368 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



FIVE DAYS AMONG THE ORCHARDS OF 

 SOUTHWESTERN MINNESOTA. 



CLARENCE WEDGE, ALBERT LEA. 



The last week of August (1897) smiled with special favor upon the 

 exploration of your committee amongf the prairies of Blue Earth, 

 Watonwan, Cottonwood, Nobles and Rock counties. The roads 

 were smooth and the winds moderate, allowing us free use of our 

 wheels, thus greatly expediting our progress and granting the ful- 

 lest opportunity to visit every point of interest within reasonable 

 reach of our general route. 



We noted but three orchards in the entire trip that were well loaded 

 wiih fruit, the cause of barreness being generally due to the severe 

 frost or freeze of last May. With the exception of Mr. Ludlow's 

 place on the S. E. shore of Lake Okabena, it seemed impossible to 

 account for the exemption from injury shown at these points, as 

 they were not located near any body of water, nor was the air drain- 

 age apparently better than neighboring orchards where the fruit 

 was all destroyed. Plums were found in bearing quite generally 

 but of small size and inferior appearance, even our best native vari- 

 eties being little better than the average wild plum of better years. 



Reserving for our detailed report to the society those particular 

 notes and observations that give value to such work, we would here 

 express our surprise at the great uniformity and excellence of the 

 results attained in orcharding in this section. Location, which is 

 so general!}' recognized as a factor of prime importance, the sine 

 qua noa of a successful orchard, is here evidently of far less import- 

 ance than in the southeastern part of the state. Indeed, we found 

 one of the choicest of old orchards situated but a few feet above the 

 outlet of a sluggish creek, the lowest site that could be chosen for 

 miles around, in the bloom of perfect health, free from blight, and 

 in it a tree of Geaitoa which produced a barrel of apples last year. 

 While we found blight present in some orchards, there is a far 

 greater immunity from this scourge than in any other part of the 

 state visited by either of your committee, and the slight mention 

 made of this trouble by the horticulturists of this section proves 

 them highly favored in that particular. In the matter of injury from 

 drought and root-killing, these western orchards are, of course, at a 

 disadvantage as compared with the moister soils and more sheltered 

 situations of eastern Minnesota. But the ability of the apple to re- 

 sist drought when situated in a rich, congenial soil is truly remarka- 

 ble and was forcibly illustrated at one point, where some rows of 

 white willows, about thirty feet high, planted on two sides of an old 

 orchard, were generally showing dead tops and many dead speci- 

 mens, due to the period of drought which ended a year ago, while 

 the apple orchard, much of it very closely planted, was in very 

 excellent condition. 



Though there can be no doubt of the injury to apple trees during 

 severe droughts, yet the fact that the orchards of this section have 

 so successfully resisted the late severe and protracted drought, 

 when nearly all the native forest trees except the ash and elm have 

 suffered severely, together with the fact that during this droughty 



