BEFORE AND BEHIND THE SCENES. 873 



Today there exists uo valid excuse for failures from the causes 

 mentioned, because the causes need not necessarily exist. The best 

 of facilities are afforded every man to learn how the ground for an 

 orchard should be prepared before the trees are planted, and when, 

 how and where they sliould be planted and cared for to brin^ him the 

 best results. It has become known, too, that some varieties are more 

 hardy than others and can be made to thrive over a considerable 

 portion of the Northwest, which they are doing, and there is no ex- 

 cuse remaining- for procuring trees from long distances away and 

 from milder climates, for we have ample nurseries right at home or 

 easy of access and in which are propagated only the hardiest and 

 best known varieties— and even distance has been almost annihila- 

 ted by the facilities now afforded by railroads and express com- 

 panies. 



Under these iinproved conditions there are a few men scattered 

 over the state who are making commercial orcharding a satisfactory 

 success, and the number who raise a considerable portion of the 

 fruit consumed in their families is increasing in a ratio about cor- 

 responding with the growth of our societ5\ Such are generally 

 liberal minded, energetic men and intelligent, careful cultivators, 

 continually experimenting and always profiting by the success and 

 failures of others; had it not been so, the Minnesota State Horticul- 

 tural Society could not have been kept alive and growing in influ- 

 ence and usefulness under the difficulties thathad to be encountered 

 and surmounted. But the successes are not what they ought to be. 

 Every year there is paid out for fruit trees and plants by the people 

 of the state from one hundred to one hundred and fifty thousand 

 dollars in hard earned money, that never net one-tenth of the pur- 

 chasers one per cent on the investment, not counting the time and 

 labor of cultivating and use of land anything. For some of the 

 causes for these losses or failures, we must look "behind the scenes:" 



First. Many people do not take pains to learn what varieties are 

 hardy and adapted, and then set no others. 



Second. Altogether too many people procure their trees of agents 

 of nurseries located long distances away and that frequently are 

 onlj' associations of middlemen who are not responsible and who 

 procure their trees where they can be purchased the cheapest, re- 

 gardless of quality, and besides rely too much upon the agent's "say- 

 so," about their hardiness. E.xperience has repeatedlj' shown that a 

 two year old tree grown to the size of a four year old on the rich 

 soils south of us will not live as long or do as well as one of the 

 same age or four years grown on soil and under conditions like 

 those in which it is to be planted. 



Third. Much loss comes from purchasing too freely of novelties 

 that have had no time or opportunity for being tested in regard to 

 their hardiness or adaptation to our climate. 



Fourth. Thousands of trees are lost every year through the care- 

 lessness of the planter. Some are allowed to lie around and dry up 

 too long after they arc received and before they are planted; some 

 are set in holes and carelessly filled around with clods, sods and 

 whatever is most convenient: some are set too deep in tenacious 

 clay soil that has no drainage; and mulching is too often neglected. 



