104 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL, SOCIETY. 



ANNUAL MEETING, 1901, SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 

 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



DEWAIN COOK, WINDOM, DELEGATE. 



Leaving Winclom at noon, on Jan. 21st, I stopped over at 

 Worthington, Minn., for about three hours and visited the Ludlow 

 orchard, on the south shore of Okabena Lake. This orchard is about 

 twenty-five years old, and the home of the original Okabena apple 

 tree. I believe it is one of the finest, if not the best, old orchard in 

 western Minnesota. The old Wealthy trees are in apparently just as 

 good condition as were the old Duchess, and both were about per- 

 fect. The original Okabena tree is in fair condition. It has quite 

 a bit of sunscald upon it, but looks as if it was good for quite a few 

 crops yet. This orchard was in a mat of blue grass, and it has not 

 been cultivated for the past eighteen years, but has during that time 

 been heavily mulched five times with stable manure. This method 

 has certainly been a success with the old orchard, but his young 

 orchard given something like the same treatment has not been 

 much of a success and indicates to me that cultivation is preferable 

 to blue grass or mulching for young trees. 



Again taking the train, I arrived at Sioux Falls a little after 

 dark. On the morning of the 226., we proceeded to Germania Hall, 

 where about twenty persons were assembled. Mr. H. C. Warner, 

 the president, not being present, Mr. Geo. Whiting, of Yankton, 

 took the chair (and held it throughout the three day session). 

 Prof. N. E. Hansen was secretary. 



Your delegate was made an honorary member for one year, 

 and called upon for a few remarks. Prof. Hansen then gave a 

 short talk on the root-killing of our otherwise hardy apple trees. 

 This was followed by a talk by President Whiting. These talks, 

 with the discussion that followed, brought out the fact that winter 

 root-killing of newly set apple orchards is altogether of too fre- 

 quent occurrence. 



Prof. Hansen stated that the plum worked on the sand cherry 

 and allowed to grow in bush form was quite ornamental, and recom- 

 mended it for the amateur and for the home garden. He also 

 thought that the buffalo berry could in time be increased by selection, 

 cultivation, etc., to ten times its present size. 



We convened in the afternoon with about fifty persons present. 

 Mr. Whiting reported that 8,000 bushels of apples were grown in 

 the Alderman orchard the past season. Joseph Andrews, of Hurley, 

 in a paper on "Mulching vs. Cultivation," stated that cultivation was 

 best where it would be practical, but mulching should be resorted to 

 by farmers, as they are not likely to cultivate as it should be done. 

 Prof. Hansen cautioned against putting a heavy mulch around trees 

 when the ground was deeply frozen, as he had known of trees being 

 killed thereby, the trees putting forth their foliage in their usual 

 season, while the roots being encased in ice could not supply the 

 needed sap, and that which was in the trees became soon exhausted, 

 and the trees died. He also thinks that cultivation should usually 

 follow mulching, but that some fruits, like the currant and the goose- 

 berry, will stand heavy mulching year after year. 



