STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 307 



FERTILIZERS. 



Lime is one of the chemical elements of the apple tree, and unless 

 your soil has it in abundance, it may need some by the time the trees 

 begin to bear. Some soils, if very sandy, may need a pound of sul- 

 phur to each tree, sown broadcast with lime and harrowed into the 

 soil, alkali being necessary to render the sulphur soluble. Crabs and 

 Wealthys will be most benefited by its use. Iron scrapings from a 

 foundry buried in the soil six to ten feet from a tree are also valuable. 

 You don't know what your soil may lack. Bury dead animals four to 

 five feet beneath the surface and not nearer the tree than six feet; 

 provided the orchard is not above or near your well. Don't expect to 

 get much fruit without adding fertility to the soil. If there is grass 

 in the orchard, mow it and allow it to remain for mulch. 



If you have apples for sale, pick by hand and take to market in 

 baskets in a spring wagon if possible. Make poor apples and crabs 

 into cider vinegar rather than try to sell them on a full market. If 

 you have a large supply of Duchess on hand keep in an ice house till 

 you have a market. 



Farm, Stock and Home says : " Success in farming is the result of 

 proper business methods." The same holds true of fruit growing. 



Ours is a windy State, and apples are liable to be blown from the 

 trees in summer. A windbreak is needed the nature of which will 

 depend on the location of your orchard. In our city of Faribault our 

 heavy winds in summer and autumn are from the west and south. If 

 your location admits of it set two rows of European larch one hund- 

 red feet from your orchard. Twenty feet outside of them plant two 

 or more rows of evergreens. Use Balsam Fir, White spruce, and 

 White or Scotch pine. If you are in a very windy part of the State, 

 plant two rows of white willows twenty feet apart ten rods from your 

 orchard; inside of these fifty feet plant two to four rows of ever- 

 greens. 



On account of the infinite variety of locations and slopes it is hard 

 to lay down any arbitrary rule for protection; and the planter must 

 fall back on his own good sense, if he has any, and adopt means to 

 ends; ever keeping in mind that fruit trees need lots of air and room; 

 the closest protection on level should be on the south side; and that 

 drifting snow must be guarded against, by stopping it outside the 

 orchard. 



Last summer while canvassing west of the Big Woods I saw many 

 orchards entirely ruined by the drifting of the previous winter. 



