194 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The present status of apple growing at the lake shows now in existence 

 only these two varieties, out of all those thriving fifteen years ago and 

 a goodly number of seedlings more or less promising, largely crossed with 

 the crab, but none of them sufficiently tested by the local public to be 

 entitled to a name in this article. Of the Duchess a few trees still stand, 

 dating back the fifteen years, bearing the scars of old age and of hard 

 living under adverse circumstances. Of the Wealthy, few or none of the 

 older trees remain, and this variety is now represented by trees planted 

 within the last decade. ^Neither of these kinds can be called hardy or 

 entirely successful, but they are partly so and sufficiently so in localities 

 to make their culture profitable. Experience shows that a severe winter 

 will cripple them, and a succession of such winters is lik«ly to kill them, 

 so that their average life is short, probably inside of twelve years. As an 

 offset to this serious drawback there are these advantages, that they come 

 into bearing at a very early age and their fruit brings a high price in the 

 local market. About Lake Minnetonka the country is generally rolling 

 and hilly and the soil a dark, strong loam of perhaps one foot average 

 depth, with a subsoil of yellow clay full of limestones. The small orchards 

 throughout this region that have proved profitable are mainly upon this 

 kind of soil and subsoil, located upon high ground and very generally 

 upon east and north slopes. 



Without taking up the time to go into the reasons for this, observation 

 and experience show that these kinds of soil, subsoil, location and slope 

 bring about the best results in apple culture in this region. The planters 

 who have accidentally or with intelligent purpose observed these conditions 

 have largely found the culture of these two varieties profitable upon the 

 limited scale they have worked. The outlook for this branch of horticul- 

 ture certainly offers a reasonable degree of encouragement. There is 

 ground for an intelligent hope that seedlings have already or soon will be 

 originated that will give hardier and better keeping apples of good qual- 

 ity. It is also reasonably certain that if planters have the nerve and per- 

 sistency to plant the two varieties named, under the conditions suggested, 

 give good cultivation and reasonable care, keep the vacancies filled as they 

 die out from whatever causes, that in a term of years the ground so occu- 

 pied will yield more income for the labor performed than any other use to 

 which it can be put, even in the famous fruit growing region of Lake 

 Minnetonka. An intelligent use of the ground requires that some culti- 

 tivated crop be grown along with the trees, not only while young but con- 

 tinually. Let there be no such thing as seeding down, but steady tillage 

 year after year while the tract is used for an orchard. Raspberries, cur- 

 rants or blackberries are an excellent crop to fill up with and will produce 

 almost as much as though the trees were not there, limiting the cost of 

 orchards almost to that of planting the trees. The north and northeast 

 slopes of the higher hills about the lake should be planted with Duchess 

 or Wealthy apple trees, the amount to be limited only by the area of land 

 so situated, and it is confidently predicted that the results will be a most 

 agreeable surprise to the planter. Plant corn or potatoes or what culti- 

 vated crop you will, but if you have north or northeast slopes on high 

 land and clay subsoil plant freely by the acre 16 feet apart. As an illus- 

 tration of what has been accomplished— one hundred Wealthy trees, two 

 years old, planted on three-fourths acre, yielded in the ten years they sur- 



