94 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



time, are most all dead, but I have some five or six years set that are 

 healthy and doing well. What we want now is a good winter apple, 

 something equally as hardy as the Duchess, and I am confident we 

 will yet find the ideal long-keeping winter apple in the near future,, 

 aa we now have some very promising seedlings growing in differ- 

 ent sections of our state. I think we have got to look to our seed- 

 lings for the coming hardy apples. 



We have some very hardy and good apples among the Russians.^ 

 Take the Hibernal or Lieby for one. I got my first trees as Lieby 

 from a firm in Beaver Dam, Wis., and Hibernal of Mr. Patten, of 

 Iowa, and I do not see any difference in the fruit. They are as hardy 

 as Duchess, and early and abundant bearers, although the fruit is 

 not of the best quality; but it will keep till the middle of December 

 or first of January. I am so well pleased with it that I set out twenty 

 more trees this last spring, and I am going to tie to it till I find 

 something better. I also set out quite a nuinber of the most prom- 

 ising and hardy of the Russians, soine eight or ten varieties, and 

 Patten's Greening, which I think a very promising variety. There 

 seems to be an increasing interest shown in our section the past 

 few years. A good many of the farmers are bujdng a few trees and 

 setting out. They seein anxious to grow apples, but the trouble i» 

 they do not know how to manage and take care of the trees after 

 they are set. It looks to me as though they thought all there was 

 to do was to get the trees and set them out and never paj' much 

 more attention to them and expect to raise fruit; consequently, the 

 trees die. Then they say, "there is no use to try to raise apples in 

 Minnesota." Now, I think if we could find a variety that would bear 

 as much neglect as our Crescent strawberry we could help out that 

 class of farmers. 



I have heard a great many remark that thej^ could raise a few 

 acres of wheat or oats and buy more apples than they could ever 

 raise in Minnesota, and the result is a good many of them do not 

 have apples. Now, the only sure way is for us to raise them, and I 

 do not see any reason why, with the hardy tried varieties we now 

 have, that every family in the state can not raise their own apples, 

 or a few, at least, by devoting a little of their spare time looking 

 after and caring for a few trees properly. Surely tlie apple is one of the 

 most important and valuable fruits a farmer can raise for his family. 



PLAN FOR AN ORCHARD. 



S. D. KICHAKDSON, WINxNEBAGO CITV. 



The plan of setting an orchard as outlined in this paper is not or- 

 iginal with me, but was published in the papers 5'ears ago, though 

 the distance was fifteen feet instead of sixteen. 



Plant the north row sixteen feet apart in the row and the next row- 

 south of first row twenty-eight feet distant; then plant a row in the 

 center of each oblong square. To find the center of the square take 

 a board sixteen feet long, bore a hole in the center and nail two 

 pieces of lath on each end to form a fork. Place one fork against 

 the tree at one corner of the square and point directly towards the 



