~ s 
454 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
In the spring of 1887 he sent me sixty more, and the same spring I mn 
got six more Russians from A. G. Tuttle, of Baraboo, Wisconsin, 
and the same number from E, Y. Teas, of Indiana. This has been 
all of my orchard planting except to fill out vacant places in the 
orchard with seedling apples and native plum trees of my own 
growing. 
For an orchard site I selected a northeast slope. There was some 
timber near by on the east and a young grove on the upper side of 
the slope, southerly—west and north there was full exposure, the 
windiest placeonmy farm. This exactly suited me, for I had notions “ A 
of my own about “ protection” of orchards. - q 
I was glad to find my orchard site already well subsoiled by ve 
the pocket gophers. This saved me several years’ time and a great ‘s 
deal of hard labor in getting the soil and subsoil into proper condi- is 
tion for orchard growth. I did not have to plow or subsoil at all, * 
but just dug down holes about two feet in diameter and set my trees, 
placing them about four inches deeper than they had stood in the 
nursery, trampling the surface soil solid over their roots, filling up _ # 
with the under soil, trampling again and covering with loose fine 
earth—the dust blanket so much talked of today. This dust blanket 
I preserved for six years by use of hoe and spade, gradually extend- =A 
ing the circle around each tree, till on the average in 1891 the 
diameter of the clean space was six feet or more, meantime mowing 
the rank growth of weeds and grass in the intervening spaces twice 
each summer to avoid “ Bre’er Rabbit” using the orchard for his 
“briar patch.” 
I had helped to fight the Transcendent crab off the list of the Min- 
nesota society, and often said I would not have this variety any- 
where within half a mile of my orchard if I could preventit. AndI 
planted there in my South Dakota orchard neither this nor any < 
other variety of apple or crab known to be an original blighter; that 
is to say, found by general observation to be inflicted with the 
summer blight, when standing in groups or single trees alone. To 
this opinion and practice I attribute the fact that from first to last, 
up through five years of the bearing period of my orchard I have 
had no blight whatever. My neighbors to whom I gave warning 
that the Transcendent would blight and give out the infection to 
other varieties, have had their orchards burnt up by this summer 
blight. 
The growth of the trees was slow, for we were passing through a 
series of dry years that culminated in 1894, when the great crop fail- 
ure occurred. But the gopher sub-soiling and the dust blanket car- 
ried my orchard through in a steady, healthy progress. Some of 
the trees made a weak growth their first season. but these I sawed ve 
off close to the ground the second spring, and in every case but one ae 
obtained a strong renewal from the graft. In that one case I hada 
shrub instead of a tree, which I presume is a French paradise stock, 
and have preserved it for a curiosity. -A number of the trees died d 
out the first season and were replaced. : 
In planting I did not set the trees ‘‘leaning to the one o’clock sun.” 
I could not remember having seen any trees during my boyhood orat 
