94 ANNUAL REPORT. | 
All kinds on clean ground killed more or less. I set an 
orchard one, two and three years ago for a neighbor, on high | 
prairie, cultivation corn. The stocks stand over winter; 
every tree came through splendid. 
CrystaL Laks, June 16, 1873. 
To Secretary State Minnesota Horticultural Society : 
Dear Sir:—I noticed in the Farmer’s Union of May 24th, a 
circular from the State Horticultural Society, with the follow- 
ing caption: “Information wanted.” Believing it to be the 
right course for us to pursue, and being somewhat interested 
in fruit culture, I propose to give my mite of experience, and 
if we all do the same we can come to some conclusion as to what 
fruit it will do to cultivate and what not. I feel disposed to 
differ from you in regard to our winter. You state that “ the 
winter set in early and dry, and frost penetrated to a great 
depth before any snow fell.” That might have been with 
you, but not with me. To be sure the winter set in early, on ~ 
the night of the 12th or 13th of November, with several 
inches of snow and no frost, and we kept having snow storms 
before the ground froze any ; and that is just what played the 
mischief. It was the absence of frost and not its presence 
that has caused so much mischief, and I think that if we had 
removed the snow from under the trees and let the frost pene- 
trate down to its usual depth, and then mulched to keep the 
frost in we should have had quite a different result. I think 
that our,trees were spring killed and not winter killed. Our 
hot sun in March caused the sap to flow to the tops of the 
trees. and then it turned cold and froze, and that is what has 
killed our fruit trees. I came to this conclusion from the fol- 
lowing reason: I had a piece of land about 1 1-2 acres that I 
planted to potatoes. On planting that piece this spring I 
plowed up perhaps a bushel of potatoes as sound and hand- 
some as any potatoes that I ever dug in any time of the year. 
They eat as well as those that I kept in the cellar. I have 
planted the same piece this spring and the best potatoes that 
I have on the piece are those that came up. themselves, and 
are budded to blossom. 
Now sir, we all know that when the frost penetrates to a 
great depth in Minnesota that potatoes will not stand the test. 
