428 +§$MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. FS *- 
til. In other words,the Wild Goose,in order to be made to bear 
fruit, must have the co-operation of pollen ‘from other sources be- 
sides Wild Goose blossoms. I remember very distinctly another 
object lesson along this line that I received when a young man. My 
wife’s father was a crank on budding all kinds of fruit. At the time 
he bought his farm (some twenty years before I knew him), there 
was a young orchard on the farm just coming into bearing, and he ~ 
began to bud, Hecould not pass the orchard but out would come 
the knife, a bud here and a bud there, early and late, a perfect jum- 
ble of mixtures. The results were that when other orchards in that 
neighborhood bore a fair crop, it would be remarked by people in 
general that “ Uncle John’s” orchard was propped up, carrying an 
enormous crop of the finest apples in the township; and when 
other orchards failed of a crop, “Uncle John” always had some 
and to spare, 
More recently Prof. Wait, of the Department of Agriculture, and 
Prof. Beach, of the New York State Experiment Station, have ex- 
tended this investigation to pears and apples respectively. The 
indications are that we will find similar occurrences among apples. 
Prof. Craig, of the Experimental Farm at Ottawa, in an address on 
“The Blooming Period of Fruit Trees,” reported that he had begun 
experimenting with the apple in the same way that Prof. Wait had 
experimented with the pear. 
The cause of unfruitfulness of orchards has been a frequent sub- 
ject of discussion and of widely differing opinions. One grower 
proposes to cure it by root-pruning, another by top-pruning, one by 
stimulating growth with manure, another by seeding orchards 
down to check the growth, another by spraying; still another crank, 
a venerable doctor of horticulture, is astride of a bucksaw and pro- 
poses to girdle the trees. One thing seems to be well established, 
namely, that orchards of intermingled varieties are more fruitful 
than orchards with the varieties separate. But the grower must 
know what varieties to plant together, so that one can furnish pollen 
for another. Prof. Craig places apples in three groups: the first 
group, that of earliest bloomers, embraces Duchess, Fameuse; 
McIntosh Red and Ben Davis; the middle group embraces Baldwin, 
Golden Russett, Wealthy, Wagner, Yellow Transparent and Red 
Astrachan; and the third or last group, Alexander, Maiden’s Blush, 
Northern Spy, Ribston Pippin, Roxbury Russett and Talman Sweet. 
Of course, the wise fruit grower will try to plant varieties together 
that belong to the same group, or, in other words, bloom nearly as 
possible at the sametime. For orchards planted without regard to 
this provision of fertilization, we may top-graft part of the trees or 
keep bees, or both. I think that bees are of decided benefit. 
It is said that the boy is father to the man. Itis equally true of 
the orchard; in season and out of season the man must be father to 
the orchard. What would you say of the man who, in the spring, 
would take a pig, for instance, drop it in the hog lot, with a parting 
kick, leave it to “ root pig or die,” then return in the fall and expect 
to find five hundred pounds of first class pork all ready to be salted 
down in the barrel? It would bea grand success asa failure. So 
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