A 
262 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
for 14 or 16 years, or more, and a more vigorous and healthy set of trees it 
would be hard to find in any of the Eastern states, while the Eastern va- 
rieties of trees set in the same rows and at the same time are all dead. I 
also saw a number of other orchards in the same neighborhood. and of the 
same class of trees, all healthy and doing well on different locations and 
different soils. oe 
Again in August I visited the experimental farm at Ames, 
Iowa, and had a pleasant visit with Professor Budd. His meth- 
od of doing business is an honor to the state and a blessing to the 
northwest. Here I saw pears, apricots, plums, peaches and cherry trees- 
It being after the season for cherries, I did not see the fruit, but he said 
that it was very fine. He also has a great variety of trees and shrubs, 
both useful and ornamental, that he brought from Russia, which I 
believe will be valuable here. After viewing these grounds, we then 
paid a visit to what he called hisold orchard. Ido not know the number 
of trees, but there are several hundred that have stood the test winters 
of the past 10 or 15 years, and a more healthy and vigorous set of trees it 
would be hard to find. Then the most profitable as well as the most beau- 
tiful part of it was, that the great majority of them were loaded with 
fruit. This orchard is composed of new Russian trees, but when set, 
Eastern varieties of trees were set in the same orchard, but they have all 
disappeared, or nearly so. As for location it is but little over two degrees 
south of Owatonna; as for soil, if I ama judge, it is far from the best. It 
is just such soil as Prof. Green’s young orchard stands on at St. Anthony 
Park. So it is not favored by an extra location, but it is because he has 
the right material in the form of trees to work with. I cannot leave this 
subject without speaking in praise of our own experimental farm, espe- 
cially the part I take the most interest in i. e. the horticultural depart- 
ment, superintended by Prof. Green. His experiments with fruit and 
fruit trees, together with Mr. Dartt’s, at Owatonna, will enable farmers 
to buy trees, and such trees as will live and bear fruit, by their reeommen- 
dation. 
ORCHARDING IN SOUTHERN MINNESOTA. 
R. C. KEEL, ROCHESTER, MINN, 
Mr. President and Members of the Minnesota Horticultural Society: 
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN—I have been requested by our secretary to 
prepare a paper on orcharding. I do not know as I can say anything on 
this subject but what has been repeated so often. 
In starting an orchard, I should, if possible, select a high and dry north- 
ern or northeastern slope, because in the spring of the year, when our or- 
chards are suffering the most, the sun would not have the power to thaw 
out the ground as early as it would on a level or asouthern slope. A 
sandy soil mixed with clay and a clay subsoil would be preferable. IL 
should prepare the land as well as I would for a corn crop, and dig the 
holes in the fall of the year, large enough so that all the roots of the 
