282 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



one year younger and are one rod apart and will average one-half 

 bushel per tree for 1902. But I am told that the trees begin to die 

 and will soon all be in the wood pile. Do not the farmers' hogs die? 

 We hear of all the hogs on a farm dying of the cholera. The chinch 

 bug is in the wheat, rain falls on the oats and barley, but who ever 

 heard of a farmer not sowing or planting on that account? The 

 outfit for an orchard is a knife, a saw, a ladder and a basket; for 

 small grain a seeder, a self-binder, and both are expensive and are 

 used only for a short time. 



I asked one of my friends who bought a farm with an orchard on 

 it, how his apples paid this year. His answer was, "Oh, I never 

 took time to pick them up," and still he drags that binder over the 

 fields year after year, and gets less money. Now it seems to me 

 as farmers we do not figure the relative cost or profit of our crops 

 as we might. 



In this paper I shall not advise any one how to plant or treat 

 an orchard, but merely state how I do it. If it is a dry spring when 

 the tree is half planted pour in a pail of water and then fill in the 

 balance of the dirt. Have prepared strips of old gunny-sacking 

 about three inches wide and long enough to reach the first limbs. 

 Commence at the ground by putting some earth on the end of cloth 

 to hold it and wrap it around the tree up to the first limb. Put it 

 over the limb so it will not slip down and tie it there. Put a wheel- 

 barrow load of coarse manure and bedding from the stable around 

 the tree. The sacking will last with little care until the bark on the 

 tree gets thick enough to protect it from the sun, the borers and the 

 rabbits. Add to the mulching each year as long as the tree lives, 

 putting a little more on as the tree gets larger. 



Some of my trees die. I fill in others as soon as possible. I 

 have made some mistakes and expect to make some more. One was 

 when I failed to trim part of my trees ; another was when I trimmed 

 the other part. The branches on the untrimmed part grow so low 

 that it is difficult to carry a basket of apples out of the orchard and 

 one has to crawl around on hands and knees to pick up the fallen 

 apples. I waited so long before I decided to trim the other part 

 that the limbs were most too large. Another was leaning the tree 

 towards the two o'clock sun. Will never do that again. Another 

 was when I planted my acre of orchard. Instead, I should have 

 planted ten acres. 



