202 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



13 bushels have been gathered from one of these trees in a year. The 

 owner says he has never had anything on his farm that has paid him so 

 much and such easy money as the seven trees. It was the banking of 

 earth when they were small that kept them healthy, and the bearing of 

 large crops of fruit now is but the persistency of inherent tendencies. 



Let us examine a giant of the forest to ascertain the reason why he 

 towers so far above his fellows. In the absence of positive proof we must 

 accept circumstantial evidence as to what was its condition in its infancy 

 and early life. We take it to the saw mill and as plank after plank of 

 clear lumber is taken from its broad sides until the heart is reached the 

 evidence is conclusive that there were no wounds or bad spots in it when 

 young. It has been my experience and observation in a saw mill that 

 the knotty lumber does not come from the forest giants, but from a 

 smaller class of trees, and we cannot escape the conviction that these 

 exceptionally large trees grow very rapidly and in perfect health when 

 young. How many knotty, rotten and worthless trees there are in the 

 forest and yet, within certain limits, all might have become giants had 

 their environments been suitable during their development up to their 

 50th year, but more partieularly during the first ten years. The plan of 

 protecting apple trees with earth and boards I first saw in Pierce county, 

 Wis., in the winter of 1876; as I remember it they were protected in that 

 way up 3 to 4 feet from the ground; they were trees that had probably 

 been planted three or four years. I saw them in July following and 

 noticed they had made a remarkably fine growth. I have never been 

 there since, so do not know what condition they are in now. 



In 1882 I had 102 Duchess protected by driving boards around them and 

 filling in with earth. This protection was left there till it gradually 

 wore down. The earth was from 18 to 24 inches high. These trees were 

 eight years old from the graft when banked up. They are now the best 

 trees I have for their age. Mr. Gregg looked at them in 1888 and said 

 that he was surprised to see such a fine lot of Duchess in Minnesota. 



It was in the summer of 1888 that I first saw the seven old DucRess 

 trees before mentioned, and when I heard how they had been cared for 

 when young it came to my mind at once that I had found the true reason 

 why so many of the Duchess trees planted prior to 1870 were now alive. 

 It was because they did not get materially injured when young, and be- 

 ing comparatively healthy up to the time when their roots had probably 

 made a growth of from eight to twelve feet in all directions, with a bark 

 healthy, uninjured by sun scald, and an amount of sound wood in the 

 trunk sufficient to carry them through adverse climatic changes which 

 killed or seriously injured black-hearted, sun-scalded trees. 



This is an absolute law underlying the growth and development of all 

 living things, namely: An animal or plant (tree) must be retained in its 

 normal (that is healthy) condition during infancy and youth that it may 

 attain to a perfect physical development upon arriving at maturity. 



I know of but one cheap way to carry a tree through its early stages to 

 perfect development, or to a size large enough to produce ten bushels of 

 apples in a year. In this climate nearly all fruit trees become blackhearted 

 while small. To have a tree profitable at thirty years of age it must be 

 kept from becoming black hearted while young. 



Here is my plan: Plant in the fall if the trees are less than six feet 



