STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 291 



posited their eggs and reappeared the following season. They <lid lit- 

 tle damage and soon disappeared At the time of their last visitation 

 they remained a period of five or six years and caused an almost total 

 destruction of crops. In Kandiyohi county, where crops were almost 

 totally destroyed, there was little timber, while in this vicinity there 

 was very little loss. This indicated that timber proved an effectual 

 barrier to their eastward march. 



The last on the program for the evening was a paper by Prof. Pen- 

 dergast. 



EXPERIENCE IN ORCHARDING IN MINNESOTA. 

 By Prof. W. W. Pendergast, Hutchinson. 



In the spring of 1856 I had one hundred two-year old apple trees of 

 the standard sorts, — Greenings, Northern Spys. Baldwins, etc., — sent 

 me from Dimond's nursery in Stratham, N. H. They were planted 

 in a poplar clearing in front of my house in Hutchinson. On ac- 

 count of lack of suitable ground they were set only two feet apart. 

 Nearly all lived and made a satisfactory growth the first season. The 

 winter following was one of the most severe ever known in Minneso- 

 ta, but the snow was deep and that protected and saved the lower 

 half of the trees Every twig that projected above the snow line was 

 killed, and some were dead to the ground. In the spring the dead 

 wood was all cut away and the trees were left to grow as nature 

 willed. The next winter there was not much snow, but the trees had 

 grown bushy causing a small drift around them, and the result was 

 about the same as the year before. Some of them lived along at this 

 ** poor dying rate " till the Sionx Indians in 1862 burned the house, and 

 the whole place went back to primeval desolation Thus ended my 

 first and only attempt at fruit raising in the Territory of Minnesota. 



In 1866, having satisfied myself that Transcendents and Hyslops 

 had certainly been grown in this State, I bought one hundred year- 

 lings and one dozen three-year olds of each kind, together with a few 

 Duchess and Siberian crabs of an agent from Anoka by the name of 

 VanValkenberg. With the exception of the Duchess all thrived well. 

 In three years the larger ones commenced bearing, the Transcen- 

 dents and crabs yielding astonishing crops till 1878, when the 

 Hyslops and Red Siberians began to die. From the first they had 

 not shown as ranch vigor as the Transcendents, which up to this time 

 appeared to be iron-clad It was not long, however, before they too 



