ORCHARDS OF FARMINGTON. 335 



ORCHARDS OF FARMINGTON. 



A. \V. LATHAM, SECY. 



On the 23d of Jiilj', I had the pleasure of visitiujc at the homes 

 of some of our members at Farmington, situated twenty-five miles 

 south of St. Paul. I had at a number of times been throuj;^h that sec- 

 tion on the railroad and noticed that it was quite level there and 

 wondered that there should be any good orchards in that vicinity. 

 The society has several very earnest members there, among whom 

 the names of Ditus Day, so many years our treasurer, L. E. Day, his 

 brother, \V. L. Parker and D. F. Akin, are all familiar. Mr. Parker 

 met us at the depot, and a ride of three miles south of the village 

 over a gently rolling country brought us by a short turn in the road 

 to his cosy home. Turning to drive into his yard, a glance at the 

 east revealed the secret of the success of his location for an orchard. 

 Mr. Parker's place stands at the very summit of a long, gentle in- 

 cline, which at a distance of several miles must fall away the better 

 part of a hundred feet, and beyond that the horizon is skirted with 

 hills which merge further on into the bluffs along the Mis- 

 sissippi river. On the south, at a distance of fifty or sixty rods, is 

 an e.xcellent windbreak of second-growth timber, and also on the 

 north and west at a little less distance. It is open to the east, allow- 

 ing necessary air drainage, and has protection in just the right 

 measure and way on the other three sides. 



Mr. Parker has a large number of varieties of apples, many of 

 which, however, have been planted within the last three or four 

 years. But his older trees of Duchess and Tetofsky and some of the 

 hybrids, perhaps twenty years old, are very healthy and reasonably 

 vigorous, and carry at present a very large crop of fruit. It is prob- 

 able that the character of the soil and the presence of water within 

 reach of the roots has much to do with Mr. Parker's success in 

 apple growing. To a depth of twenty to twenty-two inches the soil 

 is a rich loam, containing very little, if any, sand, yet light and fria- 

 ble and not very sticky even when wet. Below that depth is found 

 light j-ellow clay containing plenty of lime. With similar conditions 

 and with such an object lesson before them, it is a wonder that 

 others in that vicinity do not follow Mr. Parker's example and plant 

 large orchards. In looking over his garden, besides a variety of 

 beautiful flowers in which both he and his wife delight, I saw many 

 kinds of small fruits. I noted the Older raspberry, which is a black- 

 cap fairly well known, that does well with him without winter pro- 

 tection, bearing, he says, every year a fine crop of berries without 

 failure, while other varieties have winter-killed except where 

 covered. 



At the home of Mr. Henry Trout, a mile east of Mr. Parker's place, 

 we found a very nice orchard and garden of perhaps a hundred 

 trees, showing signs of perfect health and bearing heavily. (Juite a 

 number of his trees have been set twenty or more years. 



At the home of Mr. Ditus Day, half a mile south of Mr. Trout's 

 place, we found scattered along the north and west sides of an en- 

 closure of deciduous trees an orchard containing some sixty or seven- 

 tj- varieties. Many of these trees were some years older than Mr. 



