244 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



market before the other fruits get in it is so perishable and so hard 

 to handle that it is not advisable for a man to raise that apple with 

 the expectation of making money out of it as he would by the plant- 

 ing of Wealthy. They were unanimous yesterday in their answer 

 when the question was asked which to plant, the Duchess or the 

 Wealthy. Every one said, "Plant the Wealthy." 



What kind of a tree would you plant, how graft it ? If I were 

 going to set out a commercial orchard today I would get this kind of 

 a tree : I would have a crab root ; I would put the Virginia on the 

 crab root and would grow it in the nursery until two years old, then 

 I would cut ofif the top and put on the Wealthy. That would meet 

 the hard conditions in this country. 



After you have got your orchard planted use the forest trees 

 as an indication how to take care of it. If you will go into the forest 

 today where the trees grow thrifty and tall, you will find the natural 

 condition of the soil and surroundings the very best guide to you 

 as to how to care for your orchard. You will find the leaves making 

 a perfect mulch over the surface of the ground. You will find the 

 small brush, little shrubs, forest weeds and flowers growing among 

 the trees, and there you have at a glance the conditions under which 

 the tree, any sort of a tree, fulfills its mission the best. While you 

 cannot reproduce that condition exactly in the orchard, you must re- 

 member that the apple is a lover of as cool weather as you can give 

 it and as cool conditions as you can surround it with. You will 

 notice in our orchards that the trees lean to the northeast as much 

 as two or three degrees from the perpendicular line. The reason is 

 that the north side of the tree is shaded and protected and conse- 

 quently is cooler, and it makes the greatest growth under that con- 

 dition and, therefore, leans that way. Possibly, the winds of the 

 southwest liave something to do in pushing the tree that way, but I 

 think it is the habit of the tree growing in a cooler condition. 



I told you how I did in my little orchard. I cultivated four 

 years and then seeded to red clover, cut the clover twice a year and 

 laid it alongside the trunk of the tree. That is the way I keep my 

 orchard. I would keep everything out of this commercial orchard 

 in the way of stock unless I let a flock of sheep run through at the 

 lime wormy apples fall, but cattle and other stock should be kept 

 out of the orchard. This thing also must be remembered about a 

 commercial orchard, that if you wish to get a good sale for your 

 fruit you must have enough of some one kind so that a fruit buyer 

 will be willing to come to your place and buy. If you had fifty va- 

 rieties of apples in your orchard as good as the Wealthy, if you had 

 fifty varieties and got five thousand bushels, you would not get as 



