294 ANifUAL REPORT. 



raising. In Yankton I have seen peach trees loaded with their luscious fruit, and 

 I am told that in Bon Homme County the Northern Spy and other apples of the ex- 

 treme East are raised. But one cannot judge of Dakota proper as a fruit growing 

 territory by this narrow strip skirting her extreme southern border, and excepting 

 the Duchess and Wealthy, [ know of no standard apple that is a pronounced suc- 

 cess in the territory at large. True, the liaas, Walbridge, Fameuse, Pewaukee, and 

 even Ben Davis have been fruited here, and other sorts that the owners could not 

 designate, but as a rule, their days were few and full of trouble. 



Yet nowhere do the apples that are a success attain a greater perfection than 

 here; perhaps I cannot better illustrate the adaptability of the Duchess and Wealthy 

 to our condition than to mention that on our grounds a Duchess six years old, five- 

 and one-half feet high, perfected thirty-two tine specimens of fruit ; also, that a 

 limb of a Wealthy one year old matured sixteen well developed apples, said limb 

 being but one-half inch in diameter ; it is but fair to state that this limb bore most 

 of the fruit of the tree. 



In an orchard of eighll hundred young Wealthys four years old, quite a per cent 

 of the trees displayed blossoms and numbers of them bore one, two and three apples, 

 the wonder and admiration of all who saw them. Mere bushes wiih tiny whip-like 

 branches terminating in a luscious apple that would have tempted Eve herself. 



With the Duchess, Wealthy and the Hybrids, headed by Whitney's No. 20, sup- 

 plimented with the fittest of the Russians, when their fitness shall be proven, and 

 the new sorts that your own Gideon, Sias, Harris and others are developing for us, 

 it is no wild dream of the visionary enthusiast to believe that we shall shortly 

 have a line of apples whose perfection leaves nothing to be desired. 



Apropos of this, the record of the Whitney No. 20, as a tree for Dakota planting- 

 is worthy of special mention, having passed through the last two winters unharmed. 

 Our most remarkable fall just passed has also failed to lower its record. On the 

 night of the fourth of September last, ice formed one-half of an inch thick, thi& 

 being our first frost of the season, being followed on the sixth by a warm, copious 

 rain, and conditions most favorable to plant growth during the remainder of the 

 month. October fifth was ushered in with another solid freeze; it being our sec- 

 ond frost, the result was most disastrous to tree life. Young native plum trees 

 that had made a rank growth were killed to the ground. The Wisconsin Weeping 

 Willow on low ground having grown most luxuriantly was also dead ; the efEect 

 on the White Willows were most noticeable, being killed on low ground but un- 

 harmed on the higher land. The effect on the tenderer sorts of the apple family 

 was more or less discoloration of the season's growth. 



Our orchards have been comparatively free from insect pests, but already the 

 blight has worked great injury. This is especially true where the orchards have 

 been literally cremated in oven-like enclosures of tall cottonwood, or other forest 

 trees. Still the Siberian and Russians are not exempt on any site and doubtless the 

 propagation of many of them will have to be abandoned for thisreeson ; notably the 

 well-known Hyslop and Transcendent ; but for this the Hyslop would be a great 

 success here, bearing early and abundantly such fine fruit as to cause those familiar 

 with it in the East to doubt its identity. 



Our soil seems peculiarly suited to grape culture of the hardy sorts. Mr. Terwil- 

 liger of the County of Turner has met with most flattering success in grape growing 



