using short-piece apple roots, then a short graft of some very hardy variety, a crab or Russian preferred, and on top of this a long scion of the Wealthy, the grafts to be planted, leaving only the top bud out of the ground, that the first and second scion may take roots; these trees to be transplanted into the orchard when two years old. 50 Borovinka, 35 Charlamoff, 15 Duchess, (all of these can be marketed as Duchess),50 Patten's Greening (top-worked), 25 Hibernal, 25 Peter, 25 Anisim, 25 Longfield.

This makes out the full complement of the commercial orchard. In addition to this I should want an experiment orchard of 300 trees, at least, as follows:

RUSSIANS.

Five Anismoka, 5 Antonovka, 5 Beautiful Arcade, 5 Blushed Calville, 5 No. 385 Bode, or Bade's, 5 Breskovka, 5 Cross, 5 Christmas, 5 Glass Green, 5 Lowland Raspberry, 5 Lubsk Queen, 5 4M Ostrekoff, 15 Repka Melenda, 10 Royal Table, 5 Russian Gravenstein, 5 Red Queen, 5 Sandy Glass, 5 Silken Leaf, 5 White Pigeon, 5 Yellow Sweet, 5 Yellow Transparent.

SEEDLINGS AND AMERICAN VARIETIES.

5 Brett No.1, 5 Fameuse, 5 Giant Swaar, 5 Gilbert, 5 Grimes' Golden, 5 Haas, 5 Lou, 5 McMahon, 5 Okabena, 5 Peerless, 5 Rollins' Proliffc, 10 Shockley, 5 Talman Sweet, 5 Utter, 5 Wolf River, 5 Wolf Seedlings, 5 No. 2 Lightly Seedling, 5 Oxford Orange, 5 Holtz, 5 Lord's L. Seedling.

CRAB APPLES.

5 Dartt Seedling, 5 Florence, 5 Gideon No. 6, 5 Hyslop, 5 Martha, 5 Strawberry, 5 Sweet Russet, 5 Tonka, 5 Virginia, 5 Whitney, 5 Transcendent.

With this fine list of apples, when in full bearing, I should expect to take some of the prizes offered at the state fair, now taken by Brothers Harris, Somerville and others.

From eleven correspondents naming thirty-five varieties of apples, the Wealthy is recommended by 10, Duchess by 8, Hibernal by 7, Patten's Greening by 6, Anisim by 4, Charlamoff, Borovinka, Okabena, each by 3; Malinda, Longfield, Peerless each by 2; Lou, Peter, Blushed Calvelle, Lieby, Romna, Bode, White Pigeon, Christmas, Red Queen, Anismoka, Cross, Russian Gravenstein, Royal Table Wolf, Gideon No. 6, Breskovka, Silken Leaf, McMahon, Gilbert,Itasca Euella, each by 1-to be used as orchard trees or for stock on which to top-work other varieties. I append extracts from these correspondents that you may get their ideas as originally given and that you may not be mislead by my opinions.

VARIETIES.

P. M. Gideon. "The Wealthy leads the Duchess for profit. For a commercial orchard in Minnesota, take Lou for early and Wealthy and Peter for late, and you can sell in any market, no matter what the glut is of other apples, and for crabs Martha, Florence and No. 9. No others are ever in their way. No. 9 leads all; it's the world beater of all small apples."

Andrew Peterson's list for planting.

"First, Summer Apples. No. 262, Charlamoff; trees blight some when young, but not when they get old. I call them just as hardy

as the Duchess, and in quality they are the best of all the named apples we have in Minnesota. No. 138 Borovinka; fruit ripens a little later than Duchess, but the trees are more hardy and don't blight. No. 22 Blushed Calville; they blight more, but a very heavy bearer of good quality.

"Fall Apples. No. 378 Hibernal, 240 Leiby, are just the same, can't see any difference, and No. 599 Romna is just the same in quality and hardiness, but the trees grow in better shape. No. 385 Bode is the hardiest tree of all the Russians,a good bearer, but the fruit is a little sour to eat from the hand. No. 317 White Pigeon is a hardy tree, and the fruit is good.

"Winter varieties. 310 Christmas; tree don't blight and keeps until Christmas; of a nice red color, of middling size. 316 Red Queen; a large, showy fruit, good in quality, keeps until July. 18 Anismoka; a nice red apple, sells best of all in the market; keeps until March. 413 Cross; a large apple of good quality and keeps until Christmas. 105 Russian Gravenstein; of good quality; tree is hardy. No. 5 Royal Table; the longest keeper of all the Russians. Wolf's Seedling; in tree, leaves and shape, it is like Rawles Janet, but in color and quality it is like the Fameuse, and the fruit keeps until May. They are the best of my winter apples. Patten's Greening; I like them very much; blight a little when young, but not now; of nice shape with broad top, so it protects itself from sun scald; fruit keeps until the last part of January."

C. G. Patten. "I would plant the orchard as follows: 400 Greening, 400 Wealthy, 200 Good Peasant."

Wm. Somerville thinks Wealthy top-worked on Hibernal or Transcendent crab would be a success.

E. H. S. Dartt. "If I were to set an orchard of 1,000 trees, I would like to experiment with the following: 200 Wealthy, 200 Anisim, 200 Hibernal, 100 Duchess, 100 Patten's Greening, 50 Borovinka, 50 Okabena, 50 Dartt crab, 50 Gideon No. 6."

J. P. Andrews. "My old orchard was planted twenty years ago next spring. The standards were Duchess and Wealthy, and the Duchess have paid much better than the Wealthy, and the Wealthy have played out much faster than Duchess. Notwithstanding this, we planted last fall twice as many Wealthy as Duchess."

John S. Harris. "For a commercial orchard of 1,000 trees I should plant 200 root-grafts of Wealthy and 200 stocks of some kind to be top-worked to Wealthy(at present, Hibernal preferred), 50 Patten, 50 Anisim, 100 Borovinka or Duchess, 50 Longfield, top-grafted, and 50 root-grafts, 50 Okabena, 100 Virginia and other crabs to be worked on if not wanted for their fruit, and 50 trees of some very early variety, Yellow Transparent would be my choice, if it did not blight badly. Breskovka is better if it is early enough. The extra hundred crabs can be saved for some nice thing that survives the next test winter."

W. E. Haverland, Fort Dodge, Ia. I place so much value upon the answer to the questions put, I will quote entire letter. "We have twenty-five acres of Wealthy,'fifteen acres of mixed varieties. First, Duchess is not a No. 1 apple for cold storage, but with special care season can be extended. Second, the Wealthy stores well. Third,

time to gather the Duchess is just as the seed begins to color. Fourth, time to gather Wealthy, as soon as it drops easily from the stem and gets good color. Fifth, I cannot recommend Patten's Greening, as its season is not any longer than Wealthy, and I consider the Wealthy the best apple to grow for commerce. Seventh, if I was going to plant 1,000 trees at Minnetonka, I would set the Silken Leaf and top-work them with Wealthy."

R. C. Keel. "I will give you the names of the 1,000 apple trees I would set out. 150 Duchess, 350 Wealthy, 200 Longfield, 200 Hibernal, 25 McMahon, 25 Anisim. These six varieties are certainly some of the best that I know anything about, and one setting them will not miss it. Out of this lot I think the Wealthy the best money maker; it bears quite young and heavily, and will always bring the top market price. The Longfield would pay for themselves the quickest, but would be the first to give out. I would set this variety on one side of the orchard so I could replant without spoiling the looks of my orchard. It lasts about ten years. Some of the new varieties, such as Peerless, Okabena, Gilbert, etc., may be good, but no one has ever made any money out of them as yet, and unless I could get trees at the same price as common trees would not plant them, for there is none of them that will give the returns that the Wealthy will."

Clarence Wedge. "If setting an orchard of 1,000 trees where I had opportunity and desire to cater to a nice home market, especially if near a northern city, I would set varieties about as follows: 160 Martha crab, 40 Sweet Russet, 200 Duchess or Charlamoff for early, 200 Patten's Greening, 400 Hibernal or Virginia to top-work, the former preferred, as it is less liable to patch or body blight."

Prof. S. B. Green. "In relation to planting orchards for commercial purposes in Carver county, Hibernal 350, Wealthy 350, Duchess 150, Charlamoff, 150. I would prefer to have Wealthy top-worked on Virginia, the others root-grafted with long scions and planted rather deep when they are set out. My idea in putting in the Charlamoff is that it prolongs the selling season of the Duchess. Charlamoff will generally sell for Duchess and comes in later. I think that while the Hibernal is of poor quality for eating, if hard it is such an admirable cooking apple that it is destined to be popular when it is well known, and the tree is so hardy that any one can grow it."

J. M. Underwood. "Not to put the eggs all into one basket, in planting 1,000 trees I would suggest 200 Wealthy trees from rootgraft, 200 crabs to be top-worked, 300 Hibernal to be top-worked also. Then I would graft 50 of the crabs to Wealthy and 50 to Malinda, the Hibernal top-worked to Wealthy also. I have quite an admiration for the Anisim and Patten, but do not know them well enough yet to recommend them in large quantities."

Through the courtesy of a friend I am permitted to make extracts from a letter of inquiry of what to plant in a commercial orchard from:

O. F. Brand. "Replying to yours of 8th inst., will say that for an orchard of 1,000 trees I would plant, where you are (Carver county), 50 Duchess, 50 Itasca, 50 Malinda, 700 Peerless, 150 Euella. But as you cannot get the Euella now. I would make it 850 Peerless. I don't see how you could better that."

CAPILLARY WATER OF THE SOIL.

H. H. HARRINGTON, COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS.

If we take a small glass rod and dip it into a goblet of water it will be observed that the water rises a little way along the surface of the rod. Or if we use a small glass tube instead of a rod, the water will rise a greater distance, or if we take a rock and place it in a pan of water, say, half immersed, the water will rise in a thin film along the surface of the rock. This movement of water illustrates what we call capillary attraction. The vertical distance to which this water can rise in these tubes is inversely proportional to the size of the tube. That is to say, the smaller the tube, the higher the water will go; while on a surface, as illustrated in the case of the rock, the vertical rise of the water will be very small. In a soil, therefore, we do not want rocks of clods because the capillary water which feeds the plant can not rise to the plant roots and replace the moisture carried off by evaporation. But if the soil is pulverized and of an even mechanical condition, with a certain degree of compactness, then the capillarity takes place more readily and moisture passes to the surface. In cultivation, then, our first object is to pulverize the soil and carry this mechanical condition as deep beneath the surface as our time and means will allow. By this we create a large amount of surface within the soil to hold winter and early spring moisture. According to King, a cubic foot of marbles one inch in diameter possesses an aggregate surface of twentyseven and seven-tenths square feet, but if the marbles were pulverized until their diameter was only one-thousandth part of an inch, then the total area per cubic foot would be increased to twentyseven thousand and seven hundred square feet. The great difference of water-holding power between the two can be readily appreciated, and with it the necessity of having the soil in proper mechanical condition. But, as we have said, there must be a certain degree of compactness to the soil in order that the water may reach from below to the surface by capillary movement. If the soil is too loose or open, the water can not be drawn through it by capillary attraction. Therefore, in times of drouth, and especially after a shower of rain, shallow plowing should be done in order to retain a soft mulch of dust or dry earth over the pores or capillary channels of the moist soil beneath, breaking the avenue of escape of soil moisture to the surface. On the other hand, this shallow cultivation should be frequent enough to keep the surface thoroughly open and so loose that water cannot rise through it, thus forcing it to go through the tissues of the plant. On the other hand, the time and labor, as well as the stage of growth of the plant, must have a controlling influence on the frequency of cultivation. In a heavy clay soil, fall or winter plowing may be a disadvantage, or at least a waste of time, because of tamping or puddling the soil, causing it to run together.-Texas Farm and Ranch.

Secretary's Corner.

A CORRECTION IN THE REPORT OF NOMEnclature COMMISSIOM.— A correction to this report came in from Prof. Hansen, but the form had already been printed. On page 45, in the description of "Golden White," read “Avenarius," instead of "Tuenarius."

THE NEW IOWA SECRETARY.-Notice has just reached this office of the resignation of Sec. Geo. H. Van Houten, of the Iowa Society, and the appointment of Mr. Wesling Greene, of Davenport, as his successor, to take effect March 13th.

DO YOU WANT ANY READING MATTER?--The secretary has an ac cumulation of surplus papers and books on horticultural and agricultural subjects which will be packed and sent free (the receiver to pay express) to applicants as long as the supply lasts.

PRESIDENT PENDERGAST AT HOME IN HUTCHINSON.-The office Prof. Pendergast has so long occupied in the capitol at St. Paul, as State Superintendent of Public Instruction, is now turned over to his successor, and he will be found hereafter at his home in Hutchinson cultivating the gentle arts of Ceres and Pomona.

A MINNESOTAN MANAGER OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN.-D. T. McDougal, professor of botany at the State University for a number of years, has recently been elected to fill this important position. The gardens comprise 250 acres in Bronx Park and centrally located in New York City. The professor is a practical worker of high attainments and will be sorely missed here.

WYMAN ELLIOT A MEMBER OF THE MINNEAPOLIS PARK BOARD.— The recent election of Mr. Wyman Elliot to fill a vacancy on this board is a deserved tribute to his practical attainments and interest in the work of the board. While a member of the city council he represented that body on the board, and now his term in the council having expired his services are still fortunately to be retained.

SUPERINTENDENT OF HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT AT STATE FAIR IN 1889.-J. M. Underwood has been appointed head of this department for this year. Following the usual practice, Mr. Wyman Elliot having retired from the Board, and Mr. Underwood being still a member and a practical horticulturist, was chosen to succeed him. We shall all try, as usual, to make "this exhibit" the "best one," and "progress" being our motto, we expect to succeed. Will you help?