STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 327 



250 bushels; Orion Clark, 200 bushels; Mrs. Mary A. Campbell (for- 

 merly Mrs. Shaw), 600 bushels; M. K. Drew, 300 bushels; S. Bates, 

 300 bushels; W. R. Stewart, 400 bushels; L. Thomas, 600 bushels. 

 These were mostly tender Eastern varieties. In one orchard I saw 

 five trees from which the owner told me he had gathered one crop of 

 100 bushels, worth §150.00. A good record for a climate where we 

 " can't raise apples," These trees were alive and bearing in 1873. 



« 



IN HOUSTON COUNTY. 



I visited the same fall several orchards in Houston county, and the 

 great quantity of fruit on the trees astonished me. In the orchard of 

 our friend Harris I was shown two trees from which one crop sold for 

 $44. They were St. Lawrence. His Talman Sweets were bending 

 under an enormous load of apples. A few trees of that variety gave 

 him 40 barrels that year and over 200 bushels the year following, that 

 being the ninth year in bearing. Here also I saw that grand apple 

 (but very tender tree) Jersey Sweet in bearing, and many others too 

 tender for other portions of the State. Price's Sweet, only six years 

 planted, bore two barrels to a tree. Is there any other portion of the 

 United States that could do as well? He raised twenty barrels of 

 Northern Spy in 1872. In our section the Spy has never blossomed. 



Now let us reason together. If the same causes that killed this 

 orchard for Mr. Harris also killed trees down in Central Illinois, In- 

 diana and Ohio, why is it not reasonable to conclude that that portion 

 of our State is as valuable for growing apples as the the other states 

 mentioned? 



In 1867 I traveled on foot all over Houston county once and a large 

 part of it twice, and have been there a good many times since up ^o 

 1876, and I state now what was my opinion when I was among the 

 orchards there in 1876 : that if all the good orchard sites on a strip 

 ten miles wide from the mouth of the Zumbro river to the Iowa line, 

 in the eastern part of Winona and Houston counties, were devoted to 

 apple growing in a businesslike way, the people of our State would 

 have no need to send outside of our borders for apples. 



The orchard of Mr. Harris was indeed a wonder for a State like ours, 

 where but a few short years ago Mr. Lo held undisputed sway. Let 

 us figure the sum realized from his Talman Sweet and St. Lawrence. 

 They began to bear well about 1864 and bore their last crop in 1884. 

 Tke two trees of St. Lawrence paid him about $200 net, besides the 

 fruit used from them in his family; they were in bearing each alter 



