land, although some of our orchardists prefer rows extending northeast and southwest as a partial protection from the sun.

Apparently there are some forty or fifty varieties of apples grown in this section, twenty of which are crab apples and hybrids. Among the large apples which are grown the following are usually exhibited at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair.

Alexander, Duchess, Snow, Swaar, Fall Orange, Peerless, Pewaukee, Haas, Hibernal, Longfield, McMahan's, Okabena, Pattens' Greening, Northwesten Greening, Switzer or Red Queen, Wisconsin and Perry Russets, Talman Sweet, Totofsky, Utter, Wealthy, North Star or Dudley, Walbridge, Wolf River, Yellow Transparent, Newell's Winter.

Among the crabs and hybrids the most important are Briar's Sweet, Gideon's No. 6, Hyslop, Martha, Sweet Russett, Transcendent and Whitney.

Our most valuable apple is the Wealthy. In one sixty-acre orchard forty acres are planted to Wealthy. Many of our orchardists say that if they were to plant a 20-acre orchard it would occupy 15 acres. It is a good keeper, one grower reporting 10 bushels in his cellar Jan. 4th, while last year he kept them until spring. The trees can scarcely be called perfectly hardy. Some of them sun-scald in early spring and a few usually freeze out especially if the winter be severe. They are being more extensively planted than any other variety.

Perhaps the Duchess ranks second in importance though it is not being as extensively planted as some other varieties, especially in the larger orchards. It is a great favorite for fall use, and the tree is popular on account of its vigor and adaptation to somewhat loamy soils. It is a heavy bearer, begins young and lives for a good many years.

The Northwestern Greening is being extensively planted, probably ranking third among our apples. It is not perfectly hardy, but will stand four or five ordinary winters and then be killed by an unusually severe one. This is especially true if the trees have borne a heavy crop the previous summer. The young trees, not yet in bearing carry over well, even when the bearing trees freeze out. It is our only real winter apple, presents a fine appearance and sells well, in other words, it is a good commercial apple. One grower reports picking 20 bushe's from 100 trees five and six years old, their second crop.

The Fameuse or Snow is perhaps our best eating apple but

does not seem to be hardy enough to be generally grown. Almost every orchard has 2 or 3 trees but none have very many. Two veteran growers report that they cannot grow it on their hillsides but can grow it down in the valley between. The Pewaukee is unpopular, not very hardy and there is no money in it. The Longfield is badly handicapped by its small size, otherwise it is a valuable commercal apple, smooth, bright and handsome. The tree grows rapidly, bears young, attains a large size produces a large crop, and lives to a good old age. One grower reports the McMahan as not being hardy, but the great weight of opinion is that it is unusually so. Personally I am inclined to think that the McMahan, in company with the Wolf River, Duchess and Hibernal can be grown upon a greater diversity of soils than many of the others. I doubt if it is necessary to plant them upon the one type of soil so far considered-in fact there are a number of small orchards throughout our section upon loam where trees of three of these varieties have flourished for six or seven years past.

"The Wolf River," said one of our orchardists, "is hardy as an oak," but its quality compares favorably with cork. On account of its large size and fine appearance it has a ready sale. One grower sold twenty bushels this fall at $1.50 per bushel. The tree is too slow in coming into bearing. I have seen trees ten or eleven years old, fifteen feet high and have not yet borne. Nevertheless it is exceeded in acreage only by the Wealthy. Duchess and Northwestern Greening.

We have two valuable early fall varieties—the Yellow Transparent and the Tetofsky. The former sold last fall at $1.20 per bushel. It bears early, grows to a large tree, produces a heavy crop and is long-lived. We have trees thirty years old in our vicinity. Unfortunately it blights especially if the soil be rich.

Totofsky trees seem to be in demand-one grower said he would plant 500 trees if he could get them. One orchardist reports the Okabena as his best paying apple, and several speak in high terms of the vigor and productiveness of the Hibernal. But its quality is, as one of them said, "Even worse than the Wolf River."

For the present and the near future our commercial apples are Wealthy, Duchess, Northwestern Greening, Wolf River, Yellow Transparent, Tetofsky and Whitney. The McMahans,' Hi

bernal, Longfield and North Star, are on the road but have not yet "arrived."

None of our orchards, except that at the State Home, are sprayed. So far, our orchardists have not found it necessary tc spray, but the time is fast approaching. The codling moth though not severe, is wide spread in its ravages. Ants have killed more trees than any other enemy. Mice also work considerable injury, especially in orchards that are mulched early with hay, straw or coarse manure. One grower reports the loss of one hundred trees during a single winter from this source. They occasion far more injury than rabbits. Limb blight and leaf blight are reported in a few instances, being I imagine local manifestations of the fire blight. In one orchard I have detected several spots which resembled apple canker.

Up to the present our orchards have been incapable of supplying the local demand, consequently there has been no shipping. But with the present rapid expansion of orchards, this problem will soon require solution. Meanwhile apples have sold at from 75 cents to $1.25 per bushel. One orchard of between six and seven acres sold a thousand dollars worth of apples this fall; while another of perhaps 12 acres containing many impractical varieties produced but $500. As yet, commercial orcharding is scarcely recognized as a visible means of support.

I fail to see that Chippewa county possesses any peculiar natural advantages over the rest of the world. Our land is as good as can be found anywhere and its cost is far below that in most other apple sections. Taxes are correspondingly light. Our railroad facilities are unsurpassed, furnishing cheap rapid transportation to the cities which lie north and west of us. We are so near the northern limit of commercial orchards at present that we will reap whatever advantage there is to be gained from a late appearance upon the market. While our range of varieties is limited, these varieties we can grow to a perfection of form, flavor and coloring perhaps not attained elsewhere.

We have the men, the market, the varieties and several hundred square miles of suitable land; no reason is apparent why the industry should not grow to a size commensurate with these advantages.

CENTRAL REGION.

DR. T. E. LOOPE.

Wisconsin is not an ideal fruit region on account of its severe winters and other climatic conditions not thoroughly understood. Our people have been engrossed by our more favorable industries, lumbering, grain raising, dairy farming and manufacturing to such an extent that intelligent fruit culture has been confined to a few experimenters. I am of the opinion that the main reason for this is the fact that our early settlers being largely from the eastern states and finding that varieties grown there would not succeed here thought commercial apple growing impossible. This idea prevails even now. "They planted trees and they died." They have forgotten that they exercised some common sense in planting and caring for other crops. They know that corn and potatoes must be of tested kinds, planted properly, cared for with diligence and harvested in due season They understand that their cows must be selected carefully from milk and butter breeds, that they must be furnished good pasturage, kept housed in winter and fed on proper feed and milked twice a day if they are to succeed in dairying. Yet you are con tinually met by the statement that they have bought and "planted trees and they died."

With the ordinary farmer a tree is glad to die, and die young while it has a chance to go to tree heaven. It has a presentiment of dire results when it is stuck in the ground in a hurry. to get the job done. It has that "gone feeling" all the first season and welcomes to its bosom the borer, the tent caterpillar and scale for companionship. Tremblingly it puts forth a few feeble leaves and its terminals show a stunted growth as if afraid to be called bold and aggressive in its growth. Then winter comes in and does the rest. If it should perversely show vitality enough to bud the next spring the plowman rakes off a great piece of bark when he drives past and when he harrows the ground he varies the program by running the drag over it. No wonder it gasps and dies. I have been a sad mourner at many such deathbeds but my sadness was mingled with a mad rage to brain the criminal.

"They planted trees and they died." It seems strange that I

have been telling facts but the above is no uncommon occurrence. In fact I have not told half the truth. If perchance it has lives like the fabled cat and grows haltingly until it is old enough to bear fruit it has not only the perils just enumerated to encounter but it is smothered by June grass, impoverished by cropping the ground or gnawed by mice so that if some year it blossoms and bears a crop of scabby apples the remainder of its vitality is sapped and it gives up the ghost. So the end of that thrilling life story is murder followed by suicide.

Can you wonder at the saying "They planted trees and they died." Do people ever imagine that trees have sensations or consciousness? Does it not bleed when broken or cut? Does it not shrink in agony when mortally injured? Does it not feed hungrily in health? Is it not reproduction of its kind as much an instinct as with animals? Can any wise man say that it has no soul?

As to the commercial possibility of central Wisconsin orchards it entirely depends on "The man behind the tree." If that personage will be so self confident or ignorant as to plant Baldwin, Northern Spy, Seek-no-further, King, Pippin or Ben Davis he will speedily join the hands of those who "planted trees and they died."

On the other hand if he plants Wealthy, Duchess, McMahan, Longfield, N. W. Greening, Patten's Greening, Hibernal and some others of the same class he will ere many years begin to wonder what he is going to do with his enormous crop.

But the "Man behind the tree" must come to the front in this problem, no skulking is allowed but he must be in the bright sunlight of common sense and diligence. He must have an elevated location with a soil in which clay has a generous admixture, with lime a constituent, with fertility kept at high grade and drainage in perfect condition. Given all this the man must plant properly and cultivate wisely. He must prune sparingly but well. He must protect from mice, rabbits and the tree assassin. Last and most essential he must love his trees and the tree recognizing this love and tenderness will reciprocate and unfold its buds and blossoms showering on its benefactor its beauty, its fragrance and its luscious fruit. The man gets not only the material benefits from its ministrations but the love of nature grows warm and sweet in his heart and leads him to reverence that great

8-Hort.