

 soil that makes the difference and which enables that man to produce 

 fruit, and the other man has an artesian well, which accounts for his 

 success, and we who are not so favorablv located cannot do it ; that 

 is the argument they use. The man who has no artesian well and 

 whose soil is not sandy raises apple trees, and the man who has a 

 w-ell and has a sandy soil raises apples, but the people between can- 

 not raise any. 



But the people are spreading the gospel of horticulture, we are 

 getting people interested, we are beginning to pjant trees in earnest, 

 and a great many people are making a practical demonstration along 

 that line. I am not in the nursery business or in the fruit growing 

 business, but I have made a beginning. I have ten acres planted 

 and by next spring will have double that, and I am going to continue 

 as long as mv money holds out. We are going to do something, 

 and ere manv vears vou will find South Dakota producing apples 



