COMMERCIAL ORCHARDS FOR THE NORTHWEST. 243 



Now the question is, how to do it? The planting of a commer- 

 cial orchard is absolutely in itself a business. You can not stick a 

 tree in the ground and then go off and leave it. You go out to the 

 Pacific coast, and you will find that commercial orcharding is made 

 a business, a science, the utmost care is given to that orchard to make 

 it produce. The orchard is fertilized, given cultivation, everything 

 is done in order to bring about the best result. If any man wants 

 to go into commercial orcharding as a business he must be prepared 

 to put in his work and pay as close attention to it as though he were 

 raising fine stock. It is a business that must have attention peculiar 

 to the business itself. 



Where should you plant the commercial orchard? I know 

 there is a great variety of soil and a great variety of sites and condi- 

 tions. I cannot touch them all, but I will do this : I will say that I 

 think where the best site is is on the highest point of land you have, 

 and if you have not such a point you must grade and do the best 

 you can. I think there are thousands of acres of land along the Mis- 

 sissippi river that can be planted to orchards to better advantage 

 than any other way. That takes in only a narrow strip of country, 

 however, so in what I have to say I will have to confine myself large- 

 ly to the average prairie country as we find it in this state and in 

 Iowa. I would take the highest parts of land I could get ; you cannot 

 get them too high. I would then go on the northeast or northwest 

 •slopes and would plant the trees north and south. I would plant 

 them in such a way that when they get to bearing the branches of 

 the trees in the rows running north and south would just about 

 lap, and that would depend, of course, upon the trees and upon the 

 kind of soil in which they were planted. I would give them plenty 

 ■of air space in the rows, but have the trees act as protectors one to 

 the other from sun scald and from the excessive heat in our summer 

 days. I would plant the trees deep. I think the testimony brought 

 •out at this meeting goes to show that they should be planted from 

 ten to eighteen inches deeper than they grew in the nursery. 



What kind of trees would you plant to get the most money 

 out of? I wish to confine myself to the territory where the Wealthy 

 will grow. I hear of the Wealthy growing 150 miles north of St. 

 Paul and doing well, and I know it will do well 150 miles south. 

 Consequently, here is a belt of territory in the northwest three hun- 

 dred miles in width that can be devoted to the growing of the 

 Wealthy apple. If I were going to plant an orchard today anywhere 

 within this three hundred mile limit, I should plant the whole to 

 Wealthy apple trees. I would do it for this reason, that these fruit 

 men here in Minneapolis told me that while the Duchess gets on the 



