72 ANNUAL REPORT 



FEOM COTTONWOOD COUNTY. 



Bingham Lake, Minn., Dec. 13, 1886.. 



*S'. D. milmayi, Secretary, etc., 



Dear Sir: At the request of C. L. Smith, institute lecturer^ 

 I send you my experience in orcharding in Cottonwood County: 



In the spring of 1878 I purchased from the Phcenix Nursery, 

 Bloomington, Illinois, 3,000 Wealthy, 1,000 Duchess, and 1,000 

 Tetofsky apple root grafts; also 1,000 Scotch pine, 1,000 arbor 

 vitse, 500 balsam fir, and .500 spruce seedlings from three to four 

 inches in height. The site selected was a southeast slope. The 

 soil a dark loam, ranging in depth from six inches at the north- 

 west, to three or four feet at the southeast. This was prairie 

 soil; no native timber in the vicinity; had been in cultivation 

 six years; was plowed about six inches deep the preceding fall,, 

 and about eight inches again in the spring, after having about 

 three inches of well-rotted stable manure spread over it. It 

 was then thoroughlj^ harrowed and marked out with plow in 

 rows four feet apart and the apple root grafts set in the furrow 

 and the loose dirt drawn around them with the hand. The fur- 

 rows were then filled by drawing the earth into them with a 

 hoe, the earth being firmly i^ressed around the roots by tramp- 

 ing. 



The evergreens were taken into the field where they were to- 

 be set in the original box in which they were received from the 

 nursery. The cover of the box was removed and fine dirt was 

 spTinkled over them and worked down among them and water 

 poured over them, so as to puddle them before taking them out 

 of the box. They were then taken out and treated the same as 

 the apple trees. Of the apple trees, I think nine-tenths of the 

 Duchess and Wealthy scions grew; of the Tetofsky only about a 

 dozen out of the thousand grew. 



I have never known one of these apple trees to be killed by 

 climatic causes. I have found in pruning a few limbs that were 

 black in the centre, this being the only indication of disease I 

 have noticed. A few of the Duchess and Wealthy have borne 

 the last two seasons, but the Tetofskys are not over five feet in 

 height, and have not shown any signs of bearing. 



As to the evergreens, I lost all the spruce and firs and about 

 ninety per cent of the arbor vitse the first summer, and the! 

 balance of the arbor vitse the second summer. But of the 



