St. Paul daily globe., 1889-10-04
SOUTH DAKOTA FRUITS.
Varieties Suggested by Olive

tdffcIles suggested by Oliver
Gibbs Jr., in the Farmers Re.
view.
AS to the prospects for orchards of
tree fruits in this region, am not half
as anxious on the question of making
the trees live and maintain health and
vigor as L am whether they can mature
their fruit in good shape in some of our
dry seasons. have seen hundreds of
bushels of the Oldenburg in Minnesota
orchards baked on the trees in an Aug
ust drOuth. How can we expect an
apple the mature here in Dakota when
the air sometimes gets so dry and
evaporation from the sell so intense
that vegetation suspends it's growth
for days and days and even weeks. and
waits in a state Of torpor for the later
rain? That is the worst thing we have
to look out for in the orchard business
in my opinion. The wild plum will
stand it. So will the thorn apple, so
called mot an apple but pear); the
Shepherdli and the sand cherry have the
same power of resistance to drouth. In
time we or our descendants may see
varieties Of apples and pears here that
have also become drouth-proof. But
what shall we do with our orchards now
that have to cast their fruit untimely in
order to preserve life in the trees? The
Russians in the Steppe region, Prof.
Budd tells US, do not think of maturing
the fruit in their great commercial
orchards without heavy irrigation twice
in the growing season. They make
a large basin of earth like the pit
Of circus show around each
tree, and fill 1t with water, brought
up from the rivers to the high
lands at great expense of labor with
their rude contrivances. But they
load the steamboats, Of the Volga
to their guards with their apples
going to market and their soils and
their summers are as dry as ours. 1t
would be perhaps some years too early
to discuss this question here, if it were
not for this fact: II our orchards are to
need irrigation and lots of it, by and by,
to mature their fruit i'm the dryest sea-
sons, can we reasonably expect that in
such climate the young trees them
selves can do we'll if we let the ground
about them grow up to grass and weeds
to rob them of what little moisture
there is in dry time? No, indeed.
We must give the trees a special care
adapted to the climate. What is often
called winter killing is nothing but
teONth SAOiA WIZ p1ObiOOo OtoL-
vation for want of moisture. What
shall we do where we are not feady to
irrigate? Some say mulch, l have
looked for good trees where mulchlng
was resorted to for thirty years and
never found them. We want our trees
to put their roots down deep. Mulch
ing brings them to the surface. The
only sure protection from drOuth that |
know anything about in my own prac-
tice is clean culture. l give it to every
thing In both orchard and garden, pos
sessing by constant cultivation
mulch of fine surface soil
around everything. If we could
find plant that feeds mostly on the
air, and cover the ground with it by
broadcast sowing, so as to shade the en-
tire surface without robbing the soil of
moisture, it might and probably would
answer the same purpose and perhaps
do better than cultivation. Some years
ago saw paragraph in Prof. Budd's
writings recommending buckwheat for
this use. l would like to know if he
still recommends 1t. The celebrity of
the grapes grown in the vicinity of st.
Paul and Minneapolis is largely due to
a system of clean and constant cultiva-
ton. The foot sinks into the fine sur
face soil as one walks the vineyards
there, and no surface roots are permit
ted to grow.