Chapter C: E. Snyder, Preston, Delegate

Your delegate arrived at Decorah at nine-thirty, Wednesday, November seventeenth. Full accommodations offered by the Winneshiek Hotel made the trip complete and homelike to delegates and members.

The convention was held in the old Marsh Hall, a very suitable place, offering ample room with all necessary accommodations for such a gathering.

Decorations showed much time and skill, resulting in a beautiful display of shrubbery-boughs, evergreen, etc.

The area of a table about one hundred feet long and six feet wide, running through the center of the hall, contained a great variety of apples surprising for this season. Many, including C.H. True, of Clayton county, proved themselves successful orchardists.

On various other tables large displays of agriculture, apiary, greenhouse and garden products completed the harmonizing of horticulture, floriculture and agriculture, including mentioned decorations appearing as a striking feature and an encouragement to the cause.

The meeting was called to order shortly after ten o'clock by President Geo. S. Woodruff. The mingling of many instructive papers with humorous selections and music proved the program well arranged. Same carried out very successfully held the interest of a not large but fair attendance throughout. A paper and address by Wesley Greene, of Des Moines, should have reached the ears of every Iowa and Minnesota citizen. A striking selection on "The Tree," by J. A. Nelson, was descriptive, instructive, humorous and poetic.

A topic of great interest was the everbearing strawberry, which persistently bobbed up every now and then in interesting discussion. Brother Gardner, with his practical experience, was right at hand, a leader and authority on this fruit. Clarence Wedge, who always contended that the Progressive was away ahead of all others, was endorsed by every man that grew them in this convention, by a vote on merit of varieties.

Reports from the different districts showed a heavy rainfall throughout the season, resulting in rust and scab. Sprayed orchards showed better results than others. Small fruits were abundant and good.

Shortly after four o'clock Wednesday afternoon automobiles drew up and took delegates and members over beautiful Decorah, stopping at Symond's greenhouses, and on through the most beautiful park in this section, then to the palatial residence of John Harter, where a very bountiful banquet was enjoyed.

During convention Secretary Black's and Treasurer True's reports showed the society in flourishing condition.

All officers were re-elected, place of next meeting to be chosen later by the executive committee.

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HANDLING RASPBERRIES.--In 1911 the Government investigators made comparative tests of the keeping qualities of carefully handled raspberries and commercially handled raspberries. Several lots of each kind were held in an ice car for varying periods and then examined for the percentage of decay. Other lots were held a day after being withdrawn from the refrigerator car and then examined. The results are most significant.

After 4 days in the ice car it was found that the carefully handled berries showed only 0.4 per cent. decay, while the commercially handled fruit had 4.6 per cent. After 8 days in the car the difference was vastly greater. The carefully handled fruit showed only 2.2 per cent. decay, but with the commercially handled this percentage had risen to 26.7, or more than one-quarter of the entire shipment. When the fruit was examined a day after it had been taken out of the ice car, the evidence was equally strong in favor of careful handling. Carefully handled fruit that had remained 4 days in the car was found a day after its withdrawal to show only 1 per cent. of decay against 17.5 per cent. in commercially handled berries. Carefully handled fruit left in the car 8 days, and then held one day, showed only 8.1 per cent. of decay as against 47.6 per cent. in commercially handled fruit.

The following year experiments were made with actual shipments instead of with the stationary refrigerator car, and the results confirmed previous conclusions. It was found, for example, that there was less decay in the carefully handled berries at the end of 8 days than in the commercially handled berries at the end of 4. Carefully handled fruit that was 4 days in transit, and had then been held one day after withdrawal from the refrigerator car showed less than 1 per cent of decay, whereas commercially handled berries subjected to the same test showed nearly 10 per cent.

Orcharding in Minnesota.

RICHARD WELLINGTON, ASST. HORTICULTURIST, UNIVERSITY FARM, ST. PAUL.

This paper is purposely given a broad title so that it may cover any questions which come under the head of orcharding. Many of you who have been pestered with an "Orchard Survey Blank" can easily guess what subjects are to be taken up. Thanks to many of the members of this society and other fruit growers for their hearty co-operation, a large amount of data has been collected from fifty-three counties, representing most of the districts within the state. As would be expected certain counties have contributed much more information than others, probably owing to their greater interest in orcharding. For example: Thirty-one replies have already been received from Hennepin County, seven from Goodhue, six from Renville, five each from Houston, Meeker and Rice, four each from Chippewa, Dakota, Mower, Polk and Wabasha, three each from Blue Earth, Nicollet, Ottertail, Pine, Ramsey, Steele, Washington and Watonwan and one or two each from the remaining counties. Perhaps if the right parties had been reached the low-standing counties would have a higher ranking.

The best way to present the data is an enigma. If all the information was given at one time we would need a whole day instead of fifteen minutes. Of course much of the material is a repetition, and a general summary will cover the main facts in most cases. Nevertheless it is not feasible to take up all of the subject matter in this short period, and therefore the first two topics on the survey blank have been selected, namely, orchard sites and protective agencies. At a later date, if you are sufficiently interested in dry facts other subjects, as soils, dynamiting, orchard management, stock of fruit trees, methods of planting and pruning, varieties for various localities, etc., will be taken up. Some of the subjects, like sites and soils, will be treated as state problems, while others must be considered as sectional.

Minnesota, as you all know, contains many different climatic conditions, and consequently its orchard practices and recommendations must vary accordingly. To meet this problem the writer, in consultation with Prof. Cady, divided the state into six sections, namely, the southeastern, east central, northeastern, northwestern, west central and southwestern. Many counties are, of course, in an intermediate position and might be thrown into either of the adjoining sections, but an arbitrary line must be drawn somewhere. Freeborn, Waseca, Rice, Goodhue and all the counties east of them are placed in the southeastern section. Nicollet, LeSueur, Sibley, McLeod, Wright, Isanti and the counties to the east are included in the central east, and Pine, Mille Lacs, Morrison and the counties to the north and east are placed in the northeastern section. Beltrami, Hubbard, Ottertail and the counties to the west are placed in northwestern section; Traverse, Douglas, Todd, Stearns, Meeker, Renville, Yellow Medicine and the enclosed counties in the west central, and the remainder to the south and west are in the southwestern section. Thus, when the various sections are mentioned, you will know what part of the state is being referred to.

_Site of Orchard._ By site of orchard we refer to its location, that is, whether it is on rolling, level or hilly ground, and the direction of its slope, provided it has one. From past experience it is believed that an orchard situated on a north slope is ideally located for Minnesota conditions, as its blossoming period is retarded and consequently the liability of injury from late frosts decreased. But all people who want orchards do not possess such a slope, so they set out their orchards on the most convenient location. A few growers have orchards sloping in all directions, and their opinion on the influence of slope on hardiness and retardation of the blooming period should be valuable. It is of interest to note that, out of 108 reporting on the levelness of the orchard ground, only twelve had level ground, two level to nearly level, one level to decidedly rolling, twenty-nine nearly level, seven nearly level to slightly rolling, three nearly level to medium rolling, twenty-nine slightly rolling, four slightly rolling to medium rolling, eighteen rolling and three decidedly rolling. A glance at the figures shows that the majority of orchards are on nearly level to slightly rolling land. In addition to the numbers given thirteen reported a slight slope, one a slight slope to a medium slope, two a slight to a steep slope, sixteen a medium slope, one a medium to a steep slope, and five a steep slope--the emphasis being laid on the moderate rising ground. No grower reported an orchard location entirely at the base of a slope, but six reported orchards extending from the base to the top of the slope, two from the base to midway of the slope, twenty-five at midway of the slope, seven from midway to the top and twenty-two at the top of a slope--the high ground evidently being preferred for orchard sites. As a general rule, as would naturally be expected, those who reported their orchards on the top of the slope usually reported their ground as either high or medium. Of ninety-six reports on the elevation of the orchards only four reported low land, and two of these were on top of a slope, two low and medium, one low and high, forty-six medium, fourteen medium and high, and twenty-seven high--the medium taking the lead. These figures have been given of the state as a whole, but when the sections are considered the southeastern and the west central take the lead in the highest percentage of high ground in comparison with the lower ground; the southeastern and east central, for the greatest amount of rolling land; and the southwestern, for the most level or nearly level land.

As for the effect of direction of slope on hardiness, there were many varied opinions. Thirty stated without question that the direction had an effect, thirty-one stated that it had no effect, and seventy-two admitted that they did not know. Of those answering in the affirmative only seven had two or more distinctly different slopes, while fifteen of the negatives had two or more slopes for comparison. Nine of those who stated they didn't know had two or more slopes upon which to base their judgment. In summing up the direction of sites preferred, seventy-seven recommended a northerly slope, nine had no preference, one preferred southeast, one west, one west and east, two east, one north and east, one northeast or east, and sixty-four expressed no opinion. Two growers stated that the north slope prevented early bloom and thereby lessened liability to injury from late frosts, two growers stated that northern slopes decreased the loss of moisture, and one stated that the northeast slope gives the largest fruit and the west the best colored.

As a brief summary of the reports on orchard sites, it may be stated that high ground, rolling or sloping to the north, is preferred by the majority of growers who filled out these orchard survey blanks.

_Protective Agencies._ Under this heading comes windbreaks of all kinds, whether hills, natural timber or planted trees, and bodies of water which ameliorate the climate. Out of fifty-four replies from the central east section, sixteen reported that their orchards were favorably affected by lakes, the benefit coming in most cases from the prevention of early and late frosts. One grower attributed the cooling of the air during the summer as a benefit and two stated that the bodies of water furnished moisture. Two growers in the southeast section received favorable influences from the Mississippi River, and one in the southwestern and two in the west central sections thought they received beneficial effects from lakes. According to this data, orchards in the east central section, owing largely to the influence of Lake Minnetonka, are greatly benefited by the presence of water.

Windbreaks are a very important factor in successful orcharding in Minnesota, even though one party in the southeast section and three parties in the central east noted no beneficial effects. According to reports from the central west and southwest sections they are of great benefit and in some cases indispensable to apple growing. As would be expected by any one who is acquainted with Minnesota, the planted windbreaks are a more important factor in the prairie country than in the natural wooded and hilly regions. In the southeast section, five orchards were reported as protected by bluffs and hills, three by both hills and natural woods, two by natural woods, two by both natural and planted woods, and twenty-one by planted woods; in the central east section, one by a hill and a planted windbreak, one by a town, fifteen by natural timber, two by natural and planted timber, and nineteen by planted windbreaks; in the northeast section, two by natural and four by planted windbreaks; in the northwest section, three by natural and two by planted windbreaks; in the west central section, one by a hill and natural timber, five by natural timber, two by natural timber and planted windbreaks, and eighteen by planted windbreaks; and in the southwest section, one by a hill and natural woods, one by a hill and planted windbreak, two by natural timber, and fifteen by planted windbreaks. If Meeker County, which has natural timber, was not included in the central west--and perhaps it should have been included in central east--this section would have only one orchard protected alone by natural timber; and if Blue Earth County was eliminated from the southwest, this section would have no orchard protected alone by natural timber.

The beneficial effects from windbreaks may be summed up as follows: Twenty-five reported that they prevented fruit from being blown off trees, nine that they prevented trees and limbs being broken by winds and storms, ten that they protected trees from injury by winds without specifying the kind of injury, four that they reduced injury from frosts, ten that they either prevented or reduced winter injury, four that they helped to retain moisture, five that they helped to hold snow, eight that they prevented snow drifting, five that they protected orchards from hot and dry winds, three that they permitted the growing of apples, and one that they supplied all advantages.

The kinds of trees recommended for windbreaks and the methods of planting are numerous and variable and to discuss them at length would take too much time. However, the principal facts may be briefly enumerated.

In eighty-five reports that listed set out windbreaks, it was found that fifty-seven growers had used evergreens, thirty-seven willows, twenty-nine box elders, twenty-five maples, seventeen cottonwoods, thirteen ashes, eleven elms, eight poplars, four oaks, four plums, three nuts and one apple. The evergreens consisted of thirteen Scotch pine, eleven evergreens (not named), eight Norway spruce, five spruce (not named), three balsam, three Austrian pine, two white pine, one yellow pine, two cedar, two white spruce, two pine (variety not named), two fir, two jack pine, one Black Hills spruce, and one tamarack. In the willows were given twenty willows (variety not named), two laurel-leaved, seven white and eight golden; in the maples, sixteen soft maples, two hard maples, one silver-maple and six maples (kind not named); in the poplars, five Norway, one Carolina, two poplar (kind not named); and in the nuts, one black walnut, one butternut and one walnut. The major part of the box elders, cottonwoods, willows and ashes were noted in the central west and southwest sections. Thirty-seven experienced growers of windbreaks, the most of them living in the southwest, west central and southeast sections, recommended the following trees for windbreaks in the given proportions, twenty-four evergreens, fifteen willows, seven maples, six poplars, five elms, five box elders, three elms, two plum, two cottonwood, three hedges, one oak, one hackberry and one black walnut. The evergreens are decidedly the most popular, and among the varieties mentioned Norway spruce takes the lead for those recommended, and the Scotch pine for those planted.

There are about as many different systems of planting used as growers. The main point in all cases was to have a planting that would stop the wind and storms. A few growers advocated the use of a hedge or plum trees to fill in under the windbreak, while one grower desires a circulation of air under the branches of his trees. Cultivation and intercropping of windbreaks are also recommended in a few cases. The distance of planting varies, of course, with the trees or shrubs used. For example: one grower recommends 8 ft. x 8 ft. for large deciduous trees, and another grower, 6 ft. x 12 ft. apart in rows and two rows, 12 ft. apart. For Scotch pine one grower advocates eight feet. In some cases a mixture of many kinds of trees is recommended, and then again only one kind. One very solid windbreak is made up of a lilac hedge, four rows of jack pine, four rows of Norway poplar and one row of willow. Another is one row willow, one of evergreen, one of willow and one of evergreen.

Various distances between windbreak and orchard were used and recommended. A large number of orchards were started at about twenty feet from the windbreak and a few as close as one rod, but these distances proved to be too close. One grower, however, recommended close planting and later the removal of a row of trees in the windbreak when more space was needed. The recommended distances for planting varied from thirty to 500 feet, although seventy-five to 100 was satisfactory in most cases.

More details have been given in regard to orchard sites and windbreaks than many of you are probably interested in, but for one who is planning to set out an orchard they should prove of value and profit, as they are based upon the experiences of many of Minnesota's best orchardists.

My Experience with a Young Orchard.

ROY VIALL, SPRING VALLEY.

About ten years ago we acquired some land three and one-half miles north of Spring Valley. This land is very rough and was originally covered with heavy timber, in fact, about one-third of our large orchard was cleared and grubbed out the fall before planting.

When I became interested in fruit growing one of the first things I did was to join the Horticultural Society and to the knowledge obtained through this membership we owe in large measure what success has come to us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

We have also used the lead and oil with splendid results in treating trees affected with canker. We had quite a number of Wealthy so affected, and we cut out the affected bark and wood and then covered the wound with lead, and in almost every case it has proved a cure, that is, stopped the spread of the canker.

The second year our orchard was set out we began to mulch the trees with grass cut in the orchard, clover straw, pea straw--anything we could get. We were unable to mulch the entire orchard that year, and before we got the balance mulched you could tell as far as you could see the orchard which trees were mulched and which were not. The former not only made a better growth, but had a healthier look. Now I do not want you to get the idea that I am advocating the sod system except in locations similar to ours. Were our orchard on more level ground I not only should have cultivated the first three years, as advocated by most authorities, but would have continued the cultivation in some degree at least.

Nevertheless, on account probably of the very favorable location, I think our orchard will compare favorably with any cultivated orchard of the same age. Having the orchard set out, protected against mice and rabbits and mulched, we found that the real work of raising an orchard had just begun. First came the gray beetles the following June, and they ate the new growth off several hundred trees before we discovered them. At that time, not knowing what else to do, we hand picked every one we could find and destroyed them. These beetles we found came from oak groves on the south and west, and the next year we sprayed with arsenate of lead six or eight rows of trees on that side of the orchard, and as we have since then sprayed the entire orchard each year we have had no further trouble.

Next came pocket gophers, and before we learned how to stop them we had lost a number of trees by their chewing off the roots just beneath the surface of the ground. By opening their runways and placing well down in them a piece of carrot or potato in which has been placed a little strychnine we succeeded in getting rid of them entirely. Next came the woodchucks. They were very destructive with us, chewing the bark above the protectors as well as the roots. Trapping is the most successful method we have found, and by keeping a half dozen traps out all the time we held them in check. Eternal vigilance must be the motto of the successful orchardist.

In the year 1913 we picked our first crop of apples, that is, in sufficient quantity to be considered in a commercial way. Our Duchess we sold in barrels at $2.00 net. Wealthy we packed in bushel boxes, making two sizes, the larger, three inches and over, we called No. 1, and they sold for $1.25 per box net. The balance or smaller ones were also sold in boxes and brought us $1.00 per box net. Patten Greenings brought us 80 cents and Northwestern Greenings, 90 cents per box. Our neighbors, who sold to the local and transient buyers in bulk and in barrels, received 75 cents to 90 cents per hundred pounds, or $2.00 per barrel.

The past year we had only about 75 bushels of all kinds. With the exception of Duchess and possibly Patten's Greening we shall certainly sell our next crop in bushel boxes.

We are top-working about 50 Patten's Greening to Jonathan, Delicious, McIntosh Red and King David. As the work was only started a year ago last spring I cannot tell you of its success or failure. So far the best results seem to be with the Jonathan.

We also have about thirty varieties of plums, including many of Prof. Hansen's new hybrids. Of these the Opata seems to be the most hardy and prolific, but it is subject to brown rot, which, this past year was so bad that we lost more than half the fruit. We have it top-worked on several varieties of native plums, and it was similarly affected there also. This was the only variety in our orchard of 150 trees that was so affected. We have fifteen Surprise plums, set seven years, that have not yielded altogether a peck of plums. Only lack of time kept me from grubbing them out last spring. This past season they were so heavily loaded that we had to prop the limbs and then thin out the fruit.

We endeavor to spray all our trees twice with commercial lime-sulphur and arsenate of lead--the first time immediately after the blossoms fall, the second two weeks later. Our spraying outfit consists of a Morrill & Morley hand pump, fitted in a 100-gallon tank, which we mounted on a small, one-horse truck. We operate it with three men, one to drive and pump and one for each line of hose, spraying two rows of trees at once. With this outfit we can spray 400 to 500 trees (of the size of ours) a day.

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THE NATIONAL FORESTS--besides being the American farmer's most valuable source of wood, which is the chief building material for rural purposes, are also his most valuable source of water, both for irrigation and domestic use. In the West, they afford him a protected grazing range for his stock; they are the best insurance against flood damage to his fields, his buildings, his bridges, his roads, and the fertility of his soil. The national forests cover the higher portions of the Rocky Mountain ranges, the Cascades, the Pacific Coast ranges, and a large part of the forested coast and islands of Alaska; some of the hilly regions in Montana and in the Dakotas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, and limited areas in Minnesota, Michigan, Florida, and Porto Rico. In addition, land is now being purchased for national forests in the White Mountains of New England and in the southern Appalachians. In regions so widely scattered, agricultural and forest conditions necessarily differ to a great degree, bringing about corresponding differences in the effect of the national forests on the agricultural interests of the various localities. Wherever agriculture can be practiced, however, the farmer is directly benefited by the existence of national forests and by their proper management.--U.S. Dept. of Agri.

GARDEN HELPS

Conducted by Minnesota Garden Flower Society

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

SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR THE USE OF COAL ASHES--

This is the time of the year when the unsightly heaps of coal ashes are likely to appear in one's back yard--eyesores and apparently useless.

Yet there are several ways in which they can be used to advantage about the garden.

They should first be sifted, using a quarter-inch wire mesh. The rough or coarser parts are well adapted for use on paths and driveways, forming a clean, firm surface with use. These paths are especially good in the garden, for weeds do not grow readily in them, and they dry off quickly after a rain.

Such parts of the ashes as will pass through an inch mesh will make a very good summer mulch about fruit trees and bushes that require such care. This mulch will conserve the moisture at the roots of the tree or plant at a time when it is very necessary to have it.

About a pyramid of these coarse ashes one may plant anything that requires much water. The roots of the plants will run under the ashes and keep moist and cool. Through a drought a little water poured upon the ashes will be distributed to the roots without loss.

The fine sifted ashes will render the tougher hard soils more friable, their chief virtue being lightening it. In a very mild degree they are a fertilizer, though in no degree comparable in this respect to hardwood ashes. Yet it has been proved that soil to which sifted coal ashes had been added grew plants of richer, darker foliage. They must be very well mixed with the soil by a thorough spading and forking.

The following experiment was noted in the Garden Magazine: A soil was prepared as follows: One-eighth stable manure, one-eighth leaf mold, one-quarter garden soil (heavy), one-half sifted coal ashes. Plants grown in this soil surpassed those grown in the garden soil next to them.

Coal ashes would not be advised for a light soil.

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Watch this page for announcement of Garden Flower Society meetings.

January 20th, Public Library, Minneapolis, Tenth and Hennepin, Directors' Room, 2:30 p.m.

SUBJECTS:

Hotbeds, coldframes, management and care of the young plants, Mr. Frank H. Gibbs.

The Minnesota Cypripediums. Can they be successfully cultivated? Miss Clara Leavitt.

Five-minute talks on "The Best Things of 1915."

Members are urged to bring their friends to this meeting. No one who contemplates having a garden this year can afford to miss it. Let us be generous and share our good programs with as many as possible. Each member is host or hostess for that day.

SECRETARY'S CORNER

ANNUAL MEETING WISCONSIN STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCY.--This meeting is to be held at Madison, Wis., on January 5-7. Mr. Chas. Haralson, superintendent of our State Fruit-Breeding Farm, is to represent this society at that meeting. We may look for an interesting report from him in the February issue of our monthly.

IS YOUR ANNUAL FEE PAID?--If not, won't you please send it in promptly, remitting by a $1.00 bill, which is a safe medium of payment, instead of using check unless you draw on a bank in one of the larger cities of the state. Checks on country banks, as a rule, can only be collected here by a payment of ten cents, which the society can ill afford to pay for so many members.

ANNUAL MEETING S.D. HORT. SOCY.--The annual gathering of this sister association will be held in Huron, S.D., January 18-20. Quite a good many of our members live so near the state line that they may find it convenient to attend this meeting, which will certainly be a profitable one. Prof. N. E. Hansen is secretary. Mr. Wm. Pfaender, Jr., of New Ulm, is to be the representative of this society at the South Dakota meeting.

ANNUAL MEETING SOUTHERN MINNESOTA HORT. SOCY.--This very wide-awake auxiliary of the state society will hold its annual meeting in Austin, January 19th and 20th next. The program of the meeting is not yet at hand, but you may be sure that it will be an interesting and practical one. If the reader is living anywhere within convenient range of Austin by all means attend this meeting and get inspiration and help for the work of another season.

YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN.--This refers to members of the society who have paid their annual fee for 1916 and are wondering why they have not yet received the membership ticket. There is always a little unavoidable delay in sending out these tickets after the annual meeting. First the tickets must be printed, and then the society folder that goes out with them must be prepared, and the material making up this folder comes from quite a number of sources, and it takes more or less time to get all of these matters together and in shape. You need not be solicitous in regard to membership fees remitted, as the chance of loss in transmission is approximately nothing; hardly half a dozen instances of the kind have come up in the twenty-five years of service of the secretary.

PASSING OF MICHAEL BENDEL, SR.--This old member of our society and resident of Madison has just been called away, December 23rd, at the age of seventy-nine years. While not an attendant at our meetings he was a most loyal member of the society, and especially conspicuous in the western part of the state, where he lived, as a successful experimenter in orcharding, in which work he had a large experience. His portrait and a brief sketch of his life appear in the 1914 volume of our report, on page 150. Mr. Bendel was for many years president of the Lac qui Parle County Agricultural Society, was always greatly interested in everything to improve the interests of his community, and especially those pertaining to farm life. He has left an enviable record.

FARMERS AND HOME MAKERS WEEK.--University Farm, midway between Minneapolis and St. Paul, have prepared a royal program for all interested in agricultural work and life, including the needs of the household, filling all of next week, from January 3rd to 8th, inclusive. Seventy-nine professors and instructors by count are on the program for the week, and it is so arranged that those attending pass from one lecture room to another, from hour to hour, selecting the subjects that they have a special interest in. Horticulture, or subjects closely akin, have a place on this program Monday afternoon, Tuesday forenoon and afternoon, Wednesday forenoon and Thursday forenoon; Thursday afternoon the horticultural program is devoted entirely to vegetables; Friday forenoon and afternoon; and Saturday forenoon altogether spraying. When this magazine is received it will be too late to send for a program, but not too late to attend the meetings, which we hope many of our members may have the opportunity to do.

ATTENDANCE AT ANNUAL MEETING.--The badge book, which is issued at every annual meeting, containing the list of those who notify the secretary of a purpose to attend the meeting, is a pretty good index of the attendance. This year the badge book contained 442 names. Of course not all of these were present at the meeting, but a great many who were there had not sent notice of attendance and whose names were not in the badge book, so that the figures given elsewhere in this magazine as to attendance, estimated at from 400 to 500, are certainly not any too high.

Of this number not to exceed fifteen members, including vice presidents and superintendents of trial stations living at a distance, receive their railroad fare to and from the annual meeting, which is the only compensation they receive for their work in operating the trial stations and preparing the annual or semi-annual reports connected with their positions. This is not in fact any compensation for service but rather a recognition of the large obligation under which the society rests towards them for such gratuitous service.

PLANT PREMIUMS FOR 1916.--On the inside front cover page of this monthly will be found a list of the plant premiums offered to our membership the coming spring. This list is also published in the society folder, of which copies will be sent to each member and which can be supplied in any number desired by application to the secretary. The list of plant premiums includes a considerable variety of plants both ornamental and otherwise useful. Those of special interest this year are the new fruits being sent out from the State Fruit-Breeding Farm, including No. 3 June-bearing strawberry, which gives promise of being a very valuable fruit for Minnesota planters; No. 1017 everbearing strawberry, the kind which has been selected from thousands of varieties fruiting at the station, a good plant maker and also a prolific fruiter of high quality berries; No. 4 raspberry, a variety of extraordinary vigor and hardiness, large fruited, and a prolific bearer; and several varieties of large fruited plums. Every member of the society with facilities for growing fruits should be interested in trying these new varieties, which of course are still being sent out on trial, and we desire to hear from our membership as to their measure of success with them.

From photograph taken in front of Administration Building, at University Farm, on the morning of January 8, just before presentation of certificates referred to on opposite page.]

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 FEBRUARY, 1916 No. 2

OPEN LETTER TO MEMBERS

OF THE

Minnesota State Horticultural Society

FROM ITS SECRETARY.

Probably members of the society very generally noticed a few weeks since in the daily papers of the Twin Cities and elsewhere an announcement that "certificates of award for special meritorious services in the advancement of agriculture" would be made by the Minnesota State University to Mr. O. C. Gregg, Hon. W. G. LeDuc, Mr. Chas. G. Patten and Mr. A. W. Latham.

These certificates were awarded Saturday, January 8th, 1916, at the closing exercises of the Farmers Week at the University Farm before an audience of twelve hundred people, gathered in the chapel in the Administration Building. Appropriate exercises were conducted by the President, Geo. E. Vincent, and the Dean of the University Farm, A.F. Woods, in the presence of Hon. Fred B. Snyder, President of the Board of Regents of the State University, and other members of the Board and a large representation of the professorship of University Farm School, also occupying the platform.

Dean Woods read a sketch of the life of each one of the recipients, and the certificates were formally presented to each in turn by the President of the State University. All the persons who were to receive this honor were in attendance except Gen. LeDuc, who was probably unable to be present on account of his extreme age.

When this matter was first called to my attention I felt that it would be entirely out of place, being its editor, that I should make reference to it in the society monthly, but as the fact has been widely published throughout the state, and whatever honor is connected with this presentation is to be shared with the members of the Horticultural Society, I have changed my view point in regard to this, and it seems to me now that the members of the society should be fully informed as to what has taken place.

Mr. O. C. Gregg received this distinction on account of his connection with the farmers' institutes of the state, of which he was the pioneer, and in connection with which he remained as superintendent for some twenty-two years.

Gen. LeDuc was for a number of years Commissioner of Agriculture at Washington and introduced many important reforms in the management of that department.

Mr. Chas. G. Patten is well known to our members of course as the originator of the Patten's Greening apple, although this is quite an infinitesimal part of the work that he has done in connection with the breeding of fruits, the results from which the public are to profit by largely, we believe, in the early future. At his advanced age of eighty-four we feel that this honor has been wisely placed.

"Mr. A. W. Latham has been secretary of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society for twenty-five years, during which period its membership has advanced from one or two hundred to thirty-four hundred, making it the largest horticultural society in the country, and probably," as stated by the Dean in his address, "the largest in the world."

While this distinction has been conferred upon the secretary of your society it is not to be considered as so much a personal tribute to him as a recognition of the splendid work done by the society as a whole, in which every member has had some share. To express fully my thought in this I will refer briefly to the organization of the society, just half a century ago, when a handful of earnest men united their efforts under the name of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society in an endeavor to solve the difficult problems connected with fruit growing in this region. None of the men who at that time organized this society are now living, but others have taken their places, and the important service that was so well cared for by the earlier membership is being equally as well prosecuted by those who have succeeded them.

My personal connection with the society began the third year of its existence, so that I had the high privilege of enjoying personal acquaintance with practically all those earlier workers in the society, and indeed most of them were still alive when I came into the secretaryship twenty-five years ago. It will not be out of place to speak here particularly of a few of those who are no longer with us: John S. Harris, that staunch friend, one of the original twelve, whose medallion hangs on the wall of the horticultural classroom at University Farm; Peter M. Gideon, whose self-sacrifice gave us the Wealthy apple, now of worldwide planting--he in whose memory the Gideon Memorial Fund was created; Col. John H. Stevens, that large hearted man of unquenchable public spirit; P.A. Jewell, searcher for new fruits and founder of the Jewell Nursery Company; Truman M. Smith, seven years president during many dark days; Wyman Elliot, one of the original twelve, well called by one "King of the Horticultural Society"--so recently taken from us. The institution of learning conferring this distinction upon us has contributed a full share of workers now no longer with us; W. W. Pendergast, first principal of the University Farm School, and for many years president of the society until stricken with a fatal illness; and Prof. Saml. B. Green of blessed memory, whose loss we shall never cease to mourn. There are many others who did great service to the society that I should be glad to speak of here if space would permit.

In the list of those who are still with us and have served with such self devotion and courage in advancing the interests of the society, and that for which it stands, are to be found the names of many men prominent in various walks of life in our state. It would be out of place for me to select from this list a few and give them special prominence where hundreds have contributed to the life and growth of the association all these many years until the present enviable place now occupied by the association has been attained. To the executive board of the society, most of whom have been members of the board for a long period of years, of course the success of the association is especially due. Men of initiative in an ambitious and unselfish way working for the success of the association, they have had very much indeed to do with its progress.

As I endeavor to recall the personality of those who have been of special service to us I find the list almost without limit. With what pleasure and satisfaction have I been permitted to serve with the members of this society! What willingness to perform the duties suggested has ever characterized the assistance that has been rendered by the membership of this society! It has been an exceedingly rare thing for any member to offer an objection to undertaking any service asked of him, and with such support as this so readily and heartily given, and often at large expense to the member, what can be expected other than such success as has come to our society. I wish I had the ability to express at this time the thought that is in my heart as I recall all of these helpful brothers and sisters to whom indeed belongs as much as to the writer any distinction that comes to the society as a result of these years of labor.

Notwithstanding the State University have seen fit to refer to this in a way to indicate that our society has reached some certain vantage ground, it must not be lost sight of that the real work of the society is still before it. Whether to be carried on under the present management or under a changed management we have a right to look ahead and anticipate the definite and widely expanding results that are still to come from the services of the members of the society, which we are sure in the future, as in the past, will be heartily rendered.

A. W. LATHAM, Secy.

June-Bearing Strawberries.

GEO. J. KELLOGG, RETIRED NURSERYMAN, JANESVILLE, WIS.

Any fool that knows enough can grow strawberries, which reminds me of the preacher in York State who both preached and farmed it. He was trying to bore a beetle head and could not hold it; a foolish boy came along and said, "Why don't you put it in the hog trough?" "Well! Well!" the preacher said. "You can learn something from most any fool." The boy said, "That is just what father says when he hears you preach." I don't expect to tell you much that is new, but I want to emphasize the good things that others have said:

_Soils._ I once had twenty-one acres of heavy oak, hickory, crab apple and hazel brush, with one old Indian corn field. I measured hazel brush twelve feet high, and some of the ground was a perfect network of hazel roots; the leaf mould had accumulated for ages. The first half acre I planted to turnips, the next spring I started in to make my fortune. I set out nineteen varieties of the best strawberries away back in the time of the Wilson, than which we have never had its equal. The plants grew well and wintered well, but they did not bear worth a cent, while just over the fence I had a field on ground that had been worked twenty years without manure that gave me two hundred and sixty bushels to the acre. It took three years with other crops to reduce that loose soil before I could make strawberries pay. My fortune all vanished.

Last June while judging your strawberry show, I found a large collection of twenty-five kinds of the poorest strawberries I ever saw, grown on the college grounds. I visited the field, found over a hundred varieties, well tallied, well cultivated, on new oak opening soil. First crop, the soil seemed ideal, every thing good except the plants and the fruit. The foliage was defective and the fruit very poor. Was it the new soil?

I have always found good garden soil would produce good strawberries; the best beds were those that followed potatoes. Cut worms and white grubs seldom follow two years of hoed crops.

_Preparation._ Preparation for the best strawberries should be started three years before planting. Using soil from sand to clay, well drained, well manured, sowed to clover, take off the first cutting of clover, then more manure plowed under deep with the second crop of clover, as late as can before freezing up, to kill insects and make the soil friable and ready for a crop of potatoes the next spring. After harvesting 300 bushels of potatoes to the acre use a heavy coat of well rotted manure without weed seed, plowed under late in fall. The following spring, as soon as the ground will work, thoroughly disk and harrow, and harrow twice more. Then roll or plank it, mark both ways two by four feet, set by hand either with dibble or spade, no machine work. Crown even with the surface, with best of plants from new beds, leaving on but two leaves, and if the roots are not fresh dug, trim them a little. Firm them good.

Now start the weeder and go over the field every week till the runners start, then use the nine-tooth cultivator with the two outside teeth two inches shorter than the others. Cultivate every week till the middle of October. Use the hoe to keep out all weeds and hoe very lightly about the plants. Weeds are a blessing to the lazy man, but I don't like to have it overdone. Don't let the soil bake after a rain. Keep the cultivator running. In garden work a steel tooth rake is a splendid garden tool.

Volume 1905, page 230 (An. Report Minn. State Hort. Society). Mr. Schwab gets an ideal strawberry bed, then kills it with twelve inches of mulch. If the ice and snow had not come perhaps the plants would have pulled through. Volume 41, page 390. Mr. Wildhagen gives an ideal paper on strawberries, it will pay you to read it again and again. Instead of one year's preparation, I would have three.

_Winter Protection._ Unless in an exposed place, marsh hay is the best and cleanest mulch, but high winds may roll it off. Clean straw away from the tailings of the machine is next best. For small acreage if one inch can be put on as soon as the ground is frozen a half inch, it will save the many freezings and thawings before winter sets in. For large acreage it is not practical to cover till frost will hold up a loaded wagon. Two inches of mulch, that covers the plants and paths from sight is enough, but I see you cover deeper, from four to twelve inches in Minnesota, and often smother the plants. If we could have a snow blanket come early and stay on late in spring, that would protect the plants, but we want the mulch also to protect from drouth and keep the berries clean. A January thaw is liable to kill out any field that is not properly mulched.

A two inch mulch will not hinder the plants coming through in spring; four inches will require part of the mulch raked into the paths; if plants don't get through readily loosen the mulch. I have known some successful growers to take off all the mulch from the paths in spring and cultivate lightly but thoroughly, then replace the mulch to protect from drouth and to keep the berries clean, but I don't think it pays.

_Weeds._ In the best fields and beds I ever saw there will come up an occasional weed in spring, and it pays to go over the ground with a spade or butcher knife and take out such weeds. We almost always get a drouth at picking time, better a drought than too much rain. A good straw mulch will usually carry us through.

_Irrigation._ If irrigation is attempted the fields must be prepared before planting to run water through between the rows. Sprinkling will not do except at sundown. Rain always comes in cloudy weather; you cannot wet foliage in sun in hot weather without damage. A good rainfall is one inch, which is a thousand barrels to the acre, so what can you do with a sprinkling cart? Showers followed by bright sunshine damage the patch.

If your plants are set too deep they rot, if too high they dry, if not well firmed they fail. When I have used a tobacco planter I have had to put my heel on every plant. Of course you know that newly planted June varieties must have the blossom buds cut out, and everbears bearing must also till July.

_Picking._ The man who has acres to pick must secure his boxes the winter before and have at least part of them made up if they are to be tacked. I have found a boy can make up boxes as fast as thirty pickers can fill. If you use the folding box no tacks are needed. Too many boxes made up ahead are liable to be damaged by the mice.

_Pickers._ Engage your pickers ahead; agree on the price and that a part of the pay is to be kept back till the close of the season, which is forfeited if quitting before time. If pickers are too far away, transportation must be furnished--free boxes of berries are appreciated by the pickers.

_Marketing._ Sometimes the marketing of the fruit is harder than the growing of it. If enough is grown form an association to sell it, get advice from a successful association how to form and how to run it. Sometimes a well made wagon, a good team and a good man can sell from house to house in the country and city and make good returns. In this way you get back your crates and part of the boxes. I know a successful grower in Iowa, who sold his crop of ten acres to the farmers and city people, they doing their own picking and furnishing their own boxes, at a given price. All the proprietor had to do was sit at the gate and take in the cash. It is worth a good deal to know how to grow the best of strawberries and often it is worth more to know how to turn them into cash.

_What Varieties?_ Dunlap and Warfield have a general reputation for profit, can be picked together and sell well; dark color, good canners and good shippers. If you want a third variety take Lovett. Some of your growers want nothing but Bederwood, but it is too light and too soft to ship, though it is a good family berry. I expect Minnesota No. 3 will soon be the only variety you will want of the June kinds.

_Insects._ Winter drouth often injures the roots and some lay it to insects. The winter of 1899 was the worst winter drouth I ever knew; it killed every thing. If you are troubled with the crown borer, root lice, leaf roller or rust, grow one crop and plow under, or move your fields a good distance from the old bed. What shall be done with the old bed? If you have insects or rust plow under and get the best place to start a new bed, and don't set any of your own plants if you have insects or rust--and be sure you buy of a reliable grower.

_Old Beds._ If the first crop is big, plow under, if light and you have a good stand of plants, no insects or rust, you can mow and teddy up the mulch and in a high wind burn it over--a quick fire will do no harm. Then you can plow two furrows between rows and drag it every way till not a plant is seen. Soon, if the rows are left a foot wide, the plants will come through. Then manure (better be manured before plowing), and you may get a good second crop. Some mow and rake off and burn outside the bed, then with a two horse cultivator dig up the paths and cultivate and get the ground in condition. Put on the manure and hoe out part of the old plants.

I like the plan of Wildhagen; mow, burn and then cover three inches deep with one hundred big loads of manure to the acre and don't go near the patch till picking time next year. He gets a nice early crop, and if berries are a little small it pays better than any other way. Try it! I have known some fields carried to fourth crop, and amateur beds kept up for ten years. It takes lots of work to keep an old bed in good condition. J.M. Smith, of Green Bay, Wis., almost always took one crop and plowed under. If the first crop was injured by frost, he took a second crop. He raised four hundred bushels to the acre.

Wm. Von Baumbach, of Wauwatosa, Wis., raised from five acres less ten square rods seventeen hundred bushels big measure beside quantities given the pickers. I have had beds and fields where I have timed my boys picking a quart a minute. I had one small boy that picked 230 quarts a day. But in all my sixty years growing strawberries I never properly prepared an acre of ground before planting. I could take a five acre patch now, as young as I am, and beat anything I have ever done.

_Mulch._--For mulch for small beds, if straw or marsh hay is not handy, use an inch of leaves, then cut your sweet corn and lay the stalks on three inches apart and your plants will come up between in spring and give you clean fruit. Cut cornstalks are good for field covering, also shredded cornstalks. I have used the begass from the cane mill, but it is too heavy. Evergreen boughs are very good if well put on for small beds.

In my paper, Vol. 1911, page 180 (Minn. Report), it should read five bushels to the square _rod, not acre_. Who ever heard of five bushels an acre!

_Big Yields._--You all know of Friend Wedge's 74-3/4 quarts from one square rod of Everbearers the season of planting. I believe that can be beaten. Let our society put a few hundred dollars in premiums for best yield of square rod of everbearers and of June varieties, and of a quarter of an acre; also the best product of one hill, and the best product of one plant, and its runners fourteen months from planting. I believe one plant of everbearers can produce a quart the season of setting. I know of the five bushels to the square rod, and the other fellow had four and a half bushel of Wilson.

Surprise Plum a Success.