204 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



SETTING A MINNESOTA ORCHARD, 

 HOW, WHEN AND WHERE? 



A. K. BUSH, DOVER. 



I wish to preface this paper by referring' to a few orchards and 

 individual apple trees growing near my home, in Olmsted county, 

 which may encourage and stimulate some hesitating "would be" 

 planter. First, make converts to apple tree planting, then educate. 

 No planters; no plantings. 



An orchard which occupies less than two acres has during the 

 last ten years returned an income equal to the interest on $1,000; 

 another of about one-half an acre earns from $75 to $200 annually; 

 a five acre orchard has frequently returned a better profit than 

 the remainder of a good 200 acre farm. A tree was shown me this 

 summer which, I was told, grew thirty bushels of apples in one 

 season. 



Our November "Horticulturist" shows a picture of a Duchess 

 tree which produced this year twenty bushels of fruit; I have on my 

 home farm eighteen Malindas, growing on a steep hillside, from 

 which we gathered and measured seventy-five bushels of strictly 

 winter apples. They occupy about one-tenth of an acre in a state 

 where apples cannot be grown, so many say. 



Minnesota offers better opportunities to the up-to-date orchardist 

 than any other state in the Union, with its excellent home markets 

 and a country to be supplied extending to the north pole in one 

 direction and the Rocky Mountains in another, and our state at the 

 very door. I have a young orchard of about 2,000 trees, and I am 

 sure they are more promising property than fields of grain. 



How?— My manner of planting is this: — Wide and deep furrows 

 are opened thirty-two feet apart, by repeated plowings which are in 

 line with a one o'clock sun; trees are set in these every twelve feet 

 apart, well inclined to the southwest; earth is carefully worked and 

 firmly packed between and over their roots, which are so placed as 

 to give the trees the best support, especially against prevailing 

 winds during the growing season; then mulch; after which the 

 furrows are closed, using one horse attached to a good sixteen-inch 

 plow with very short whiffletree. Have a boy ride the horse. 

 Finish with a one-horse cultivator, which leaves a smooth field all 

 inclining toward the rows, with a decided water-shed midway 

 between each and the trees well planted largely by horse power. 

 Wrap the stock of each tree with one-eighth of an inch Cottonwood 

 veneer, which will cost only a fraction of a cent each. Sunscald 

 injures all and ruins many apple trees the first season after they 

 leave the thickly set nursery rows and are placed in orchard, with- 

 out they are given some protection. I would advise planting five 

 or six root-grafts between each two trees in the rows, which provides 

 additional shade, also the best stock for future use. 



Allow me to refer to some advantages gained by this manner of 

 planting: Trees are rapidly and easily set six to ten inches deeper 

 than they grew in nursery; mulch covered, keeping same moist and 

 out of the way; earth thoroughly pulverized and mixed two feet deep 



