The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1903-09-03
HOPEFUL HARRY ON ORCHARDS.
He Gives Farmers Some Good Advice on
Going Into Fruit Raising.

He Gives Farmers Some Good Advice on
Going Into Fruit Raising.
think the present a good time to
give expression to few thoughts on
orcharding and the first and a very i'm
portant matter to consider is the tree
agent. Have nothing to do with him:
just tell him that you don't want his
trees, bid him goodbye and leave him;
don't give him chance to talk for if
you do he will convince you or will try
to make you believe that he is an
honest agent and the firm or nursery
man he represents is reliable. But
don't believe him. His statements are
not the truth. It is said that every
fish is either slippery or scaley; the
same is true in regard to tree agents.
When you are ready to set an orchard
send to any nersery man in Minnesota
for a catalogue and select such va
rieties of apples or plums as are rec
commended to be hardy, prolific and
free from blight. Always get your
apple trees from a nursery in your own
State and you will stand better chance
to succeed. If you get apple trees
from an eastern state you will fail of
success.
Minnesota nursery men are reliable
Trees that are perfectly hardy and
prolific are so recommended and those
that are not hardy or are troubled with
blight it is so stated, so if man sets
out an orchard of the latter varieties
and fails it is his own fault. Every
man ought to post himself in hOrticul-
ture. The cost of horticultural litera-
ture is small compared with the cost
OF experience by the loss of setting out
poor variety of trees. The apple tree
blight is a disease that should be
guarded against as much as possible.
1t does not affect all kinds of trees but
those varieties that are affected should
be discarded. The Transcendent crab
is the most affected of any variety and
is so badly troubled with blight that
it ought to be stricken from the list
and not propagated. Nearly all the
trees of this variety in this section
have been killed by blight. This va
riety was condemned years ago by
nearly all of the leading horticultural
lists in Minnesota. The Tetofsky is
another variety that it is not safe to
plant and some others following close
after. There is but little if any danger
in planting the following varieties of
standard apples: At the head of the
list is the Duchess and Hibernal,
closely followed by Wealthy, Patterns
Greening and Rupka. There are a
few other varieties of which it would
be well to plant few trees, but I
would not plant more than one or two
of any variety unless I knew them to
be perfectly hardy. Two-thirds of the
apple trees that have been planted in
Mile Laos county south Of Foreston
within the last ten years are dead.
Many Of the trees were winter killed,
showing that they were not hardy
enough for this climate. Others were
killed by the blight. Many trees that
have borne fruit for several years have
died from the effects of blight during
the past two years, causing men to be-
come discouraged and they declare
that they will never plant another ap-
pie tree. But why should men be so
easily discouraged because of little
failure in starting an orchard Does
farmer become discouraged and give
up farming because of failure of a
crop or does he quit farming because
he has failed of a crop of one variety
of grain?
XXX
n few years ago farmers in the
southern part of Minnesota went wild
over the introduction of several va
rieties of soft wheat, such as China Tea,
Rio Grand, Italian and Lost Nation.
Some of these varieties were badly
troubled with smut and were worth
less like the Transcendent crab apple;
others rusted badly and the bran on all
of them was too thick for profitable
milling purposes. Many farmers met
with heavy losses but they did not quit
farming nor the raising of wheat but
they tried again and now they make a
success with the Fife wheat and it's
first cousin the Blue Stem, so if at first
you don't succeed try, try again.
Recently an agent travelling through
Milo got bit. It was the lightning rod
man. He called on a man who had a
good lot of buildings and told him he
ought to have rods on them. He said
he was taking orders for putting cop
per rods on buildings for seventy cents
foot but would put them on his build
ings for 5000 and the farmer told him
to go ahead and put them on, where