STATE HORTICULTDRA.L SOCIETY. 437 



Many Minnesota planters have yet to learn that a Duchess grown 

 at Davenport, la., or at Dayton, 0., is not so hardy as a Duchess 

 grown at home; that apricots are utterly worthless in this State, and 

 mulberries but little better, and that but lew varieties of apples are 

 yet safe to plant extensively in Minnesota. But if the planter will 

 avail himself of such information as may be gleaned from the horti- 

 cultural reports and farm journals of his State he need not act alto- 

 gether in the dark when selecting his trees, and need not be wholly 

 at the mercy of the Southern tree agent when he displays his brilliant 

 profusion of colored plates and his magnifying jars of Southern fruit. 



As to the question which must go, seedlings or Russians, we should 

 not be so partisan as to cast aside valued and tried varieties of either 

 class. For Southeastern Minnesota nothing as yet excels the Duchess 

 for summer, and what have we yet found for fall and early winter 

 that is safer than the Wealthy? Among the winter varieties the Mc- 

 Mahon White is giving great promise of value for general planting. 

 Of the hybrids, the Whitney No. iiO is among the best and safest for 

 fall use. To summarize : If our object is fruit growing, we must 

 plant the old stand-bys and not make experimental stations of all our 

 orchards. 



TRANSPLANTING. 



But I am dwelling too long on this one point. Having decided 

 upon the varieties, when shall we buy? If possible, have the trees 

 removed from the nursery in the fall. This plan is being adopted 

 more and more widely every year, and for valid reasons. In digging 

 the tree many roots are necessarily cut by the spade. Now if these 

 roots are neatly pared with a sharp knife and the tree buried for the 

 winter, these root ends will heal over during those long months of 

 rest, and be ready for business as soon as transplanted injjthe spring 

 much sooner than if dug in the spring when the sap is flowing and 

 the buds are swelling, Again, should there be an uncommonly se- 

 vere winter, the vitality of even our hardiest varieties will be taxed 

 more or less if standing in the nursery; if now in the spring of the 

 year you tear it from its mooring and transplant it, the tree has a 

 double injury to overcome, and will most likely make but a sickly 

 growth during the first summer, whereas the tree from the pit, with 

 all the vitality it had when buried (some say even more), its roots 

 nicely healed, goes to work at once for a good year's growth and is 

 well prepared for the test of its first winter. 



As to the best age for transplanting, a three or four year old tree is 



