HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 335 



being rented, I could not ascertain the ancestry of the trees 

 nor the quantity or quality of the fruit produced. In Faribault 

 county Hon. C. S. Dunbar has a large old orchard of Duchess 

 which pays him better than anything he has ever had on his farm 

 and he has been and still is a great tree planter. Last spring he 

 set twenty-five Peach trees. Mr. P. R. Taylor planted a large or- 

 chard on the Cobb Creek. He has fine Duchess trees twenty years 

 old not more than eight feet above water and twelve feet above the 

 level of the creek. Of a large orchard of Crab trees the Briars 

 Sweet is the best. The Orange (twenty-five trees) killed with blight 

 several years ago. There was no natural timber along this creek 

 near him. The general surface of the country is very level. He 

 has two flowing wells. I mention this to prove how the Duchess 

 adapts itself to low ground as well as high. His wind break is on 

 the west of his Duchess. In Freeborn county Duchess trees were 

 shown me from which twenty bushels had been gathered in a year. 

 And here I found plenty of Duchess almost every where. Near 

 Albert Lea Mr. Clarence Wedge planted an orchard of the best of 

 the new Russians. His opinion was that they were no hardier than 

 the Wealthy and not nearly so hardy as Duchess. 



In August, 1888, I passed through Brown county. Mr. A. S. Van 

 Patten had a number of old Duchess heavily loaded with fruit, 

 while of Hyslops and Transcendents nothing but a few old stumps 

 remained. 



Mr. Isaac Johnson of Lone Tree Lake sold 860 worth of fruit in 

 1887 and he did the most of his planting in 1878. Here out of the 

 hundreds of thousands of Russian apple trees sold by nurserymen 

 and planted in this state was the only bearing tree I have ever 

 seen, and I have traveled in more than forty counties where they 

 have been sold. This tree was grafted in 1873 or '74 and planted 

 by Mr. Johnson about 1879 or 1880, and has never borne so much 

 fruit even as his Wealthy, although it occupies the best location in 

 the orchard. I think it either Red Streaked or Red Anis and was a 

 very good looking tree when I saw it bearing about a peck of fruit. 

 Mr. H. M. Ball close by has an old tree of Meader's Winter doing 

 well. Mr. Johnson lives about 25 miles up the Minnesota river 

 from New Ulm. He has a fine lot of Balsam Fir planted in 1878 

 now 25 feet high. 



At Redwood Falls the Duchess and Early Strawberry Crab were 

 seen heavily loaded with fruit. Here the beautiful Mountain Ash 

 was again seen rendering the homes where they were conspicuous 

 by reason of their bright scarlet color in contrast with the dark 

 green of the foliage. Here also were some fine large trees of 

 American White Spruce. Twenty-five miles northwest of Redwood 

 Falls we find Wood Lake in Yellow Medicine County. Here I found 

 a few rather poor Wealthy and Duchess but some very fine trees of 

 Meader's Winter Crab, about 18 years planted. 



South of Wood Lake (5 miles), lives Julius Frank. At Redwood 

 Falls. I was told that Mr. Frank sold lots of apples. I went there 

 to learn the reason why. Mr. Archie Noble, 3 miles distant, also 

 sold fruit and with one exception these were the only men in that 



