104 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
being only affected in a general way by the branch dying below 
them. For myself, I have arrived at no settled conclusion in regard 
to the cause. I had some Minnesota crab trees near the house that 
promised for a time to escape, but later they, too, were affected, and 
on those trees I made careful observations. The Minnesota is a 
hardy tree and the wood was entirely sound, which argued against 
the winter harm theory, and the trouble did not appear until all late 
freezing was over. On these trees the first injury showed on the side 
where the morning sun struck the trees, and far the greatest harm 
was on that side. However, there were many spurs that entirely 
died on the opposite side from the morning sun. 
The present condition of apple trees in this section is good. Not- 
withstanding last summer's exceptional drouth, trees madea fair 
growth and ripened the wood extremely well; and I have noticed that 
trees that bore a full crop last year are well filled with fruit buds, 
and this promises a good fruit crop for 1895. The late Joel Shearman 
of Rockford, [1ls., told me many years ago (about 1867) that that part 
of Fillmore and Houston counties along the Root river from our ~ 
place to the Mississippi river, would yet be a great apple producing 
country; and I now begin to realize the truth of his prophesy, for 
there are already thousands of barrels of apples shipped from this 
section each year—the one point, Spring Valley, sending out 2,000 
barrels in 1892. After thirty-five years’ experience, I have faith in 
raising apples, and we still continue to plant orchard trees, the For- 
estville Fruit Farm having some 3,000 trees in orchard. There are 
many promising new seedling apples in bearing in this neighbor- 
bood, but none of them have been tested sufficiently to warrant 
recommending them. 
In this matter of recommending new varieties we should be ex- 
tremely careful, for my greatest losses in apple culture have come 
from planting much praised (by the nurserymen) kinds which failed 
to stand our severe climate. As to new varieties I know nothing new 
that can be recommended, from actual experience, over the old tried 
Duchess and Wealthy. The Peerless is being planted largely here, 
and the trees planted here look extremely well, but its fruiting qual- 
jties are yet to be proved, I expect to have this variety in bearing 
next year, and hope much from it. 
I regard the operations of a lot of shark tree agents in this section 
as a great injury to apple culture. There has been a party of these 
frauds, as I believe them to be, operating in this section of Minne- 
sota. They claim to represent a Dayton, Ohio, nursery, and they 
sell what they term “a model orchard.” They recommend several 
new apples with big names, and all their orders for grapes are 
classed under the vague title, “wine grapes,” which, of course, allows 
them to deliver any variety of grapes. I understand they charge 
eighty dollars for these model orchards, and verbally agree to care 
for them for three years. They induce the local papers, or some of 
them, to tell their readers that with these model orchards they will 
have, at the end of three years, a splendid lot of sound, healthy bear- 
ing trees. This winter they are here again under pretense of prun- 
ing the trees set last spring and are canvassing the country for new 
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