The eighteen acres selected for our main orchard slopes quite abruptly to the north and northeast.  In fact, the slope is so steep that the ground, if kept under cultivation, would wash badly, and this was the real reason for seeding down our orchard at the time of planting.  The orchard is now seven years old, and the trees have never had a particle of cultivation.  Part of this ground was in grain and seeded to alsike and timothy the year before; the balance was the new land referred to, which we had broken and immediately seeded down to alsike and timothy, with oats as a nurse crop.

Our first problem was what varieties to plant, in what proportion and where to buy them.  In this we adopted the recommendation of this society at that time, choosing Wealthy, Duchess, Patten Greening and Northwestern Greening, with fifty Malinda and fifty Iowa Beauty.  We now have in addition two small orchards with nearly forty varieties altogether.  The varieties, for the large orchard were divided as follows:  250 Duchess, 250 Patten Greening, 300 Northwestern Greening, 1,000 Wealthy.  Were I to set another commercial orchard of the same size it would contain 500 Duchess and the balance Wealthy.  While the Patten Greening is an ideal tree and an early and prolific bearer, there is with us a much larger per cent of imperfect and diseased fruit than of any other variety.  Tree for tree, I believe the Duchess will produce more saleable fruit.

Where to buy our trees was decided for us in one of our first numbers of the Horticulturist, viz., at the nearest reliable nursery.  That this was good advice is evidenced by the fact that out of the 1,900 trees we have found but two that were not as ordered.

Our next problem was, at what distance to plant the trees.  The more information we sought the less sure were we of the best plan.  We were advised to plant all distances from 12 feet by 16 feet to 24 feet by 32 feet.  We finally concluded to take about an average of them all and decided on 20 feet by 20 feet, and so far have had no reason to regret it.  We have put up the alsike and timothy every year for hay with the usual machinery, and there has not been over a half dozen trees seriously damaged.  Our trees were nearly all three years old, 5 to 6 feet, and we find they do much better in sod than a smaller tree.

Having the orchard set out the next thing was to protect the trees from mice and rabbits.  This we did by making protectors out of wire cloth, using different widths, from 18 to 24 inches, cutting it in strips 10 inches wide and holding it about the trees by three pieces of stove pipe wire at the top, middle and bottom.  Not counting the time of making and putting them on these cost us from 1-1/2 cents to 2-1/2 cents each, and lasted from three to four years.  We used a few made of galvanized wire cloth, which lasted much longer.

Three years ago we commenced replacing these protectors with a wash of white lead and raw linseed oil mixed to the consistency of separator cream.  The first year we painted only fifty trees, the next year 100, the next 300, and this last year we painted every tree on the place.  We can see no bad effects, and it certainly protects against mice and rabbits and, what is equally as important, against borers also, and the cost per tree, including labor, is much less.