Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota Part 57

Orcharding in Minnesota.

DISCUSSION LED BY PROF. RICHARD WELLINGTON, UNIVERSITY FARM.

Mr. Sauter: I want to set out 500 trees; what kind shall I set out? I live at Zumbra Heights.

Mr. Wellington: I would prefer some of the more experienced growers to speak on that question, but going over the recommendations of over 160 growers the Wealthy is recommended in practically all cases in preference to the other varieties. We know, however, that the Wealthy needs pollen from other varieties for fertilization of the blossom, so it would be foolish to put out 500 Wealthys. It is better to mix in some of the other varieties. If I was planting an orchard, probably seventy-five per cent. of the apples would be Wealthys.

Mr. Sauter: And what next?

Mr. Wellington: Well, that depends altogether on your market. If you can handle the d.u.c.h.ess apple, work the d.u.c.h.ess in; or if you wanted a few late apples, work in some of the other varieties.

Mr. Sauter: Isn't the Okabena better than the d.u.c.h.ess?

Mr. Wellington: It is a little later.

Mr. Richardson: Four days later.

Mr. Wellington: That would be my recommendation. I would put in the majority of the trees Wealthys and then work in some other varieties according to your market.

Mr. Sauter: Isn't the Malinda and the Northwest Greening all right?

Mr. Wellington: The Northwest Greening seems to be especially valuable in certain parts of the state. In some parts they winter injure, but it is a good late variety.

Mr. Sauter: How is the Malinda?

Mr. Wellington: Malinda is all right excepting in quality. It is lacking in quality.

Mr. Sauter: Is it a good seller?

Mr. Wellington: I couldn't tell you about that. Some of these other gentlemen could give you information on that point. It tastes more like cork than anything else, but after the other apples are gone we are not so particular about it.

Mr. Dunlap: The speaker brought out one point that we tested out a great many years ago in Illinois, and I suppose it is really an important one here, and that is the protection against the winds with shelter-belts.

Now, at the University of Illinois they planted out some forty acres to test that with all the varieties they could get together, and they planted spruce trees not only on the outside of the orchard but they planted them in through the orchard, dividing the orchards up into ten acre plots. Quite a number of the early planters of apples in Illinois also put windbreaks around their orchards with considerable detriment to their orchards.

We find that we need air drainage there just as much as we need protection against the wind. If I were in Minnesota I might change my mind after studying the conditions, but if I was going to plant in Minnesota and I should plant evergreens I certainly would trim them up from the bottom so as to get air drainage. I have known of instances where orchards were protected and where there was air drainage they were all right, but where they were closely protected by the trees they were injured by the frosts by their starting too early in the spring. If you get a warm atmosphere around the trees you start your buds pretty early, several days earlier than they would if they had the right kind of air drainage, and it does seem to me that the experience we have had would be against close planting around an orchard for protection from frost, though you do want to protect them against winds, but air drainage, it seems, is not a detriment to orchards. (Applause.)

Mr. Richardson: I wish to say that in my observation and my experience if I was putting in a windbreak I would put it on the south and west sides; I wouldn't have any on the north and east.

Mr. Brackett: Our prevailing winds are from the south and west during the summer, and the Wealthy is an apple that is bad for falling off when it gets to a certain stage, and I think it is very necessary for us to have a windbreak on the south and west if we are going to protect our orchards here.

Mr. Ludlow: The wind comes from the northwest generally in the winter, when we have storms, and if snow falls and it comes from the northwest, and the orchard is protected on that side by a windbreak, the windbreak will catch the snow and it will pile on top of the orchard, and I have known at least a dozen trees to be broken down by the storms of winter getting in that way.

A Member: I think crab apple trees make a good windbreak, if they are set twice as close together as trees in the orchard.

A Member: I think location has more to do with it than anything else. I have two or three orchards in mind where five years ago, when we had that hard frost, they had an abundance of apples, and it was protected from the northwest. I have another orchard in mind that was protected from the north and northwest, and this year they had over 1,400 bushels of Wealthy apples. Mine wasn't protected particularly from the north, and I had no apples, but back of the buildings, there is where I had my apples. I tell you location has more to do with it than a windbreak in such a case.

Mr. Drum: You all remember some ten or more years ago when the apple trees were in blossom, and we had a terrible snow storm and blizzard and freeze. My orchard was protected both from the southwest and the northwest and the north, and following that freeze my trees had the only apples that were left in that country. I think that protection from the north and northwest is just as essential, especially in a position where the winds have a wide sweep. My house and my orchard slope off to the northwest, and I have a full sweep of the northwest wind there for miles. The house was set as it were on a pinnacle. I think the protection from the northwest is fully as essential in such a position as any other.

Mr. Whiting: This windbreak proposition is a question of locality. In the western part of the state, as well as in South Dakota--especially in South Dakota--we say that the south windbreak is decidedly the most important of any we can put in. We have more hot winds than you do here in the eastern part of Minnesota. You don't have that trouble, but in western Minnesota you are very much like we are in South Dakota. Mr.

Ludlow knows the conditions, and I say you must take that into consideration. If you are in that locality the south windbreak is decidedly the most important of any. Then I would say the windbreak on the south, west and north are all of considerable importance. Of course, you can overdo it, you can smother your orchard. You must guard against that, but we have too much air drainage.

In regard to the variety proposition, isn't it true that you are growing too many perishable apples in Minnesota? I know it is so in South Dakota. We are growing too many of these early varieties; we ought to grow more winter varieties. If you want to build up a large commercial apple business you have got to raise more keepers. You are planting too many early varieties.

Mr. Dowds: I have been setting out apple trees more or less in different states for sixty years. If I was going to set out another orchard I would put windbreaks all around it, north, south, east and west, and the windbreak that I would use would be the yellow willow. It grows quick, it gives you a circulation of air, and it protects your trees. My experience in the last fifteen years has been that the yellow willow was the best windbreak that you can have around the house.

Mr. Brackett: Mr. Whiting says, grow winter apples. I want to know what winter apples will bring the money that Wealthy bring.

Mr. Whiting: That is a hard question, but isn't it a fact that you grow too many Wealthys? Don't you glut the market unless you have cold storage? You ought to work to that end just as much as possible; you ought to have more good keepers, better winter varieties.

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GARDEN HELPS

Conducted by Minnesota Garden Flower Society

Edited by MRS. E. W. GOULD, 2644 Humboldt Avenue So.

Minneapolis.

Mr. H. H. Whetzel, of the plant disease survey, U.S. Department of Agriculture, stationed at Cornell University, where the American Peony Society has its test grounds, has made a study of the stem-rot disease of the peony and has set forth the results in an address before the Ma.s.sachusetts Horticultural Society, from which the following has been culled: