Norway spruce has done better here than white spruce, some old trees fruiting freely. The Colorado blue spruce (Picea pungens) seems to be our best spruce, and so far as tested the Black Hills spruce is a good second. Douglas fir has been planted in a small way in the parks, but it is young yet.

It seems probable that the Scotch pines in the forestry plantation owe their comparatively good condition to the shelter they get from the hot winds from being planted close together, and from the fact that they are partly protected by the black pines planted to the west of them. The single tree of Scotch pine above referred to has had garden cultivation for thirty years, but it seems likely that it was injured by the same hot winds that killed the white pine and the larch. The Scotch pine is a native of Northern Europe, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Scotland, Normandy (near the ocean) and Germany and Russia around the Baltic, and all these countries have a moist, cool climate. The black pine is a native of Southern Europe, growing all the way from Southern Spain to the Taurus Mountains in Asia Minor. In its native habitat it has become accustomed to the hot winds that often sweep across the Mediteranean, the burning sirocco of the Great Sahara. The dwarf mountain pine, Pinus Montana, grows in the Pyrenees, in the Alps, in the Carpathians and in the Balkan Mountains, so that it, too, often encounters the hot winds that come across from the African deserts. It is probable that the ability of the black pine, the dwarf mountain pine, the Black Hills spruce, and the rock pine to flourish on the prairies of Southwestern Minnesota is due to the fact that all these trees have become accustomed to resisting the hot, dry winds that often reach them in their native habitats.

The Norway spruce (Picea excelsa) in its many varieties is native to almost the whole of Europe, extending from north of the Arctic Circle to the Pyrenees and Balkan Mountains in Southern Europe. We could then expect that trees from the Pyrenees or from the Balkans might be so well accustomed to the hot winds from Africa as to make them resist, at least for some time, the hot winds of the prairies. And they do seem to stand better than the white spruce or the balsam fir or the white pine.

Some report should be made on the material sent out for trial from the State Fruit-Breeding Farm. The strawberry, No. 1017, made a fine growth, and promised a large crop of fruit in September, but a few days of quite dry weather, following a very wet spell, ruined the crop at ripening time.

The raspberry, No. 4, is a great producer of sprouts and multiplies enormously, but it seems to be a rather shy fruiter, and the fruit is not of the highest quality. It is intermediate in season. No. 5 is a much larger and better berry, although not quite so hardy. Both came through the winter, without covering, in good condition. No. 8 seems to resemble the old Columbian. It does not sucker much. It is a large, late berry of good quality. It was covered, so its hardiness is untested. Prof. Hansen's Oheta is a berry of much promise. It is of fine quality and fruits abundantly.

The hybrid plums were sprayed with a commercial dust spray but not effectively enough, for the fruit all rotted. We shall try more thorough spraying next season.

Patten's Greening, Oldenburg, Okabena and Simbrish No. 1 produced a good crop of apples. With us Okabena is undersized, of poor flavor and an extremely poor keeper.



The Growing of Vegetables for Canning.

M. H. HEGERLE, PRES. CANNING FACTORY, ST. BONIFACIUS.

The state authorities, through the Agricultural Farm and other sources, are doing good work promoting and encouraging the growing of vegetables, but it seems more could be done towards the marketing and conservation of these vegetables after they are grown.

The growing season for vegetables in this state is comparatively short, and although during that short period everybody eats vegetables, every grocer's show windows, and even the sidewalks, are used to display them, and a tremendous business is done, yet there are tons and tons of nice fresh vegetables go to waste, not only for the market or truck farmer but in every family garden—be the same ever so small, there is a steady waste going on, all of which could easily be conserved by canning.

Canning is simply putting the fresh vegetables in tin cans or glass jars (the latter are much more expensive, but no better), steaming and sealing them and setting aside until wanted. By doing this every truck farmer, and any one having ever so small a garden, could conserve enough which otherwise would go to waste to keep them in real fresh vegetables all winter.

Of course the thousands living in the cities having no garden can not do this and are therefore dependent on the canning factory for their fresh vegetables, and here is where my topic comes in, the growing of vegetables for canning.

It is no trick to grow vegetables for home canning, any variety will do. You need not select a big lot of one kind, and you need not sort for size or color. Just take the surplus as you find it in your garden from day to day. All it needs is, it must be fresh and it must be thoroughly clean—but growing for the canning factory is different. To line up fifty to 200 growers to sow the same seed, to plant, harvest and bring to the factory just when in right condition, requires time and hard work. This really is the hardest problem the canning factory has to solve, and that is the reason why all successful canners grow at least part of their product.

You must remember vegetables put in cans will come out just as you put them in. If you put in stale, tough, stringy beans you will be sure to find them there when you open the can, but if you put in fresh, tender beans, peas, corn or whatever else, you will find these exactly as you put them in, and it's immaterial whether you open this can the first, second or tenth year. We must not forget that vegetables properly sterilized and sealed will keep indefinitely, and they require no preservative of any kind. No canning factory uses any preservative, and no home cannery should use them.



There was a time when canning was considered an art or a secret. I remember receiving circulars offering for sale the secrets of canning, and while in the grocery business some twelve years ago I sold thousands of packages of canning compound. These canning compounds, after a thorough examination by our State Food Department, were found not only worthless but harmful if put in canned foods.

Remember, to can vegetables successfully, it requires no canning compound or preservative of any kind, simply fresh and thoroughly clean vegetables.

Fresh vegetables are a good, healthy food, we all know this; and besides they are cheaper than meat; therefore should be on our tables two or three times a day. But mind you, they must be fresh, and while for some of us during the growing season it is comparatively easy to get them fresh, yet during the rest of the year, say eight to ten months, real fresh vegetables in bulk are hard to find and high in price. A lot of so-called fresh vegetables shipped in from a distance at best require several days to make the rounds through the grower, the shipper, the jobber, the retailer—to our tables and are really not fresh. They have become stale, and by coming in contact with different kinds of material have lost their delicate flavor. Therefore to insure real fresh vegetables for our tables, at least during the winter months, we must take the canned article.

All of us remember how most everything in the grocery line was handled in bulk, dried fruits, cereals of all kinds, coffee, tea, etc., was displayed on the counters, along the aisles and even outside along the sidewalk, handled and examined by any one and exposed to dust and flies. Just about the same way are vegetables in bulk handled today. Where is the grocer who would go back to those days, and where is the public that would patronize him?

Mrs. Glenzke: What vegetables do you can?

Mr. Hegerle: We can corn; beans, string and wax; apples, tomatoes, etc.

Mrs. Glenzke: How do you manage to get the farmers to bring them in? In Wisconsin it was a failure. As you say, they came when they got their work done, and the whole bunch came there at one time.

Mr. Hegerle: That is the hardest work, to get the growers to bring the vegetables when they are in the right condition and when they should be canned.

Mrs. Glenzke: There are five canning factories in that neighborhood now, and there isn't a one of them that allows the farmers to bring their stuff. They rent the farmers' land for themselves. For miles and miles you can't find a farmer that hasn't rented his farm.

Mr. Hegerle: You have to have the vegetables at the right time.

Mrs. Glenzke: They use the farmer's team and give him all the assistance they can. It does away with having them all at one time. I have seen twenty-five farmers come at one time. I don't see how you manage it.

Mr. Hegerle: We have had a lot of trouble, and we are growing some of our vegetables.

Mrs. Glenzke: You can raise four successive crops of peas on the same ground, and you can make that work all right. They used to can squash, corn, tomatoes, and they have got down to peas entirely.

A Member: Doesn't most of that trouble arise from the low prices?

Mr. Hegerle: No, not entirely. The price when contracted is satisfactory, and we find in our experience in growing our own vegetables we can grow them cheaper than what we pay to the growers. But we wouldn't grow any if we could get the growers to bring them in when they are in the right shape. When corn is at a certain stage to make a good canned article it has got to be brought in that day, and if the farmer don't bring it, if he has a state fair on or a wedding or a funeral or something and delays it a day or two, then it is all off; that corn is lost.

Mr. Sauter: I would like to know which is the best beans for canning, the yellow or the green?

Mr. Hegerle: Well, we prefer the Refugee, both in wax and green. We prefer them because they are the best in flavor we have.

Mr. Sauter: Which is the best, the flat or the round of the wax?

Mr. Hegerle: Round is preferred by the trade, by the grocers or jobbers. I have kept the flat wax beans for my own use of those that we can.

Mr. Sauter: Don't the flat ones bring a little more than the round ones?

Mr. Hegerle: Well, probably the first or second picking, but you can't pick them as often as the other variety. The Refugee you can pick four or five or six times, and the flat beans can only be picked two times.

Mr. Anderson: I would like to ask what you pay for beans for canning purposes?

Mr. Hegerle: We pay from 3/4 of a cent up to 4 cents a pound. Sometimes a man brings in some that are almost too good to throw away, they are big and stringy, and rather than send them home we think we have got to take them and pay him something for them. We would rather not have them, and we usually dump them. Starting from that we pay up to three and four cents. Four cents for well sorted and mostly small beans. They have got to be graded, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Number 1 is the smallest, and they bring the best price. We pay in proportion to the number 1's and 2's in the load.

Mr. Sauter: What tomato do you find the best for canning?

Mr. Hegerle: Well, the Earliana.

Mr. Sauter: Do you have any trouble with those bursting the cans?

Mr. Hegerle: No, sir.

Mr. Sauter: We had that trouble in canning for our own use. They burst the can, they expanded.

Mr. Hegerle: That is the fault of the man, not of the tomato.

Mr. Sauter: They were picked and canned the same day.

Mr. Hegerle: Probably not sterilized enough. Sterilizing fruit is the main thing. A tomato is really one of the easiest things to can.

Mr. Sauter: In other tomatoes we don't have that trouble. It seems to hurt the sale of them to the women folks.

Mr. Hegerle: Sterilize them a little more.

Mr. Sauter: About how long would you cook them?

Mr. Hegerle: I am not the man at the wheel on that part. I don't know. We have a superintendent that handles that part of it.



Top-Grafting.

AN EXERCISE LED BY A. J. PHILIPS, WEST SALEM, WIS., AT 1915 ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY.

Mr. Philips: When I first talked top-working in Minnesota, Professor Green and some of the knowing ones felt a little leary about it, but I kept right on just the same. The most I have got out of top-working is the pleasure I have had, doing the work and seeing the fruit grow. I inherited a love for top-working from my father. He used to top-work some, and after I began planting trees my old friend Wilcox used to come and visit me, and he was strong on top-working on hardy roots. I used to make a little sport of the old man, but no more I guess than people have made of me for doing the same thing. He made me a proposition about forty years ago. He says, "You plant ten trees of a good variety to top-work on—I will pick them out for you—and then you top-work them with Wealthy, and then plant ten Wealthy trees right beside them on the same land and in the same rows, right together, and see which will do the best." At the end of ten years the Wealthy on their own roots had borne good crops but they began to fail, while the top-worked ones (on Virginia crab) were just at their best bearing at that time. Professor Green came and looked them over at the end of fifteen years. The first ten on their own roots were dead, and the others grafted on Virginia bore apples until they were twenty-five years old. That convinced me that top-working in certain cases would pay if done on a hardy stock.

I have seen a Northwestern Greening tree that was crotched, split apart and lay down when it was loaded with apples, in Waupacca County, but when grafted onto a stock whose limbs grew out horizontal it will carry a load of fruit until it ripens without injury.

I won a first prize at the Omaha exposition. My apples were not much better, but they were top-worked and were a little larger. I have some specimens here that show the practical difference. These grew on my own land. I found in showing apples in Milwaukee at their fairs that I could always get the best specimens from the top-worked trees. That convinced me that you could grow better fruit that way.

Mr. Brackett: What age do you commence the grafting?

Mr. Philips: I like to commence at two years old. I like to set a Virginia crab and let it grow one year and then commence top-working, and top-work about half the first year and the balance the second.

Mr. Brackett: Is that in the nursery row?

Mr. Philips: No, where I am going to have it grow. I have found the Virginia—and the Hibernal, too, either of them, very vigorous trees. The Virginia is very vigorous. You dig up a Virginia tree, and you find a great mass of roots; it has strength, and it grows fast. I have top-worked about forty varieties on the Virginia and some on Hibernal. Mr. Cady was there and looked it over, Prof. Green was there and Mr. Kellogg has been there a number of times—and I always ask them this question: If they found any trees where the top had outgrown the stock? I have never seen an instance where the top of the tree put onto a Virginia crab outgrew the Virginia. I have some in my garden now where the union is so perfect it takes a man with good eyesight to see where it is.



Mr. Brackett: If you had Virginia trees twelve years old would you top-work them?

Mr. Philips: Yes, sir, out towards the end of the limbs.

Mr. Brackett: Suppose the limbs were too big on the stock you are going to top-work, how would you do then?

Mr. Philips: I practice cutting off those larger limbs and letting young shoots grow. Mr. Dartt did a good deal of top-working, and he top-worked large limbs. I told him he was making an old fool of himself, but he wouldn't believe it. He would cut off limbs as large as three inches and put in four scions and at the end of two years they had only grown eight inches each. I have put in one scion in a Virginia limb that was about 3/4-inch in diameter, and had it that season grow eight feet and one inch. That is the best growth I ever had.

The reason that my attention was called to the Virginia as being vigorous was, when I attended the meeting of this society about thirty years ago—I think it was at Rochester—Mr. A. W. Sias, who was an active nurseryman and one of the pioneers of this society, offered a premium of $5.00 for the best growth of a crab apple tree, and then, in order to win the money himself (which he did), he brought in some limbs of a Virginia that were six feet long that grew in one season; and I figured then that a tree that could make that growth in one season was a vigorous tree, which it is. Nothing can outgrow it, and that was one reason why I commenced using it.

Mr. Brackett: I have one trouble in grafting the Wealthy to the Hibernal on account of its making that heavy growth. I lost some of them by blight on that account.

Mr. Philips: Which was blighted, the Hibernal?

Mr. Brackett: No, the Wealthy made such a big growth that it blighted. I cut the top back and put grafts in, and they made a good growth, but they blighted. Did you have any trouble like that?

Mr. Philips: No, sir, I think my soil is different from yours. My soil is of a poor order, a heavy clay, and it don't make the growth.

Mr. Brackett: How many of those large limbs could you cut off in one year and graft?

Mr. Philips: Cut about half of the growth of the tree if not too large, don't cut enough to weaken the tree too much. Next year cut the balance off.

Mr. Crosby: In grafting, suppose you get scions from an Eastern state, what time would you get those scions, say, from Maine; Maine is on a parallel with Minnesota?

Mr. Philips: I prefer cutting scions in the fall before they freeze.

Mr. Crosby: How would you keep those scions?

Mr. Philips: I have tried a great many ways, in dirt and burying them in the ground, but the best way to keep them is to put them in boxes and put some leaves among them. Leaves will preserve them all winter if you keep them moist enough, wet them a little once in ten days just to keep them damp. Leaves are a more natural protection than anything else. Don't you think so, Mr. Brackett?

Mr. Brackett: Yes, sir.

Mr. Crosby: What kind of a graft do you usually make?

Mr. Philips: I have put in some few whip-grafts but use the cleft-graft with the larger limbs.

Mr. Wallace: Is the Patten Greening a good tree to graft onto?

Mr. Philips: It is better for that than most anything else where I live. It is hardy and makes a good growth. If I had Patten Greenings, many of them, I would top-work them. The apple is not a good seller where I live.

Mr. Kellogg: What was the condition of that tree where Dartt put in four scions?

Mr. Philips: They grew eight inches each in two years, then died. Those scions were too weak to take possession of the big limb. It is like putting an ox yoke onto a calf. They can't adapt themselves. They hadn't strength to take hold of that limb and grow. That was a good illustration. Put a graft on a small limb, and it will assimilate and grow better than if you take a large one.

Mr. Brackett: Where you put in more than one scion in a limb, is it feasible to leave more than one to grow?

Mr. Philips: No, not if they grow crotchy. I let them grow one year to get firmly established and then I take off the lower one. I have trees in my garden I have done that with, and you couldn't see the crotch. It grows right over.

Mr. Brackett: I have seen a great many of them where both of them were growing.

Mr. Philips: It makes a bad tree, as bad as a crotchy tree.

Mr. Kellogg: Isn't it better to dehorn it and get some new shoots to graft?

Mr. Philips: Yes, sir, and if they are very old the best way is to set out new trees.

Mr. Crosby: In getting scions are there any distinguishing marks between a vigorous scion and one not vigorous?

Mr. Philips: Nothing, only the general appearance. If I see a scion that looks deficient I pass it by.

Mr. Erkel: Would it be practical to use water shoots for scions?

Mr. Philips: I should rather not. I have always had scions enough to avoid using water shoots. They are an unnatural growth; I wouldn't use them. Take a good healthy scion.

Mr. Kellogg: Would scions from bearing trees with the blossom buds on do you any good?

Mr. Philips: Well, not with a blossom bud on; I wouldn't use such a scion. Some people say if you cut your scions from a bearing tree they will bear quicker, but I never saw any difference.

Inasmuch as this question has been asked a great many times by people, what age to plant a tree, whether it is best to plant young trees or trees four or five years old, I will say I am in favor of young trees, and I am in favor of grafting a tree when it is young.

Mr. Brackett: Isn't that a general opinion in the West where they make a business of planting large orchards?

Mr. Philips: I think so. I think that is the case.

Mrs. Cadoo: Can you graft onto a Martha crab and have success with that?

Mr. Philips: I never had very good success with the Martha crab; it isn't vigorous enough.

Mrs. Cadoo: We had a tree twelve years and got seven apples.

Mr. Philips: Well, I think I got eight. (Laughter.) I believe with the Martha crab if you will plant it where there are other crab trees around it you get a pretty good crop, but not if you isolate it. I have an idea it is not self-fertilizing. I think that is the trouble with the Martha. It is a nice crab.

Mr. Brackett: You showed the difference in size there, those top-worked and those not—don't you think that is because of cutting the top back? You throw a heavy growth in there, which makes the fruit that much larger?

Mr. Philips: Well, it might be.

Mr. Street: Have you had any experience in budding in August or first of September on those trees?

Mr. Philips: Yes, sir, I do a little budding every year. Budding is a hard thing to do, that is, it is a particular thing to get the bud matured enough and still have sufficient sap to slip.

Mr. Street: Would you put it on the top or bottom side of the limb?

Mr. Philips: I would put it on the upper side of the limb every time, but I would put it a little further from the trunk of the tree than I would to graft for the reason, if the bud fails you have two chances, and you have that same limb to cut off and graft next year.



Mr. Johnson: I want to ask if it has a tendency to make the apple any earlier? Virginia crab is an early bloomer, and would grafting it with Wealthy make it bloom earlier?

Mr. Philips: I hardly think so. I think it is a great deal as it was with the man that had the boots. Some told him his boots would wear longer if he greased them, and some one else told him they would wear longer if he did not. So he greased one and not the other, and the one that he greased wore fifteen minutes longer than the other. (Laughter.) I don't think it makes much difference. I tell you what it does do. You graft a McMahon onto a Virginia and instead of having the McMahon its usual color, you will get a very nice blush on it.

Mr. Erkel: Is the Duchess a good stock to graft onto?

Mr. Philips: I haven't found it very good. It is hardly vigorous enough for a stock.

Mr. Erkel: You mentioned Patten's Greening a few minutes ago. Isn't that considered a rather short-lived tree?

Mr. Philips: Not with me it hasn't been. I set some thirty years ago. I never had a Patten's Greening injured with the cold. It is very hardy.

Mr. Street: How about the Brier's Sweet crab? I grafted some last year and had a larger percentage of the scions live on those than on the Hibernal.

Mr. Philips: You wouldn't get as good a growth afterwards. The scions on the Virginia would grow better and have a better top. I don't think the Brier's Sweet is as vigorous as Virginia.

Mr. M'Clelland: I grafted on 120 Hibernals this spring and got hardly one failure.

Mr. Philips: You did good work.

Mr. M'Clelland: Made a growth of three to four feet, some of them.

Mr. Philips: That is good.

Mr. M'Clelland: Have you anything as good?

Mr. Philips: If I had Hibernals I would graft them, but if I had to set something on purpose for grafting I would set Virginias. I have had better success with that variety for stocks.

Mr. Kellogg: Too big a growth on the graft is liable to be injured in the winter, is it not?

Mr. Philips: Too vigorous a growth on the tree is liable to get injured in the winter anyway. I like to see a good growth. I like to see it grow and then pinch it back in the fall. You can pinch it back a good deal easier when it has made a good growth than to make it grow big enough.

Mr. Street: I would like to know whether we should force all of the growth into the scion the first year where we graft on trees that have been set two years.

Mr. Philips: One of the pleasures of doing top-working is to watch the growth of the grafts. I did a good deal of that on Sunday. You might do worse than communing with nature. You watch them same as you watch the growth of anything else, and if you think the graft is growing too fast let some of the shoots on the stock grow to take part of the sap, but if you think it is growing too slow and these shoots are robbing it, cut them off. I like a good growth on grafts; it looks more like doing business.

Mr. Street: But the second year would you keep all of the growth in the graft?

Mr. Philips: Yes, sir, the second year I would, and if it makes too large a growth pinch off the end. I put in some for a neighbor this season, and I go down and see to them every two weeks. If I thought they made too much growth in August I pinched them back so as to make them ripen up quicker. I don't like to have them grow too late; as Mr. Kellogg said, frost will get them. (Applause.)



Spraying the Orchard.

HON. H. M. DUNLAP, SAVOY, ILLS.

(Continued from March No.)

Then just as soon as your bloom falls, just as soon as the blossom petals fall, then you want to spray again. You should use arsenate of lead along with your lime-sulphur in both sprayings, because your arsenate of lead will take care of a great many insects that injure the fruit. The first spraying, immediately before the bloom, with arsenate of lead is for the curculio, what is called the Palmer worm, for canker worm—if you have any of them—the tent caterpillar, the leaf roller and various other insects that injure the fruit and the foliage. The spray just immediately after the bloom in addition to fungous is a codling moth spray. To get rid of the codling moth worm you use the arsenate of lead. The codling moth egg hatches shortly after the bloom falls, and the little worm instinctively goes into the blossom end of the apple, because that is the only place it can enter the apple at that particular time. Just why it does not enter on the side of the apple I can not say, but there is a little fuzz on the outer side of the apple at that stage of growth that perhaps prevents their getting in, and that fuzz as the apple grows larger disappears, so a little later they can enter on the side or at any other part of the apple that they choose.



When the blossoms fall the apples stand upright on the tree, and the little pointed leaves that are on the blossom end of the apples, that we call the calyx, are all open, and at that time you can spray so as to get the arsenate of lead on the inside. Within a week or ten days after the bloom falls these sepals, or little leaf points, gradually close together until they are all closed up tight, and after that you can't get your spray in there. After the worm hatches he gets between the little leaves of the calyx and goes on the inside of the apple and into its center. You want to have your poison ready for Mr. Worm when he enters the blossom end of the apple, and the more thoroughly and more effectively you spray the better are the results.

It has been said that if you spray thoroughly at that time, that that is the only spray you really need for the codling moth worm. I don't agree with that, as there is always a second brood of worms. I use the arsenate of lead along with the lime-sulphur for all these sprays, before the bloom and after the bloom, and if you don't spray more than three times you will be doing yourself a good service, and it will well pay you. In some parts of the country they spray as high as seven or eight times in the commercial orchards, but I would say in a farmer's orchard three times would be enough, once before the bloom and twice later, and you will notice the good results.

There are other sprays besides these, but none perhaps of any importance to you up here except the winter spray for the San Jose scale, if you have that, and I noticed one or two specimens out there that seemed to have the scale upon them. That spray should be done either in the fall or early winter or late winter while the trees are dormant. That has to be put on of winter spray strength, using lime-sulphur or some of the other San Jose scale sprays without the arsenate of lead, as you don't need to use the lead with this spray.

Now, as I stated to start with, these remarks ought to be appropriate to your needs and to make them so it would be a good deal better for me to give you the opportunity of asking questions or of discussing this question of spraying yourselves rather than for me to go into this subject any further and not know just exactly what you would like to listen to. If you have any questions to ask I would be glad to answer them if I can.

Mr. Horton: What proportion of the lime-sulphur and arsenate of lead do you use?

Mr. Dunlap: If we get the commercial brand of lime-sulphur we use it in the proportion of three gallons of that commercial mixture to 100 gallons of water and for the arsenate of lead in the same spray tank at same time we use four pounds of arsenate of lead to the 100 gallons.

Mr. Horton: Have you ever carried over lime-sulphur from one year to another?

Mr. Dunlap: Yes, sir, we often do that, carry it over until the next year. It wants to be kept where it will not freeze.

Mr. Horton: Is there much danger of evaporation so it would be too strong to use next year?

Mr. Dunlap: Your barrel should be kept bunged tight.

Mr. Richardson: Mr. Dunlap fails to say anything about dormant sprays. Don't you use dormant sprays?

Mr. Dunlap: I was just speaking about the dormant or winter spray. When you spray in the winter time use lime-sulphur or scalicide.

Mr. Richardson: Another thing: I take a little exception to what Mr. Dunlap says in advocating buying a spraying machine collectively in the neighborhood, for the simple reason that it is necessary to spray at one particular time, at the vital time just before the blossoms fall and at the time they have fallen. We have found it almost impossible to do any spraying for anybody except ourselves at that time. We talked that matter over before we bought spraying machines.

You said you wondered whether there were any apples grown here commercially. Out of our town we shipped this year eight car-loads of apples. We have three power sprays in our orchard, and we talked that matter over before we bought them, about buying collectively, and we decided it was absolutely impossible to do it. I don't think it is feasible for a small grower to depend on that kind of thing because he may be disappointed. My theory is for each one to have his own sprayer, large or small. Another thing, we find a pressure of 200 pounds is better than spraying without that pressure; we get better results.

Mr. Dunlap: The gentleman misunderstood me. I said where you have just small orchards you could do it collectively. Of course, I do not advocate where a man has enough to have use for a spray machine for his own orchard that he get one collectively. That would be a great mistake, but where a man has only fifty trees in a neighborhood where there are no big orchards, it would be better for a dozen or more to combine. If you can get around with it in a week you will be all right but not longer than that.

Mr. Richardson: I beg to differ with you just the same. I think if you want to spray you must spray at the time; it might rain the next day, and you might miss the whole season.

Mr. Dunlap: There are a good many people who don't like to go to the expense of a spray machine just for fifty trees or 100 trees. If they would combine with a few neighbors they would do some spraying work, otherwise they wouldn't do any at all. If a man will buy a machine and do his own spraying, why, that is certainly the best thing to do, but if he won't do that it is better to combine with his neighbors and do it than for none of them to do it. Community spraying is the best thing to do if you have only small orchards.

Mr. Dyer: What pressure would you recommend in spraying for codling moth where arsenate of lead is used?

Mr. Dunlap: You can do effective spraying all the way from sixty pounds to 200 pressure. My preference is about 150 pounds. I have known instances where considerable injury was done by using too high pressure. We have sprayed at 225 pounds, but we have given that up. It is not as good as from 150 to 175 pounds.

Mr. Dyer: I would like to know about what quantity of arsenate of lead and lime-sulphur combined would you recommend? How much of each?

Mr. Dunlap: In 100 gallons of water we put three gallons of the concentrated solution of lime-sulphur, as we buy it commercially, three gallons to 100 gallons of water, that is, for the summer spray, and for the arsenate of lead we use four pounds of arsenate of lead to the 100 gallons.

Mr. Dyer: In connection with that I would like to ask if you have used or would recommend pulverized lime-sulphur?

Mr. Dunlap: I haven't used any.

Mr. Dyer: Do you know anything about it?

Mr. Dunlap: I think it is a more expensive proposition.

Mr. Dyer: I never used any myself. I thought perhaps that might work better in connection with the arsenate of lead than the liquid.

Mr. Dunlap: I couldn't say, I have always followed the policy of never departing from well-established lines of work until I am satisfied that the new one is absolutely all right. I have seen in our state men destroy the fruit from a forty or eighty acre orchard by taking up some new thing that was highly advertised and looked very attractive. It is not the same proposition, of course, but they tell us the devil comes in very attractive form. He comes with a swallow-tail coat and a red necktie and a buttonhole bouquet, and he looks very attractive. So it is with a lot of these things advertised; they look attractive but for our own good we ought to stick to the things we know and let the state experiment station try them and report upon them.

Mr. Huestis: Does Mr. Dunlap attribute the general dropping of apples to the scab fungus?

Mr. Dunlap: Not entirely.

Mr. Huestis: Do you think that it weakens the stem of the apples?

Mr. Dunlap: Yes, sir, the droppings of the apple is largely due to the scab fungus. Of course, some of the dropping occurs as the result of too much rain or too much dry weather, something of that kind, that is not attributable to scab fungus.

Mr. Kellogg: Does spraying injure the bees?

Mr. Dunlap: I have never had anybody prove to me that the bees were especially injured by spraying in the bloom. We do not practise spraying in the bloom, that is, we spray when we have about one-third of the bloom left on the trees. I have never had any injury, and we have orchardists who have bees in their orchards, and they go on spraying the same way. I do not believe bees are poisoned by the spray. Maybe I am mistaken about it, but I have never seen any conclusive proof of the bees being poisoned by the spray. It is possible they might collect it and carry it into the hives and might poison the brood in the hive. I don't know. I thank you. (Applause.)



The Value of Horticulture to the Farm.

MRS. CLARENCE WEDGE, ALBERT LEA.

It is pleasant to have a good roomy subject. E. S. Martin said in Harper's Weekly as Christmas time approached, "There are just two places in the world, and one of these is home." I will paraphrase it by saying, "There are only two places in the world, and one of these is the farm." So the value of horticulture to the farm is a large subject.

I passed a farm last summer that I shall never forget. It was quite unattractive, I believe, so far as variety of contour was concerned—quite level and commonplace. Right across the road from the house was a half-grown windbreak of golden willow. Against that as a background blazed out row upon row of the most brilliant flowers, graduated down to the edge of the road, and extending as far as half a city block or more. Think what a beautiful surprise for every one that turned that corner. I think the occupants of the house must have enjoyed sitting on their porch watching the people in the cars start with pleasure and turn to look as they flew past. That farmer (or his wife) knew something of the value of horticulture to the farm. Perhaps it was a device of the farmer's wife to divert the gaze of the passer-by from the porch, for you know we do stare shamelessly when we are on a joy ride. At any rate, that farm would not be forgotten by any one that passed it. The advertising that beauty spot gave his place would exceed in value a column a week in the county paper, and not cost a tenth as much.

Lowell remarks, "Nature with cheap means still works her wonders rare." And there she stands with arms extended, offering the farmer all the wealth and beauty he will put forth his hand to take.

Last fall I passed another farm down in Iowa, whose owner had tried to make his place conspicuous by putting a concrete wall and gateway in front of his house, and making lavish use of white paint in decorating his buildings and grounds. He succeeded, but I cannot help thinking that if he had put the money that useless concrete work cost into shrubbery and vines, it would have made his place twice as attractive. I dislike pretentious adornments to the farm, especially where the rest of the place doesn't measure up to them. Like Senator Blaine, who, at the time the Queen Anne style of architecture became popular, on being asked why he did not have his old fashioned house Queen Anned, replied that he did not like to see a Queen Anne front and a Mary Anne back.

A farm home can be something better than a city park. One of the beautiful things that I shall always remember about Berlin was a way they had of bordering their parks and the enclosures of public buildings. They take tree-roses trimmed up to the height of a fence with a hemispherical head. Then they plant them around the edge of their grounds a rod or two apart, festoon chains from the top of one rose stalk to the top of the next, and where the chain touches the ground midway between them, they plant a little ivy which climbs up and conceals the chain and gives the appearance of festoons of vines between the rose trees. I thought them so lovely that when I married a nurseryman I thought I would persuade him to do something of that kind on our grounds, but he has convinced me that while that is all right for a city park, it would not be in good taste in a country place. It would look too artificial. The charm of a country place is its natural beauty. For the same reason we do not have any trimmed evergreens or hedges on our place. Moreover, the man who makes his living from the soil finds the upkeep of those decorations too pottering, and if he had money to hire it done he would rather put it into his automobile or into other improvements.

The natural beauty that can be set about the farm home will become it better. Wild grape vines or woodbine draping the wire fences tempt the eye of the passer-by to linger, and they cost nothing. Once planted, they are there for a life-time. A walnut tree in a fence corner will grow to a fair size in ten years, in twenty it becomes a land-mark. A catalpa of a hardy strain will do the same thing in about half the time in our part of the state. Take an elder from your woods and plant it in an angle of your house, and it makes a luxurious growth that rivals the castor bean of the city park and does not need to be replaced the next spring.

It certainly pays to go in for some kind of horticultural adornments for the farm. They are so easy and inexpensive to obtain and make such a happy difference to the farmer's family and to all who pass his way. When you have a specially prosperous year on the farm, save a little of the surplus for new trees or shrubs.

But I remember passing another farm, all of twenty-five years ago, where horticulture may once have been of value to the farmer but had become a burden to him. There was a dense grove of willow down at one side, through which the drive leading to the barn was kept wet and muddy by the shade. On the other side rose a high grove of trees casting a gloomy shade on the house and poultry buildings, and a few odd shrubs straggled along the roadside and gave the place an unkempt look. Of all things, have sunshine! City people often have to sacrifice it, but no farmer is too poor to have it in plenty. Don't let your trees tyrannize over you.

It is, perhaps, unnecessary to mention the value of a windbreak to a farm. If it has not been provided by nature it is an absolute necessity to plant one as a matter of economy. It saves fuel inside and gives comfort outside. The cows give more milk, and all the animals put on more fat, if they have a sheltered place to take their airing. It is also a good thing to set some bushes or small spruces along the foundation wall of the house on the windy side. They are ornamental in summer, and in winter they catch the snow and tuck the house in against the wind.

When it comes to the garden, the "Value of Horticulture to the Farm" depends largely upon the farmer's wife, for a garden needs mothering as well as fathering. Few farmers have time to do more for a garden than the actual labor of plowing, planting, and cultivating, and digging the root vegetables in the fall. Somebody must watch the garden, go through it nearly every day, poison the cabbage worms and potato bugs, keep the asparagus and cucumbers picked, watch for the maturing of peas and beans, and dispose of any surplus either by canning or sending to market. To visit the garden only when you wish to gather some particular vegetable is like milking the cow only when you happen to want some milk.

A garden well tended puts the farm far ahead of the city home for luxuries of the table and cuts the cost of living in two. Fresh vegetables and cream are expensive articles in the city, inaccessible to any but the well-to-do, but it does not take a very thrifty farmer to have them, providing he has a thrifty wife. But to be a real helpmeet she must have an overall skirt and a pair of rubber boots. Then the dewy mornings will be as much of a pleasure to her as to her husband, and she can do her garden work in the cool of the day.

A garden is especially valuable to a farm, because the farm is usually somewhat isolated and must depend more or less upon its own resources for freshness and variety of food. A good garden on the farm will almost abolish the tin can, and strike off a large part of the grocer's bill, to say nothing of making the farmer live like a king.



The Strawberry Weevil.

As strawberries are about to blossom, it would be well to keep a look-out for a shortage in the number of blossoms, for this is the first indication of the work of the strawberry weevil. Because of the diminutive size of the insect, few are acquainted with it, so that the shortage of blossoms or failure of the crop is often attributed to frost, hail, climatic conditions or some other agency. Upon close examination, the buds will be found to be severed from the stem, some lying beneath on the ground, others being still attached by a few shreds in a drooping manner. Further examination around the buds may reveal a small snout beetle, which is the cause of the injury, it being about one-tenth inch long and marked with two dark spots on each wing cover. The females oviposit in the buds, and then cut them off when oviposition is completed, in order to protect the larva within, which later develops to the adult beetle.



The strawberry weevil has been especially injurious around the vicinity of Hopkins the past summer. It was not uncommon to find fields with from forty to ninety per cent. of the buds cut, and as the earliest and most mature buds, which would be the first to ripen, are among those cut, the losses inflicted may be quite serious. The weevil not only injures the cultivated strawberry, but is found to attack the buds of the red raspberry, dewberry and wild strawberry. It is a singular fact that only the staminate varieties are injured, especially those which furnish considerable pollen, since this constitutes the chief food supply of both larvae and adults.

Life History.—The weevil appears as soon as the buds begin to form and soon after deposits an egg within the bud. She then immediately crawls down the stem and proceeds to sever the bud. The eggs hatch within five or six days, and in about three or four weeks the footless grubs become full-grown, coming out as adults about five days later. This new brood, upon emerging, will attack the leaves, making numerous small holes on the under surface, soon after picking time. As early as August 25 the beetles were found to go into hibernation last summer, within the strawberry fields, being found especially among the dead leaves. The older beds were found to be more seriously infested because of the fact that they wintered over in the small fields.

Control.—Since the weevils do not disperse readily, and since they hibernate within the fields, the one crop system and the plowing up of the beds immediately after picking would probably do away with the injury entirely. This one crop system could be followed for about two years, when it might be advisable to return to the two crop system if the weevils have disappeared.

On April 18, 1916, the weevils were located by the writer underneath the straw, and beginning to move about. From observations last year, it would be advisable to remove the straw from one or two rows in order to hasten the maturity of the buds, and keep the straw on the remainder of the patch in order to force the weevils to the uncovered row. They could then be destroyed either by plowing under or burning.

Some recent experiments by Prof. Headlee, State Entomologist of New Jersey, appear to have been successful against the strawberry weevil. A dust spray of a mixture of arsenate of lead one pound, and sulphur one pound, was used as a repellent, giving almost perfect protection. The material was applied twice, April 30th and May 6th.

The writer will be glad to co-operate with the growers, if they find the presence of the weevil in their strawberry beds.—S. Marcovitch, Section of Economic Entomology, Division of Economic Zoology, University Farm.



Secretary's Annual Report, 1915.

A. W. LATHAM, SECRETARY.

Twenty-five years is a long time to look forward to, but it does not seem so long when you look back, and yet when I review the changes that have taken place in the Horticultural Society since I assumed the position of secretary twenty-five years ago the way seems long indeed. In the year 1890 very nearly all of the old members of the society, those who had contributed their time and money to bring it into existence and keep it alive for its first twenty-four years were still on the membership roll and doing loyal work for the association. As year by year passed these veterans of the association one by one dropped away until at the present time the number of those in that class who are still with us here are so few in number that it becomes almost a vanishing point. In the year 1897 a photograph was taken of "ten veterans of horticulture," a copy of which is hanging in the secretary's office, and of these ten the only one now with us is that loyal friend and supporter of the society, Seth H. Kenney, of Waterville, now eighty years of age and too feeble to attend this meeting. Going back to a date still earlier, covering the first few years of the association, the only working members of the society as far as the secretary recalls are J. M. Underwood, C. M. Loring and himself. This is the order of nature, and we should remember only with gratitude and affection those who have served before us and with us and passed on.

At the close of this, the forty-ninth year of the society, we find the membership roll somewhat larger in number than at any previous period in its history, there being on the annual roll 3,079 members, and on the life roll 311 members, of whom 30 are honorary. There have been added to this roll the past year one honorary life member, Mr. Lycurgus R. Moyer, of Montevideo, and 20 paid life members. The number of deaths appearing on this life roll during the past year is fortunately only two, Mr. E. A. Webb, editor and manager of "The Farmer," who had been a member since 1906, and V. A. Neil, of Minneapolis, whose death occurred prior to the 1914 annual meeting but had not been spoken of heretofore.

As usual a considerable number of sources have contributed towards this large membership roll. The auxiliary societies, of which there are 10 have brought upon this roll in all 878 members. One new auxiliary society has been added to the number this year, organized in St. Paul under the name of "Horticultural, Poultry and Improvement Association of West St. Paul." An auxiliary society maintained at Crookston for a number of years seems to be no longer in existence and should probably be taken from the list of auxiliaries. The farmers' institutes have not contributed as largely to the membership roll as some previous years, on account in part of the fact that the work heretofore done by farmers' institutes is being done in farmers' clubs and schoolhouse meetings of farmers, which does not offer as good an opportunity for securing memberships, though the service to the cause of horticulture is probably even better. Through this source the society has received this year 146 memberships. Many of the nurserymen have contributed liberally to the membership this year, memberships that were given by them to their customers in accordance with an arrangement made with this office. In all from this source have come upon our roll 172 memberships.

The State Fruit-Breeding Farm continues to be the object of permanent central interest in our association. Unfortunately the frosts of last spring interfered with the fruiting of the thousands of trees which under other circumstances would have borne fruit, many of them for the first time, so that practically few advances have been made the past year in breeding new tree fruits except in preparation for the future. In small fruits it was different, and the list of these worthy of trial which are standing the climate well is a growing one. Our membership are exceedingly interested in these new fruits as manifested by the large number called for through the distribution of plant premiums. In all there were sent out this year 2,594 lots of these plant premiums.

There is a growing interest in top-grafting late-keeping varieties of apples as indicated by the large number of calls made on this office for scions for this purpose the past season.

The seedling contests continue and the interest in growing seedlings continues as well, there having been a call during the past year from this office for a considerable number of packages of apple seeds by our membership.

So far no apple seedling has appeared to which we could award the $1,000 prize offered by the society for a winter apple. Referring to the seedling contest inaugurated some years ago, the first $100 premium in connection with which should have been awarded three years ago, it appears that the time limit for the fruitage of these seedlings was made too short. The fourth premium comes due at this meeting, but no claimants have as yet come forward for any of these premiums. Probably it will be thought a wise thing to do to continue these awards during later years when these seedling trees will come into bearing.

The "acre orchard" contest entered into a year ago last spring in which there 35 entries finally materialized into a smaller number than anticipated, reports having come into the office last year from 23 contestants. The reports for the current year are now being received but not all at hand.

The executive board provided conditions under which these orchards should be conducted and the prizes awarded, which conditions will be found published in the 1914 report of the society on page 45.

Trial stations are continuing their work and are being used principally now as far as new material is concerned in testing of fruits from the State Fruit-Breeding Farm. To this list has been added the government station at Mandan under the management of A. W. Peterson, reports from which point will also be made to our association from time to time, as well as from the trial stations connected with University Farm, all of which stations have been added also to our society list.

Arrangements are being perfected for the purpose of extending to our membership opportunity to use the books from the society library, which is now increased to about 3,300 volumes. This list has been published in the 1915 report of the society, and we shall be prepared early in the year to send out books to all who desire them according to the regulations, which will be published in an early number of our monthly.

The society is maintaining its card indexes and adding year by year to the amount of material which they represent. One of these cards indexes contains the names and titles of all the articles published in the society's annual reports and is indexed also with the names of the writers, the index being prepared in this double manner. Another card index contains the list of books in our library, and the third one, indexed by subjects, the bulletins on horticulture coming from the various state experiment stations and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. These indexes are invaluable for their various purposes and may be used by the membership at their volition.

The society maintained an office at the late state fair, at which a considerable number of memberships were received and a large number of members met by the secretary and other officers of the society. We believe this was an excellent move and should be continued in the future.

As to the horticultural exhibit at the state fair, while the secretary has no official connection with it, it should be spoken of as a very satisfactory exhibition indeed and well handled. The building as a whole, covering all branches of horticultural work, was a real credit to the various interests represented and well deserves all the time and expense lavished upon it.

Probably the most important event of the year with which the secretary was officially connected was the effort made to secure an appropriation from the state legislature in session last winter for the construction of a building for the uses of the Horticultural Society. The building committee, with which the secretary served, held a number of meetings with members of the Board of Regents and various committees at the state legislature, at which a considerable number of our membership besides those regularly on the committee were in attendance and took part in appeals in the interest of the building. The secretary's service in this connection was largely the effort made to enlist the co-operation of the membership in the way of getting them to write letters or talk personally with the members of the legislature upon the subject, and an appeal was sent out through the mails to all of our membership with this object in view. The response was a most liberal one, far beyond our expectations. Some of the members of the legislature received over thirty letters from their constituents asking their support to this measure. There was not a single member of the legislature who did not receive some communications about this matter. In all there were sent in this manner to members of the legislature 1,594 letters. While our efforts to secure this building failed, it was, as we believe, largely on account of the prevailing and unusual sentiment for economy which permeated the legislature to an extraordinary degree, and we have reasonable assurance that a similar effort with the next legislature will bring us success. In regard to this matter the chairman of the building committee speaks more fully.

The financial report follows and to this your attention is respectfully requested.



Secretary's Financial Report, 1915.

A. W. LATHAM, SECRETARY.

RECEIPTS.

Balance $91.62 G. W. Strand, Treasurer 685.96 Life membership fees 190.00 Books sold 14.10 Cuts sold 7.50 Banquet tickets sold at 75c each 138.00 Garden Flower Society, account premiums 65.00 Annual fees, 1914 8.00 Annual fees, 1915 3,004.00 Annual fees, 1916 263.00 ————- $4,467.18

DISBURSEMENTS.

Postage $717.33 Office rent 420.00 Telephone 55.45 Premium books 113.61 Office supplies 28.36 Plant premiums 105.14 Assistance in office 719.21 Printing 247.16 Expenses annual meeting, 1914 90.73 Expenses annual meeting, 1915 76.84 Expenses summer meeting, 1915 14.64 Banquet 152.75 Reporting annual meeting 174.99 Expenses vice-presidents 29.17 Expenses superintendents, trial stations 50.59 Assistance annual meeting 1914 100.50 Expenses delegates, etc., meeting, 1914 224.07 Expenses delegates to other societies 30.29 Discounts, membership fees, auxiliary societies, etc. 825.54 Examining officers' books 10.00 Treasurers salary, 1914 25.00 Collecting checks 10.00 Plans of horticultural building 40.00 Officers' bonds, 1915 15.00 Forestry Association 50.00 Insurance on library sundries 8.00 Sundries 20.68 Balance 112.13 ————- $4,467.18

GENERAL STATEMENT, DECEMBER 1, 1915.

Balance in Hennepin County Bank December 1, 1914 $177.38 Interest in 1915 $11.24 ————- Total $188.62 Loring Fund, including interest 140.60 Balance with secretary 112.13 Balance with treasurer 4,906.00 ————- Total $5,347.35



SUMMER MEETING, 1916.

Premium List, Summer Meeting, 1916.

No Duplicating of Varieties Permitted.

OUT-DOOR ROSES.

1st 2d 3d 4th prem. prem. prem. prem.

Collection—three blooms of each named variety, to be shown in separate vases $6.00 $4.00 $2.00 $1.00

Collection of named varieties—three blooms of each, in separate vases, amateurs only 6.00 4.00 2.00 1.00

Three named varieties, white—each variety in a separate vase, three blooms of each, each bloom on a separate stem 2.00 1.00 .50

Three named varieties, pink—each variety in a separate vase, three blooms of each, each bloom on a separate stem 2.00 1.00 .50

Three named varieties, red—each variety in a separate vase, three blooms of each, each bloom on a separate stem 2.00 1.00 .50

Collection of Rugosa and Rugosa Hybrids—each variety (consisting of one cluster of blooms on a single stem) in a separate vase 2.00 1.00 .50

Most beautiful rose in vase 1.00

Largest rose in vase 1.00

Seedling rose to be shown by the originator. (Not previously exhibited in competition.) Bronze medal donated by the American Rose Society.

Basket of out-door roses and foliage, arranged for effect without ribbon, not to exceed twelve inches in diameter 3.00 2.00 1.00

The following named varieties of roses to be entered separately and shown in separate vases, three to five blooms in each vase.

Prince Camile deRohan, General Jacqueminot, Margaret Dickson, M. P. Wilder, Jules Margottin, Magna Charta, Paul Neyron, Madam Gabriel Luizet, Baroness Rothschild, Anna de Diesbach, Ulrich Brunner, John Hopper, Rosa Rugosa (pink and white), Baron deBonstetten, Karl Druski, Madam Plantier, Grus an Teplitz.

Each, 1st prem., 75 cents; 2nd prem., 50 cents; 3rd prem., 25 cents.

PEONIES.

1st 2d 3d 4th prem. prem. prem. prem.

Vase of Festiva Maxima, 6 blooms $2.00 $1.00 $0.50 " " flesh or light pink " " " " " " " medium or dark pink " " " " " " " white " " " " " " " red " " " " "

Collection—three blooms of each named variety in separate vases $6.00 $4.00 $2.00 $1.00

Collection—three blooms of each named variety in separate vases, amateurs only 6.00 4.00 2.00 1.00

Seedling peony, three blooms 3.00 2.00 1.00 .50

Collection—one bloom of each variety, shown each in a separate vase; for amateurs owning no more than ten varieties 2.00 1.00 .50



ANNUALS AND PERENNIALS.

1st prem. 2d prem. 3d prem. 4th prem. Vase of Arabis $1.50 $1.00 $0.50 " " Canterbury Bells " " " " " Dielytra " " " " " Delphinium " " " " " Evening primrose (Oenothera) " " " " " Forget-me-not " " " " " Foxglove " " " " " Gailardias " " " " " Grass pinks " " " " " Iceland poppies " " " " " Iris " " " " " Lilies " " " " " Lupine " " " " " Nasturtiums " " " " " Oriental poppies " " " " " Pansies " " " " " Perennial coreopsis " " " " " Pyrethrum " " " " " Shasta daisies " " " " " Sweet peas " " " " " Sweet William " " "

Collection—named perennials, in separate vases $6.00 $4.00 $2.00 $1.00

Collection of annuals and perennials in separate vases (not to exceed 12) by amateurs who have never taken premiums on flowers 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00

Vase of flowers grown and exhibited by child 2.00 1.00 .50

Vase of any kind of flowers not named in this list. (An exhibitor may make any number of entries desired under this head) 2.00 1.00 .50

Vase of flowers arranged for artistic effect 1.50 1.00 .50

Basket of outdoor-grown flowers, arranged by exhibitor 3.00 2.00 1.00

STRAWBERRIES.

One quart of each variety, to be shown on plate, not in box.

1st prem. 2d prem. 3d prem. 4th prem. Collection (not less than six varieties) $5.00 $4.00 $3.00 $2.00

Collection of three named varieties 3.00 2.00 1.00 .50

The following varieties of strawberries to be entered separately:

1st prem. 2d prem. 3d prem. 4th prem. Bederwood, Dunlap, Crescent, Splendid, Clyde, Warfield, Lovett, Enhance, Glen Mary, Haverland, Progressive, Superb, Americus, each $1.00 $0.75 $0.50 $0.25

Best named variety not included in the above list 2.00 1.00 .50

Seedling, originated by exhibitor 3.00 2.00 1.00



GARDEN HELPS

Conducted by Minnesota Garden Flower Society

Edited by MRS. E. W. GOULD, 2644 Humboldt Avenue So. Minneapolis.

*Notices of our May, June, July and August meetings will be mailed to members. Being exhibition meetings, the dates will depend upon weather conditions.

It is suggested that in cases where plants have not already been exchanged, the informal exhibition of spring flowers, our May meeting, be also "Exchange Day," and that plants for exchange be brought to that meeting.

A SHAKESPEARE GARDEN.

So wide an interest in the commemoration of the tercentennial celebration of Shakespeare's death has been awakened by the "Drama League of America" that there will be many old English gardens planted in 1916,—gardens containing as many as possible of those flowers mentioned in his plays.

Not all of these many flowers and shrubs could be grown in our climate, some mentioned, such as nettles, burdocks, plantains and other weeds, would be entirely out of place in a garden, soon overrunning it. It must be remembered, too, that in Shakespeare's time herbs and wild flowers were cultivated in most gardens, that many considered beautiful then are now almost forgotten, and that some have been so far surpassed by their improved hybrids, the originals would not now be cultivated.

We have not attempted, therefore, to include all of the flowers so lovingly mentioned by the poet, but have used only those that will prove beautiful and hardy in Minnesota, making a planting that will prove, with proper care, permanent. Were each plant labeled with its proper quotation the garden would prove much more interesting, e.g., "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance—" Hamlet, marking the plant of that name.

Annuals.—Gillyflowers (Ten weeks' stocks); Love in Idleness (Pansy, Viola tricolor); Mallow (Lavatera splendens); Marigold (Calendula officinalis); Poppy (Somniferum, Opium poppy).

Trees.—Hemlock, Hawthorne.

Vines.—Honeysuckle, Scarlet Trumpet.

Bulbs.—Scilla Nutans (Hyacinthus nonscriptus); Daffodils; Saffron (Crocus santious); Crown Imperial (Frittilaria Imperialis); Lily, Candidum, Turk's Cap (Scarlet Martagon), Orange Lily (Croseum), Spectabile, Tigrinum.

Herbs.—Balm (Lemon Balm); Camomile (Anthemis); Caraway; Dian's Bud (Wormwood, Artemisia Absinthium); Fennel (Foeniculum officinalis); Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis); Lavender (Lavendula vera); Marjoram (Origanum vulgare); Mint; Milfoil (Yarrow); Parsley; Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis); Rue (Ruta graveoleons); Savory; Thyme (1, Thymus vulgaris, 2, Thymus Serpyllum).

Perennials.—Aconite (Napellus); Balm (Bee-balm); Brake; Carnation (Bizarre Dianthus caryophyllus); Clover (Crimson Trifolium incarnatus); Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris); Cowslip (Primula veris); Crowflower (Ragged Robin, Lychnis floscuculi); Cuckoo Buds (Butter cups, Ranunculus acris); Daisies (Bellis perennis); Eryngium M. (Sea Holly); Flax; Flower de luce (Iris Germanica, blue); Fumitory (Dicentra spectabilis; Bleeding Heart); Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia); Larksheel (Delphinium elatum, Bee Larkspur); Peony; Pinks (Dianthus Plumarius); Violet (Viola Odorata).

Roses.—Brier (Eglantine Rose), Provencal (Cabbage Rose), Musk, Damask, White Provence, York and Lancaster.

For appropriate quotations to mark each flower the little book, "Shakespeare's Garden," by J.H. Bloom, will be found very helpful. Our other authorities have been Biesley and L. Grindon, all of which are in the Public Library.

MRS. N. S. SAWYER. MRS. E. W. GOULD.



ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES

By F. L. WASHBURN, Professor of Entomology, University of Minnesota.

SUGGESTIONS TO PARTIES PLANNING TO PURCHASE NURSERY STOCK.

It may be quite out of place to offer any suggestions along this line to readers of this magazine, and yet some buyers may find help in the following:

For evident reasons it pays to buy Minnesota stock where possible, stock which has been tried out and found to be hardy, rather than purchase new varieties, glowingly described in catalogues. Always buy from an inspected nursery.

For evident reasons it pays to buy from nurseries near at hand, so that the time elapsing from the shipping of the trees or shrubs and the planting is small.

Further, it is always desirable, if possible, to buy from the nurseryman himself, a responsible party, rather than from an agent. It is further very desirable to personally pick out your own stock in a visit to the nursery.

When the goods are received, see that they bear an inspection certificate for the current year. The plants should be in good condition and show that the roots are protected from air and wrapped in moist packing material. The condition of the received goods indicates the carefulness of the nurseryman or the contrary. Do not allow trees or shrubs to lie neglected after being received, where the roots will dry out. If you are not ready to plant they should be at once heeled in, first divesting them of their wrappings.

If any injurious insects, like scales or fungus-looking growths, are found on the trees, the same should be reported to the Experiment Station. After planting the trees and shrubs, they should receive the best of care in regard to cultivation.

Finally, refuse to accept any raspberry or blackberry plants showing crown gall on roots or crowns.

* * * * *

CROWN GALL ON RASPBERRIES BLACKBERRIES.

All the nurserymen are able to recognize crown gall, and whatever we may think regarding its effect or lack of effect upon apple, we know by personal observation that it may and does cause the death of raspberries. This disease of course is, unfortunately, very common—almost universally present in our nurseries. The public, generally, are so well aware of its injurious effect upon canes that they are indignant when any such stock is received from nurseries. It behooves all nurserymen, therefore, for the sake of their own business interests if nothing else, to be extremely careful that no diseased stock of any kind is sent to patrons.

* * * * *

THE DESTRUCTION OF A CARLOAD OF DISEASED POTATOES.

The State Entomologist, by virtue of being a collaborator with and agent for the United States Horticultural Board, supervised the destruction by burning of 403 sacks of potatoes, seven per cent. of which, according to the testimony of our Plant Pathology Division, were infested with powdery scab. The Great Northern Railroad, which had brought the potatoes from Canada, were given the choice by Federal authorities, either to return the potatoes to Canada or destroy them by burning, under our supervision. They chose the latter procedure and the use of the Minneapolis crematory was secured for this purpose. Ninety sacks of this same shipment which were illegally unloaded at Casselton, N. Dak., were buried by North Dakota authorities. It is to be hoped that this disease does not find its way into the potato belt in the Red River Valley.



NOTES ON PLANT PESTS.

Prepared by Section of Insect Pests, A. G. RUGGLES, and by Section of Plant Diseases, E. C. STAKMAN, University Farm.

The first real spraying of the apple orchard should be given just as the center bud of the flower cluster begins to show pink. The material to use in the spraying compound is lime-sulphur (1 to 40) plus arsenate of lead, 1-1/2 pounds of the powder, or three pounds of the arsenate of paste to fifty gallons of the made-up lime-sulphur. If done properly this will get the scab of the apple, blossom blight or the brown rot in the plum, and is the most important spray for plum pocket. The arsenate of lead in the mixture will control the young of leaf eating insects and precocious plum curculios.

The second most important spraying of the year is given within a week after the blossoms fall, the same spraying compound being used. This spraying kills many of the germinating spores of such things as apple scab and also is the important spray for codling worm as well as for the plum curculio and for leaf eating insects.

Watch carefully for the hatching of plant lice eggs. The ideal time to spray for these is just after hatching, and before the young lice become hidden in the bud scales or in the curl of the leaves. The spraying material to use at this time is a sulphate of nicotine.

Plow the plum orchard as soon as possible in order to turn under mummied plums, which are responsible for much of the primary infection of brown rot.

Plowing the apple orchard early to turn under the old leaves is also essential in preventing scab spreading to the flower stalks.

Cultivate the vineyard in order to turn under the mummies. Practice clean cultivation from the very beginning in order to help control black rot and downy mildew. If the rot or mildew was very bad in the previous years, early spraying with the Bordeaux mixture 4-4-50 is very important.

Keep the radishes, cauliflowers, and cabbages covered with a poison spray from April 30 to May 20 to prevent the ravages of the cabbage maggot. This should be applied once a week in fair weather, and twice a week in rainy weather. The spray is made as follows:

Lead arsenate, three-fourths ounce; New Orleans molasses, one-half pint; water, one gallon.

Look over the seedling cabbages carefully and destroy all which show any sign of wilting or rotting.

Cut out apple twigs badly injured by the buffalo tree hopper and burn them immediately.

Watch for plant lice on lettuce in cold frames. To combat the insects the plants should be sprayed with nicofume liquid, one teaspoonful to a gallon of water.



BEE-KEEPER'S COLUMN

Conducted by FRANCIS JAGER, Professor of Apiculture, University Farm, St. Paul.

COMB HONEY, EXTRACTED HONEY, AND INCREASE.

The practical beekeeper must decide at the beginning of the honey season whether he wishes to produce extracted honey, comb honey or merely to increase the number of his colonies. The manner of management of his apiary will depend upon such decision. At any rate a modern outfit, pure bred colonies in modern ten or eight frame hives, is required for successful beekeeping no matter in what line of bee industry he may feel inclined to engage.

For production of extracted honey the ten frame hive is to be preferred. Bees are less inclined to swarm in a ten frame hive, and two ten frame supers as a rule will be required where three eight frame supers would otherwise be necessary.

In successful extracted honey production swarming may be reduced to a minimum if during the dandelion and fruit trees honey flow, and in the beginning of white clover flow, once a week an empty drawn comb be inserted into the middle of the brood nest. As soon as the brood chamber has eight frames of brood the queen excluder is added and an extracting super added filled with white extracting combs. If the beekeeper does not care to raise his extracted honey in snow white combs only, the excluder may be omitted, but the result will be that the queen will lay eggs throughout the whole hive, thus rendering extracting difficult on account of brood present. When raising extracted honey on a large scale two extracting supers may suffice for each colony. When the one next to the brood chamber is filled it is extracted at once, the top one taking its place next to the brood. The extracted super when empty is then given back to the bees and placed on top. When the second super is filled the process is repeated. This process of extracting honey requires a period of four or five weeks. All supers are removed at the end of the honey flow. The last full super, however, should not be extracted but saved for the feeding of light colonies in the fall and spring.

The easier way to produce extracted honey is to have enough supers, say three or four for each colony. The first is added during the dandelion or fruit blossom flow as soon as the colony is strong enough to readily enter into it. When this super is nearly full and the combs can be seen through the top bars to whiten, another super is added next to the brood chamber, and the partly filled super is raised. When this second super begins to get well filled, a third and a fourth super is added on top. In the latitude of Minneapolis it is not advisable to insert a super next to brood chambers after July 4th, or two weeks before the end of the honey flow, because such procedure would result in a large amount of uncapped honey.

Comb honey should not be produced where the honey flow is slow and intermittent. Weak colonies will not produce comb honey profitably. In making up supers only A 1 sections should be used, with full sheets of extra thin foundation and three-eighths inch bottom starters of thin foundation. Care should be taken to fasten the foundation very solidly, else heat and weight of bees will cause it to drop. One or more bait sections should be used in the first comb honey super to induce the bees to enter into it more readily. Bait sections are the half finished, unmarketable sections of the previous season. One to four are used near the center of each super.

(To be continued in June No.)



While it is not the intention to publish anything in this magazine that is misleading or unreliable, yet it must be remembered that the articles published herein recite the experience and opinions of their writers, and this fact must always be noted in estimating their practical value.



THE MINNESOTA HORTICULTURIST

Vol. 44 JUNE, 1916 No. 6



The State Flower and State Flag of Minnesota.

E. A. SMITH, VICE PRES. JEWELL NURS. CO., LAKE CITY.

The material in this paper has been gathered from several sources, part of which has never before been published. It is presented not so much in the spirit of criticism as it is in the spirit of making the best of a mistake which the writer believes occurred when the moccasin flower was designated as the state flower of Minnesota.

Last spring an acquaintance of mine was rambling through the woods and came across the Cypripedium, or the Moccasin flower, or the Lady slipper, the state flower of Minnesota. He sent me a few specimens. Although I had lived in the state of Minnesota for a number of years, this was the first time that I had ever seen the state flower or known anything about it. The incident set me to thinking, and I went to work to find out what I could about this flower. I herewith present that information as briefly as possible.

There are forty-one states in the Union that have a state flower. Other states have the matter under consideration. This fact alone would indicate that a state flower is of some importance as an emblem, or it would not be so generally considered by the various states. In most instances the flower was selected by a vote of the public school scholars of the respective states. The vote was then submitted to the state legislature and a resolution adopted making the state flower legal. I submit to you the question: Are school children qualified to choose a flower as an emblem of the state? Do they understand the conditions required in the state and the purpose of the selection sufficiently well to enable them to select intelligently? Do the children in your school know what flower is common in the northern part of the state as well as in the southern part of the state?

In Minnesota, however, the state flower was not chosen by the school children of the state, but upon petition of the Woman's Auxiliary Board of World's Fair Managers a resolution was introduced into the senate February 4th, 1893, by the late Senator W.B. Dean, providing that the wild Lady Slipper, or the Moccasin flower, Cypripedium calceolus, be accepted and the same designated and adopted as the state flower, or the floral emblem of the state of Minnesota. This resolution was also adopted in the house the same day. A few years later upon petition of the Nature Club of Minneapolis the variety was changed to the Reginae or Spectabile, variety.



The mystery of the selection in this state is, why was a flower chosen which is not common to any part of the state? We therefore have a state flower, beautiful in itself, but without special appeal to the people because it is comparatively unknown.

There are about forty species of the Cypripedium belonging to the north temperate zone. Several of these species occur in the northern United States and Canada, east of the Rocky Mountains, which are found in the state of Minnesota. It is called the Moccasin flower because it resembles the Indian shoe. This plant grows preferably in cool and moist woods or in bogs. It flowers principally during the months of May and June. The varieties differ in color, being deep red, pink, yellow, white and variegated. All of the species, however, are very beautiful.

The varieties more commonly found in Minnesota are, Acaule, rose purple; Candidum, small white; Arietinum, red and white; Parviflorum, small yellow; Pubescens, large yellow; and Spectabile, description of which is as follows: Plants stout, leaves oval, acute; sepals, roundish, white; petals, oblong, white; labellum, white or pale pink purple. Very showy.

It is unfortunate that the Minnesota State Flower does not take kindly to civilization and cultivation, as it is very difficult to transplant. About ten years ago at Lake City, Minnesota, we tried to propagate the moccasin flower. We dug the roots and transplanted them in ground especially prepared in a nearby grove where we could watch their development, but the plants were a failure.

A state flower should be one of the common flowers of the state, so familiar to all, that its name would suggest a picture of the flower itself. Probably not 10 per cent of the people of the state have ever seen it. On this account it is to be regretted that this variety was chosen as the flower emblem of the state. A state flower, like the state flag, should be accessible and familiar to everyone, and yet, probably, the state flag of Minnesota is a stranger to many residents of the state, for Minnesota did not have a state flag until 1893.

An emblem should mean something to the individual. The family coat of arms and the iron cross are distinctive emblems. The shamrock in sentiment is as dear to an Irishman as his native land. If an emblem means something to the individual, how much more it ought to mean to the state and nation.

The flag is an emblem of loyalty and patriotism. Men fight for it. They lay down their lives for it because it stands for home and country. I fancy if men did not know what the flag looked like, the fight would not be a very fierce one. Do you know what the state flag of Minnesota looks like? A description of it can be found in the Legislative Manual for 1915. This flag bears a wreath of white moccasin flowers (Spectabile) upon a blue background, in the center of which is the state seal. The design was chosen by a committee of six ladies. It is appropriate and beautiful, and was designed by Mrs. Edward H. Center, of Minneapolis.

The state should furnish an attractive picture of the state flower and the state flag to every high school in the state, free of charge. The influence would be good, creating a deeper loyalty to the state.



Wisconsin State Horticultural Society.

REMARKS AT ANNUAL MEETING BY SECY. F. CRANEFIELD, MADISON, WIS.

President Cashman: We have with us today, Prof. Cranefield, secretary of the Wisconsin Society. I am sure everybody will be pleased to hear from him.

Mr. Cranefield: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I thank you, Mr. President, for your very kind introduction. I know you meant well when you introduced me as professor, but I really must plead "not guilty" to the charge. There was a time, long ago, when I was connected with our Agricultural College, in a minor relation, that I was not in a position to resent it, but I have reformed since, and as secretary of the Wisconsin Horticultural Society I am trying to live down the past.

It goes without saying that I am glad to be here. I want to come as long as you will let me come. We of the Wisconsin society are watching you closely to see if we can by any means learn the secret of your success, and to that end we are here in considerable force. Our president is here, and the managers of two of our largest co-operative fruit shippers associations also.

Frankly, we want to beat you if we can. You have the biggest and the best society in the country, and we have the second biggest and next best, and we are striving for first place.

Having now disposed of the usual compliments befitting the occasion I will aim to tell you of a few things we are trying to do in the Wisconsin society.

The efforts of our society during the past ten years have been directed quite largely to the development of commercial fruit-growing in the state. While we have not overlooked nor forgotten the home owner we have been working to take commercial orcharding out of the hands of the farmer and put it in the hands of specialists, and we are succeeding. We have today about thirty thousand acres of purely commercial orchards in Wisconsin and more coming. We discourage by every means at command the planting of fruit trees by the man who is engaged in general farming except sufficient for his own use.

Further, in this campaign we aim to concentrate our efforts on certain districts so as to build up fruit centers. For instance we have in Door County, that narrow little neck of land between Green Bay and Lake Michigan, over seven thousand five hundred acres of orchards, apple and cherry.

Along the Bayfield shore line we have another splendid fruit district almost, if not quite, as well known as Hood River and worth vastly more.

In the southwestern corner of the state along the valley of the Kickapoo River, on the high bluffs on either side of the river, have been planted a thousand acres of apples and cherries in the past five years.

While not all of this development is directly due to the Horticultural Society, ours has been the moving spirit. The Kickapoo development is due wholly to the work of the society.

In this way we are establishing an industry that will be a tremendous asset to the state. There was a time when dairying was but a feeble industry in Wisconsin, and now we lead.

Our society also aids in the development of marketing associations. In doing these things we also aid the farmer and home owner, for whatever is best in the commercial orchard is best in the home orchard. Spraying, pruning and cultivation as practiced by the expert serve as models for the farmer who has but two dozen trees.

The other activities of our society are similar to yours. We publish a magazine, as you do; we hold two conventions, as you do; in fact our work, and no less our interests, are the same as yours, and I most sincerely hope that the very pleasant relations that have existed between the societies may continue for all time.



Marketing Fruit Direct.

H. G. STREET, HEBRON, ILL.

In studying this subject, the direct marketing of fruit, let us first see how much it includes. Does it include simply marketing alone? Or does the success of it depend principally upon the varieties of fruit set out together with the after cultivation, pruning and spraying? First of all you must interest people in your work by producing something that they really want, and half of your problem will then be solved.

There are any number of places in the northwest where the demand far exceeds the supply. I do not mean for the common run of fruit full of worms and covered with scab, but, instead, strictly No. 1 fruit of the very best varieties.

About 1901, through the advice of my uncle, Dr. A. H. Street, of Albert Lea, I joined your society, and through the experience of your members I learned many valuable lessons. Perhaps the one that impressed me the most was that of grafting our choicest varieties upon hardy crab stocks so as to make them hardy enough to withstand our hardest winters, and by so doing it nearly insures us against total failures in the fruit crop and especially against losing the trees outright.



This top-working of course will not do all; we still have to assist Nature by proper spraying, pruning, cultivating, etc. Doing all in your power to secure a crop each year to supply the trade you have already worked up is a big item in holding it.

While studying your conditions, together with those of Wisconsin and Illinois, I became very much interested in the native plums as well as in the apple industry. Therefore I also set out some three acres of the following varieties: Surprise, Terry, Wyant, Hammer and Hawkeye, also some of the Emerald and Lombard.

As this was then new business to me, I had fallen into no deep ruts, and of course I took it for granted that all horticulturists practiced what they preached. Therefore I pruned, sprayed, etc., according to directions, and in due time the fruits of my labor commenced to show up, and they certainly were attractive to the eye as well as to the taste.



As our supply increased our demand increased also, so that for the past five years our average plum crop has been around 2,000 baskets (the 8-lb. grape basket) and all sold readily at 25 to 35 cents retail.

We are located at Hebron, Illinois, eight miles south of Lake Geneva, Wis., on the Chicago & Lake Geneva Railway, which makes an ideal location for a fancy trade. During plum harvest it is nothing uncommon to have fifty to 100 visitors a day. These customers include all classes, from the Chicago millionaires to the common laborers, and all receive the same cordial reception.

We make it a point never to allow them to think that we are close with our fruit—not even the neighborhood boys, as they are our best friends. What they buy we charge them a good fair price for and never fail to give all new customers a few choice samples of best varieties.

By the latter part of the plum season our big red Wolf River apples commence to show up and cook well; also Wealthy and McIntosh commence to get ripe enough to eat, and the demand each year has far exceeded the supply.

So far we have had very few poor apples, but we always sort them into three grades, the third grade being made up into cider to sell while sweet. The second grade we sell as such for immediate use. The firsts of the McIntosh we have sold at $2.00 to $2.50 per bushel, Wealthy, Jonathan and Grimes at $1.50 to $2.00, while Wolf, N. W. Greening, Salome, Winesap, Milwaukee, etc., have averaged us $1.25 per bushel. We are always very careful not to have any bruised, diseased or ill shaped specimens in our first grade.

The President: Can you tell us something more about your experience in marketing direct? Do you sell all the fruit you raise on the place?

Mr. Street: We sell about all the fruit that we raise direct to the consumer. When we first started we started with strawberries, and about half of our crop went to the merchants, and he would retail it for 20 per cent, but to any one that came there for it we would charge the full retail price, same as he had to charge, and we never had any trouble with any of the stores that we dealt with. If we have any seconds or anything we don't like to put out to the stores we sell them to our customers and charge them whatever we think would be right for them.

As to plums, about two-thirds of those would sell right direct to customers coming there, the rest we supplied to the stores at 20 per cent discount so that they could retail them at the same price that we retail them for. Since the apples have begun to bear it seems that two-thirds of the people want the McIntosh, and almost everyone is satisfied with its flavor. They average a little larger with us than the Wealthy, and some of them you can hardly tell from the Wealthy unless you know just about what the fruit is. Last year we kept them until about February or possibly later, but an apple with as good a flavor as that you cannot keep from being eaten up.

The President: I suppose that is automobile trade?

Mr. Street: A great deal of it is.

The President: How did you get it? By advertising?

Mr. Street: No, by doing something so much different from what anybody else is doing you get people to talking. I think the Wolf River apple together with the Terry and Surprise plums have been the cause of getting started. Of course, the McIntosh now is helping out, too. You give a person a few Wolf River, not for eating but for cooking, and then give him a Wealthy or something like that to eat—they will be looking at the big Wolf River and eating the other and seem to be well satisfied and always come back. Whenever we sell to the stores we always gauge our prices so that the majority of their customers will take our fruit before taking the shipped in fruit from Chicago. We find with grapes we can charge about five cents a basket more than they retail the Michigan grapes for.



For native plums we get more than they do for the Michigan fruit. We have had quite a good many of the Burbank plums, but we cannot sell over one-third as many as we do of the natives.

A Member: You don't ship them, so don't consider the packing?

Mr. Street: The only ones we ship are those ordered by people coming there or by letter. If they want a bushel we pack them in a bushel box. If they want three or six bushels then we pack them in barrels.

Mr. Anderson: Where are you located?

Mr. Street: Just south of the Wisconsin state line.

Mr. Anderson: I am located 100 miles west of here, and I shipped out 400 bushels of apples to the Dakotas last year direct.

Mr. Richardson: How many growers are there in your neighborhood growing fruit commercially?

Mr. Street: I do not know of any who spray, cultivate and prune according to the best methods within about 100 miles. We always make it a point to give our customers good fruit, so that we are not afraid to recommend it. Then there is another advantage. If they come right there, and we have any seconds we can tell them just what they are, and if they want them we can sell them for what they are worth, but if we are putting them into a store, I prefer not to put in seconds.

Mr. Kochendorfer: I think that is the advantage of disposing on a public market. You have a chance to sell the inferior goods without any coming back.

Mr. Street: The main thing is to use improved methods and try to outdo the other fellow. Cultivate a little more thoroughly, put in your cover crop, not over-fertilize but all you possibly can; give the dormant spray; spray before bloom very thoroughly and again after bloom; two weeks after that again, about July 15th.

Mr. Richardson: How many apple trees have you?

Mr. Street: We now have ten acres in apples, but most of them are young, about three acres in bearing.

Mr. Richardson: I would like to ask the gentleman if in a small place that way he hasn't a better local market than we have here in the larger cities. Around Lake Minnetonka they raise grapes, but we get most of our grapes from Ohio and Indiana. I have wondered why it is that these grapes go to another market when they can just as well go to the Minneapolis market. You know as well as I do anyone buying fruit in the Twin Cities always buy fruit grown in Ohio or Indiana.

Mr. Street: I do not know why it is, but so far we haven't realized that we have any competition. We charge for our best eating apples fully as much as the stores have to charge for the Western fancy packed fruit. There is not a worm hole or speck of disease on the No. 1, and really I can't see how they can compete after raising the fruit in the West and packing and shipping it to Chicago and then out there. The price they would have to charge there would make us a good fair price; in fact, a good big price.



A Satisfactory Marketing System.

G. A. ANDERSON, RENVILLE.

I have marketed this fall some over 400 barrels of apples, mostly Wealthy, Duchess and Northwestern Greening. Three hundred barrels of these were shipped direct to local merchants in Dakota and western Minnesota towns in small shipments of a few barrels at a time or as fast as they could sell them. I started this way of marketing during the big crop of 1913 and this year again, getting nearly all of my old customers back and many new ones. I secured satisfactory prices, and for my location I believe I have solved the marketing problem. One does not pay much attention to the marketing as long as enough only for local demand is produced, but when one has a surplus to dispose of the marketing problem looms rather large. I have tried several times shipping to commission firms, but have never received satisfactory returns.



A Successful Cold Storage for Apples.

H. F. HANSEN, ORCHARDIST, ALBERT LEA.

Mr. Clarence Wedge: I want to preface this short paper with the statement that Mr. Hansen is a man who has worked himself up from the very bottom of the horticultural ladder. He came to Albert Lea a very poor man, and I think supported himself for some time by trapping and fishing and such work as he was able to do. He is a man with a great tendency to investigate and to work out problems for himself. By his thrift and persevering investigations he has brought himself into a fine property and great success. He is the market gardener in our part of the country and a credit to his kind. (Mr. Wedge reads the paper.)

When my orchard, near the city of Albert Lea, began to bear heavy crops of fruit, I found it very desirable to hold the Wealthy and other kinds that ripen at the same time until after the farmers had marketed their fruit. We have a very good cold storage in Albert Lea that is open to the public, but the price they charge is sixty cents per barrel for two months' storage, which is more than the fruit will bear, and so I began to think of putting up a cold storage of my own.

My first one was built underground with pipes for ice and salt to cool it, something like the system that I am now using. But I found out in the first season that it takes a great deal of ice to offset the heat that is coming in from the ground at the sides and bottom of the cellar. And so I built the storage which I am now using entirely above ground, using the basement under it for storing cabbage and vegetables. I built this in 1913, the size 28x56 feet, using cement blocks for the basement, where the cabbages are stored. The cold storage above this is built as follows:

First, an ordinary frame building with 2x4 inch studdings sheathed on the outside with drop siding with No. 3 flooring. Inside of this sheathing 2x4 inch studs placed flatwise, sheathed on the inside with No. 3 flooring, and the six-inch space back of the studs filled with sawdust. On the outside of this firing strips one-half foot are nailed, which are covered with linofelt. One-half foot firing strips are nailed inside of this, and these also covered with linofelt. To this again one-half foot firing strips are added, to which are nailed metal lath, and the whole is plastered with cement. The floor both above and below is made of 2x12 joists, with No. 3 flooring nailed below the joints, the space between which is then filled with ten inches of saw dust, leaving an air space of two inches at the upper edge of the joists. The joists are then covered with linofelt and then the linofelt covered with No. 3 flooring.

On the north and west sides I found it necessary to add one more waterproof coat of linofelt in order to make sure of keeping out the frost.

I have so far only finished up for cold storage one-half of the room, using the other half for a packing room, so that my present facilities are only 28x28 feet. This room is cooled by eight inch pipes of galvanized iron, extending from the attic above to troughs near the floor, that are sloping so as to carry off the melted ice. These pipes are on both sides about two feet apart. The ice is pulled up into the attic by horsepower and broken up small enough into pieces to feed the pipes. The amount of salt used with the ice depends upon how fast we want the ice to melt. A large quantity of salt cools the storage down quicker. In practice I find that it takes one hour for a man to elevate a ton of ice, chop it up and fill the pipes. They hold something over a ton and must be filled every other day in ordinary September weather. It will not do to let the pipes remain less than one-half full. When the ice gets down that far, we have to fill again.