104 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Harris: Some of those peaches he raised measured nine 

 inches in circumference. 



Mr. Flatin: These I have on exhibition here are not as large 

 as when I shipped them here. 



Mr. Harris: Do you think peaches can be grown so the cul- 

 ture could be made profitable? 



Mr. Flatin: Yes, I guess they could, if straw was cheap 

 enough. 



Mr. Brackett: How many hundred weight would it take to 

 cover those six trees ? 



Mr. Flatin: Usually all I can put on the hayrack. 



Mr. Busse: Did you ever try covering with leaves? 



Mr. Flatin: No, I never tried it. 



Mr. Pearce: Peaches', peaches! There is no fruit that 

 grows that I am so carried away with as peaches. 



Mr. Philips, (Wisconsin): How many did you raise this 

 year? 



Mr. Pearce: I had thirty trees, and they were just loaded 

 with Iruit. There came that terrible hard frost, and as a mat- 

 ter of course I thought the peaches were all gone, and yet some 

 of the trees had thirty, forty to a hundred on, with all that 

 freezing. I think I would have had thirty bushels if it had not 

 been for that freeze. Now, peach trees will stand much more 

 cold than you have any idea of. The idea is to get them down 

 before the ground freezes, and let them remain in that i)osition, 

 let this ground freeze, and then it is the easiest matter 

 in the world to throw a little marsh hay over them. A 

 ton of hay will cover fifty trees. We just threw a light cover- 

 ing of hay over those peach trees, and it was just as good a 

 thing as we could do. On the strength of it I bought 150 trees, 

 and I have also planted a lot of peach pits and plum pits, and 

 I have been more than well pleased with my success. 



Mr. Brackett: How much fruit did you get last year? 



Mr. Pearce: I got a good deal of frait. I have taken every 

 precaution to protect the fruit trees. 



Mr. Kellogg, (Wisconsin): How tall are your trees? 



Mr. Pearce: Some eight to ten feet high. 



Mrs. J. Stager: I live in a colder part of the country. We 

 have had peaches year after year in St. Cloud, This lady who 

 is here with me has had some of my peaches, I bought Cana- 

 dian Iron Clad, and that tree lived sixteen years and for nine 

 years was almost every season loaded with peaches. I plan ted 

 it as any greenhorn would, setting it up straight instead of 



