282 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The Siberian Species.— Many of them suffered in the same manner, 

 and the crop of crabs was nearly a total failure. 



Orchards. — We were led to the conclusion that the best sites for 

 orchards are on the highest and dryest land available; that some pro- 

 tection is beneficial; that it should be most dense on the south and at 

 some considerable distance away on the west and north; that the shelter 

 on the north and west should not be so dense as to stop the wind or cir- 

 culation of air, but rather break it up. We have seen some very fair or- 

 chards where quite closely sheltered, but think the trees in such are more 

 subject to blight, sun-scald and frost. In many orchards the largest and 

 best trees are found in the two rows nearest the south windbreak, pro- 

 vided they are far enough distant to prevent being drawn by shade or re- 

 ceive injury from the roots of the windbreak robbing the soil of moisture 

 and fertility. The trees on the west side, also, when not less than 60 to 100 

 feet from the windbreak, are not usually seriously injured by the shelter, 

 and we think are better than where fully exposed. The rows nearest to 

 a north windbreak, especially where the land declines into a ravine or 

 valley, are usually the poorest and the most are lost in them; but it Avill 

 require further investigation to satisfy us that the presence of the wind- 

 break is the prime cause of it. On level ground or ground facing to the 

 south, such a shelter would tend to confine heat and stimulate the trees 

 to start earlier in the spring, and cause frozen-sap blight; and the heated 

 air when charged with excessive moisture might force rapid and imma- 

 ture growth, predisposed to blight. 



The best fruit of last season was invariably found on high clay or sandy 

 loam or limestone soils, sufficiently undulating to give good air and 

 soil drainage; and where either cultivation was given or the ground was 

 kept mulched sufficiently about the trees to prevent the excessive evapor- 

 ation of moisture and keep the grass down; or where the whole surface of 

 the ground received an annual dressing of manure. An orchard will not 

 thrive long when sodded down to timothy and blue grass. I have not yet 

 discovered an orchard where horses or cattle are allowed to pasture in it 

 at any season of the year, that is proving satisfactory, and the owners of 

 such orchards generally give up in disgust, join the army of croakers and 

 proclaim to the world that fruit will not grow in Minnesota. The tramp- 

 ing of the ground is injurious to the roots of the trees, and even staking 

 out the cow to keep down the grass, though she do not browse the trees, 

 and the turning in of calves to wean, is sure to prove disastrous in the 

 end. Browsing and horn pruning is the worst of all pruning, and beef and 

 good apples cannot be gathered from the same tree. The only stock that 

 should be allowed to run in the orchard is young swine, and they should 

 be kept out whenever the ground is so wet that it would not do to plow 

 or cultivate. 



Varieties. -Of all the varieties planted in the early years, the Oldenburg 

 is the only one of which any considerable number of the first planting of 

 trees still remain, aside from the Trancendent crab and a few others of the 

 Siberian species. We frequently come across those that have been planted 

 out from twenty-five to thirty years, that are the only survivors of that 

 age, except a few Siberians. Many of these old trees, perhaps all, received 

 some injury in the winter of 1884-85, but have very generally recovered to 

 such an extent as to continue to bear profitable crops of fruit. Mr. 



