STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 299 



the fifth or sixth 3'ear after planting), the covering of straw may be 

 safely omitted. At this time the roots have acquired sufficient size 

 and maturity, and have penetrated far enough into the ground to be 

 able to withstand the cold; and the roots near the surface that would 

 have killed have been kept down b}'^ the plow. In a lighter soil a 

 greater amount of protection is required. 



Mr. Pearce from the committee on Prize Essays on Orcharding in 

 Minnesota presented the following: 



Your committee on the best essay on Orcharding in Minnesota re- 

 port that there were three essays submitted. One by Norton F. 

 Brand of Faribault, aged 18 years; one by Edgar D. Sias of Minneap- 

 olis, aged 18 years; one by Edwin Deacon of Rochester, aged 26 years. 

 As the latter was not within the requirements of the Society as to 

 age there were btit the first two considered, and the committee 

 award the prize to Norton F. Brand. 



M. Pearce, ^ 



J. M. Underwood, V Committee. 



E. H. S. Dartt. ) 



ORCHARDING IN MINNESOTA. 



By Norton F. Brand, Faribault. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the State Horticultural Society : 



Being freed from school by our recent vacation of two weeks, and 

 seeing your oflFer for a prize essay on Orcharding, I thought it a good 

 chance to make my vacation pay. I am an inhabitant of Rice county, 

 outside of the most favorable localities for fruit growing. Ours is the 

 third district for apple growing so far as natural advantages are con- 

 cerned. I cannot boast of age, but have had some chances to learn, 

 having been brought up in a nursery and orchard, and have had the 

 benefit of experience for the most of my life, which began eighteen 

 years past. I also have had many advantages in getting information 

 from periodicals. We now take of papers that treat of the subject 

 whereof I write, The Farmer, Farm, Stock and Home, Western Rural, 

 Prairie Farmer, New York Tribune, and frequently obtain others. I 

 am now glancing through a year of the Country Gentleman, in which 

 I find some good items to sustain ray strong points. We also have the 



