214 



MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. J. W. Murray : I would like to second very heartily what 

 was said a while ago about this fall cultivation. I got caught once 

 or twice by freezing weather before I had my grapes down, but 

 wherever I had gone over the ground the day before it was not 

 frozen at all. Plowing in the fall leaves the soil in good condition 

 for spring working, and I think it would be a valuable winter pro- 

 tection against freezing. 



MY DUCHESS ORCHARD. 



C. I,. BLAIR, ST. CHARLES. • 



I began to set trees in Minnesota in 1855. My first orchard 

 consisted of 468 trees of such kinds as the Roxbury Russet, Rhode 

 Island Greening, Seek-No-Further, Early Strawberry and other 

 varieties hardy in the east. The best of this first orchard was killed 

 in the winter of 1884 and 1885. I began setting out my first Duch- 



C. L. BLAIR. 



Old Duchess orchard in bloom on place of C. L. Blair, at St. Charles, Minn. 



ess trees in 1870 and 1871. I do not remember the exact number of 

 Duchess trees I set out, but as I had not at that time begun to make 

 protectors for my trees the mice and rabbits destroyed a good many 

 of them. Some of the trees v;ere injured by sunscald. This injury 

 I think is done mostly in the months of February and March, about 

 the middle of the day, from eleven to two or three o'clock, when the 



