STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 171 



REPORT OF RUSSIAN APPLES AND OTHER 

 FRUITS TESTED IN CARVER COUNTY. 



By Andrew Peterson, Waconia, Minn. 



To the Minnesota State Horticultural Society : 



I promised your secretary that I would give my experience in 

 fruit raising, but on reading your report of 1833, I have found the 

 records of so many fruit growers who have done more than I have, 

 that T need say but little. 



It was in the year 1857 that I began to plant fruit trees in Car- 

 ver county, and I have planted more or less, nearly every year 

 since that time, but without much success until I began with the 

 Russian varieties, which seem hardy enough for the Minnesota 

 climate. Of the seventy other varieties I have tried, all blighted or 

 sun-scalded more or less when they commenced to bear. Of the 

 apples, the Duchess stood best against blighting; and of the crabs, 

 the Maiden Blush. When the blighting commenced I had the 

 trees heavily mulched. I did not like the mulching, because it 

 drew the roots up towards the surface of the ground, and even into 

 the mulching. 1 remember an old farmer in Sweden used to say: 

 " Plant a stone with the apple tree and then you will have a 

 healthy tree." I have also observed several times in the nursery 

 rows, a stone close to the tree. Those trees looked healthier and 

 did not blight. As we know that the stone keeps the ground cool^ 

 I wonder if the low temperature prevents the sap from rising too 

 early. T should like to know if anybody has tried this or had any 

 experience in it. I will try it myself next spring, 



THE RUSSIAN APPLE TREES. 



In the year 1875 I got cions of thirty sorts of the Russian apple 

 trees from Hon. William Saunders of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture at Washington, being a part of the importation made under 

 his supervision in 1870; put them upon apple roots, and set them 

 out in the spring of 1876, so that they, or such as survived, are now 

 eight years from the graft. Some of them were of the German 

 name, and ail these failed. 



