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392 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY a 
To those who can afford none of these things the case is noten- 
tirely hopeless, for our northern woods and swamps afford us shrubs 
which will to a certain extent fill the places of these “broad-leafed 
evergreens,’ and a trip to nature’s nursery may supply us with 
specimens of the Andromeda, leather-leaf, Labrador tea, and 
evergreen dew-berry for our winter garden; and even if our garden 
ing is confined to the restricted limits of a box upon the porch or 
window seat we may in the bearberry, the partridge berry, the twin 
flower, the miterwort, and the club moss find humble plants which 
will respond to our fostering care and speak to us of life and hopes, 
while all else around us seems wrapped in the death of winter. 
THE PLANTING OF TREES AND CARE OF AN 
ORCHARD. 
WM. SOMERVILLE, VIOLA. 
The subject given me to write on is one that has been written on 
and talked about so often in this society that it leaves me little un- 
occupied ground. I do not agree at all times with some members 
of the society in regard to the protection and general care of an 
orchard, yet in one thing we do agree, and that is that apples can 
be grown in Minnesota and that the most elevated land with north- 
ern slope and a clay subsoil is the best location for an orchard. 
Yet, I think that on any of our high prairie land with a clay subsoil 
an orchard can be raised successfully without the northern slope. 
In setting out a new orchard it is better to have the ground plowed 
in the fall and plowed deep, and it is advisable to have the trees on 
hand for spring planting by getting them in the fall. It is a small 
job to bury them. Idothis by digging a hole in the ground the 
length of the trees and the breadth, according to the number of trees 
I wish to bury, and two or two and a half feet deep. Put the treesin 
there, throwing some fine dirt on the roots, never piling the trees 
above the level of the ground. For fear of mice getting in and gird- 
ling them, take corn meal and mix some strychnine or other poison 
with it and putin some vessel among the trees, and they will be safe. 
Then take some boards and lay over them and cover with dirt put- 
ting some straw or rough manure on top, and they will come out all 
right in the spring, and you wili have them on hand when it is most 
convenient. 
I believe in planting everything as early in the spring as the 
ground will permit, and especially trees. Whilethe groundis damp 
from the winter’s frost the little rootlets start their growth much 
sooner than if the ground is dry, andthat adds much to the growth 
of the tree the first summer. 
Then comes a question that I have answered a number of times: 
what kind of trees do we want and of what varieties? Farmers gen- 
erally want all the wood they can get for their money, which I think 
is wrong. In my experience, I can get fruit from a good healthy 
two-year old as well as from a’ four-year old, and the young tree is 
more likely to live by: transplanting, and in five years will be as 
large as the other. 
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