Chapter C: W. Purdham, Market Gardener, Brooklyn Center (1)

The first and most important thing in raising tomatoes is good seed. To raise good tomatoes does not depend so much on the variety you have as it does on the seed.

In the fall select your best tomatoes and save the seed. Then about the first of April sow your seed.

You can sow them in a box behind the stove, and as soon as they are up give them all the sunlight you can. When they are about two inches high, have some four-inch flower pots and transplant, giving them a good thorough wetting before removing them from the seed box to the flower pots.

By this time it will be warm enough to have a cold frame, which may be prepared by nailing four boards together any size desired. One three by six feet will hold about 150 plants. Shelter it well from the north and slope it a little to the south with enough dirt in the frame to hold your pots.

You can cover them with storm windows or cloth tacked onto frames. Keep well covered nights and give all the sunlight possible through the day. After danger of frost is past, set them out. Sandy loam is best, which must be well pulverized and fertilized.

After you have removed the plant from the pot and set it in the ground, place the pot about two inches from the plant, also about two inches deep in the ground. Then throw a small handful of dirt in each pot and fill with water as often as necessary.

This is the best way of watering that I know.

Mr. Sauter: What kind do you think is the best for an early variety?

Mr. Purdham: Well, the Earliana is extensively raised and the Dwarf Champion.

Mr. Sauter: What do you think of the Red Pear?

Mr. Purdham: I don't know anything about that, but for a late variety of tomato the Ponderosa is quite a tomato; it is a very large tomato.

Mr. Sauter: How about the Globe?

Mr. Purdham: That is a good tomato.

Mr. Sauter: What do you know of the paper cartons instead of flower pots?

Mr. Purdham: I have never tried the cartons; I should think they would be all right.

Mr. Miller: In saving your seed from year to year, is there any danger of the seed running out in time?

Mr. Purdham: I don't think so. If you take your best tomatoes I think you will improve them.

Mr. Miller: I should think the germination of that seed would run out?

Mr. Purdham: That may be, I can't say as to that. There are people that make a specialty of studying that.

Annual Report, 1915, Vice-President, First Congressional District.

F. I. HARRIS, LA CRESCENT, MINN.

In making a report for the First Congressional District, I will say at the beginning, that all my observations and interviews were taken in Houston and Winona counties, an especially favored locality this year, and I am well aware that the conditions and results are exceptional and do not form a just estimate for the district and are certainly very much above the average. The apple crop in the section named was a record breaker, and where trees were at all cared for and properly sprayed the quality and size of the fruit was very superior and remarkably free from insect pests and disease.

The yield of several orchards in this vicinity was from 1,000 to 15,000 barrels of marketable fruit, an increase of nearly 100 per cent above the largest previous crop. From this station twenty-one carload lots of apples, averaging 200 barrels per car, were shipped, besides nearly as many more sold in the local markets of La Crosse and Winona and shipped in small lots by freight and express. The prices obtained were in all cases good, considering that the varieties grown are mostly summer and fall and had to be sold in competition with Iowa and Illinois fruit. While all markets were over-supplied, the demand for the quality of fruit grown here in the commercial orchards was greatly in excess of the supply and attracted buyers from Chicago and the Twin Cities and has built a permanent market so long as the quality keeps up to this year's standard.

At the same time, I am more than ever impressed with the necessity for some manner of utilizing the surplus and low grade fruit with which the local markets are flooded. It seems a great waste to have thousands of bushels of apples fed to hogs and left to rot on the ground which would be a large asset if converted into vinegar or canned. More than one-half the fruit brought from farms is only fit for such use and by being forced on the market serves to lower prices and demand for good fruit. I visited one farm orchard within twenty miles of here and saw at a low estimate 400 bushels of apples lying on the ground, all of which could have been utilized in a factory, but not having been sprayed were not fit for barreling, and the owner had turned the hogs in to get rid of them. This is a condition that is sure to become worse in view of the many small orchards recently set, besides the commercial orchards that are just coming into bearing. From the reports received, in reply to circulars sent out, I gather that the crop varied from nothing to 100 per cent and the quality in corresponding ratio, depending in most cases upon whether orchards were properly sprayed or neglected.

Scab and other diseases caused a large proportion of the fruit set to drop, and the remainder was unsalable in unsprayed orchards. Considerable blight is reported in a number of orchards, especially where cultivated. Trees growing in sod were noticeably free from it. Practically nothing is being done to prevent its spreading. While cutting out the affected wood may in some cases check it, I am satisfied a better remedy will have to be found before it is wiped out. In my own orchard just a few trees located on low land and under cultivation were affected, and not a single case in sod.

There is from all reports an abundance of moisture in the ground, and trees are in good condition to stand a hard winter, except that in some cases the buds started during the warm days of November.

The crop of strawberries was generally a very light one on account of blossoms being injured by late frosts and winter killing, but a few correspondents report a full crop.

Other small fruits, including currants, raspberries and blackberries, were a practical failure and light crop.

The crop of grapes was very light and in only a few favored localities ripened before killing frosts. Plums, except in a few instances, were a failure, the exceptions being in case of the Hansen hybrids.

While more varieties of apples are successfully grown in this vicinity than elsewhere in the state, and some correspondents recommend a long list, my experience and advice is to set only a few varieties of known commercial value, and while far too many early apples are being grown, this condition is better than planting winter apples of unknown hardiness and quality. The Northwestern Greening is the most profitable winter apple here, but I understand it is not hardy in some localities in the state.

* * * * *

ALASKAN BERRY HYBRIDS.--At the Sitka Experiment Station in Alaska a strain of hardy strawberries is in the making, the result of crosses between the native of the Alaskan coast region and cultivated varieties. Several thousand seedlings have been grown, all very vigorous and most of them productive and of high quality. The native variety of the interior of Alaska is now to be used in similar crosses.

The Cuthbert raspberry has been crossed with its relatives, the native Salmonberry (_Rubus spectabilis_ Pursh.) and the Thimbleberry (_R. parviflorus_ Nutt.). The only interesting fact so far developed is that the hybrids of the two species first named are almost entirely sterile.

Annual Report, 1915, Vice-President, Seventh Congressional District.

P. H. PETERSON, ATWATER, MINN.

From the answers received on blanks sent out I find there was a fair crop of apples raised throughout this district, with the trees in good condition for winter. Wood is well ripened up, leaves all shed and plenty of moisture in the soil.

All report none or very little blight this year. Spraying is not done generally, but those few who do it are getting results. In our own orchard, which was sprayed twice last spring, we have not found one wormy apple.

Plums, none or a very few. Mr. Bjornberg, of Willmar, reports the Surprise plum a full crop, others a total failure. Compass cherry bore a fair crop, but with me it rotted badly, as also did Prof. Hansen's plums, Sapa and Opata.

Grapes: Not many are grown except the Beta, which bore a heavy crop in spite of the late spring frosts.

Blackberries: Nothing doing.

Raspberries and strawberries were a light crop. Strawberries especially were badly damaged by late spring frosts--with me they were nearly a total failure except the everbearing, which gave us a good crop. And I want to add that they are here to stay for home use, and possibly as a market berry. Plants are fully as hardy as the June-bearing sorts. No matter how many times the blossoms are frozen off in the spring they will come right out again and give us berries until it freezes up in the fall.

Currants and gooseberries were a fair crop.

From the reports I gather that less nursery stock has been planted here than usual, but with good results, as the season has been favorable for plantings.

The fruit list recommended by the State Horticultural Society can be relied on in this locality.

There is a good deal of interest shown here in top-working the better quality winter apples onto hardy trees with good results, and the Hibernal seems to be the best stock to use--it certainly ought not to be planted for any other purpose. The apple is a drug on the market, and those who planted largely of this variety find it difficult to dispose of the crop at any price.

* * * * *

STUDYING FRUITS IN ILLINOIS.--Many seedling apples are being grown at the Illinois Experiment Station. Reciprocal hybridizations between standard orchard varieties and various species of the genus Malus have been made, fifty-seven species and varieties which are not of commercial importance having been obtained from the Arnold Arboretum at Boston. Direct improvement through these violent crosses is not anticipated, but it is hoped to acquire valuable information regarding the affinities of the various species used, and also to produce material for use in back crossing. Reciprocal crosses between standard orchard varieties are also being made in large numbers, while a difficult piece of work has been attempted in the reciprocal crossing of different strains of the same variety, and different individuals of the same strain. C.S. Crandall writes: "This project has aimed at the selfing of particular individuals, and the use on trees here of pollen from trees of the same variety in orchards 100 miles away and grown under quite different conditions. Considerable effort has been expended in the prosecution of this project, but up to the present time we have recorded no successful pollinations. We have not as yet a very wide range of varieties, but as far as we have gone we have encountered complete sterility in the selfing within the individuals and in the attempt to use pollen of the same variety brought from a distance. The unfortunate feature about all the hybridizing work with apples is the mongrel character of the plants on which we work. We know nothing of the parentage of any of our varieties, and it seems quite useless to speculate on what the segregation of characters may be in crosses between different varieties. A further discouraging feature in apple breeding is the long period required to get results from any particular cross. Effort is being made to shorten this period by grafting scions of hybrid seedlings on dwarf stocks and growing the plants in pots. This will help some, but at best the attainment of results is some distance in the future. We are endeavoring to maintain a reasonably complete record of every step that is taken so that a complete history may be available for those who may later continue the work.

"In pursuing the projects as outlined above there are a number of minor problems that are receiving some attention: such as the retention of the vitality of pollen, the period of receptivity, the seed production in hybrid fruits, and the time for and percentage of the germination of seeds. On all of these points we are accumulating considerable information that it is hoped may be of some practical value."--Journal of Heredity.

Spraying the Orchard.

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

I don't know whether I am out of place with this topic of mine or not with a Minnesota audience, but I came through the exhibit rooms as I came up to the hall, and whether you spray or not you certainly need to, for I saw all sorts of fungous diseases upon your fruit. I presume that these are not the poorest specimens you have--very few people, you know, bring the poorest specimens they have to an exhibition place, Mr. President, and I presume that if these are the best you have the poorest must be pretty bad in the way of fungous diseases.

Of course, people don't like to have their faults told them, but if we have anything the matter with us it is best for us to find out what the matter is and then get rid of it. It is better than to do as many did in the commercial fruit-growing states a number of years ago about the San Jose scale, those that were interested in having that fact suppressed, or at least thought they were interested in having the fact suppressed that they had San Jose scale within the confines of their state. They didn't want that information to get out, so they didn't discuss the matter of San Jose scale in their societies.

In Illinois we took a different view of that proposition, and it was, that we had the San Jose scale and we thought the thing to do was to stamp it out, to get after it. So we agitated that subject in our society and talked about it. We had the state entomologist canvass the entire state to find out where the San Jose scale was doing its work and gave him authority to go in and spray those places or cut down the trees and get them out of the way. The effect of that work is very evident.

The people of other states would point to us saying that they did not have the scale but that we had because we reported the fact, but I know they now have it a great deal worse than we do because of this neglect.

In this matter of spraying and spraying materials, if we go back in history--we have to look for truth wherever we find it, whether it comes from low or high sources. As a matter of fact thieves and sheep ticks and ignorance are largely responsible for our spraying and the spraying materials of today. It doesn't sound very well in a scientific body to talk that way, but truth is truth wherever you find it, whether it comes from the university professor or from the farmer. If we recognize truth, from whatever source it comes, then we are open-minded and can take advantage of things that will be greatly to our benefit.

In the matter of spraying materials: They were discovered through accident, in an effort to prevent thieving in the vineyards of Bordeaux, France. It seems that workmen on the way to their places of employment were in the habit of foraging on the vineyards of the farmers along the way. To prevent that some of the fruit growers conceived the idea it would be a good thing in order to scare them to get blue vitriol and mix it with water and spray it on the fruit along the roadside. Later in the season, very much to their surprise, they found that the grapes that were treated in that way were not affected with the brown rot. So they tried it again to see whether they were right about that being the cause, and it wasn't long before they used it for that purpose. They stopped the thieving, but they also discovered a scientific truth, that the Bordeaux mixture was a fungicide and that fact has been of immense value to the world since then.

When the San Jose scale came into this country from the west, some man who had used sheep dip for sheep ticks, said: "If it is a good thing against sheep ticks, why isn't it good against this little vermin they call the San Jose scale?" He tried it on the trees, and he found that it was an effective remedy for the San Jose scale. So we have lime-sulphur today as one of the spray materials in very common use.

Among other things the scientists told us we couldn't use lime-sulphur and arsenate of lead together, that they would have to be sprayed over the orchard in separate sprays, that is, we would have to go over the orchard with lime-sulphur and then again with arsenate of lead, that when you combined the two the chemical combination was such that it deteriorated the lime-sulphur. Some farmer who didn't know about that scientific proposition determined to put them both on together, and he found that it not only worked all right but that the two were really more effective when combined than if put on separately. So you see it was thieves, sheep ticks and ignorance that are responsible for three of our most successful ways of spraying at the present time.

Now, scientific men have come in and given us a great deal of information along various lines in regard to spraying, and I don't decry science in any sense at all. These men, while they were not scientifically educated, discovered scientific truths, and it is truths we want after all.

Just what your position on this spraying proposition is here in Minnesota, whether you have commercial orchards up here or not, I have not been able to discover. I presume that your plantings here are very largely that of the farmer and amateur rather than the commercial orchardist. In Illinois we have our large commercial orchards, and we have gotten beyond the question of whether it pays us to spray or not. For a man to be in the commercial apple business in Illinois and not spray means that he doesn't accomplish very much and his product doesn't bring him any profit.

Now, whether you spray commercially or whether you spray for your family orchard in an amateur way, it doesn't matter so far as the spraying is concerned--you should spray in either case. If you have a community where you have few orchards and they are small, it behooves you to get together and buy a spraying outfit, combine with your neighbors and buy a good spraying outfit, and then have some man take that matter up who will do it thoroughly in that neighborhood and pay him for doing it. In that way, if you hire it done, it doesn't interfere with your farming operations and gets your spraying done on time. I have noticed this with stockmen and with grain farmers, men who are not directly interested in fruit but combine it with their regular business, that they consider fruit growing a side line and such a small part of their business that they usually neglect it altogether. In the matter of the spraying they keep putting it off until tomorrow. When the time arrives for spraying you must do it _today_ and not put it off until tomorrow.

Time is a very essential element in spraying. To give you an illustration: A few years ago, in spraying a Willow Twig orchard, consisting of eighteen rows of trees, I sprayed nine rows of those trees, or about half of the orchard, we will say, the first part of the week, the first two days. And then there came on a two or three days' rain, and the balance of those eighteen rows was sprayed the very last of the week or the first of the following week. The two following sprayings went on just at the right time for them, but when it came to the harvesting of that crop the trees that were sprayed first, that were sprayed immediately after the bloom fell, produced 175 bushels of very fine No. 1 fruit, free from scab, while the other nine rows, equal in every respect so far as the trees are concerned and the amount of bloom there was, produced seventeen bushels of No. 2 fruit, no No. 1 fruit at all.

The Willow Twig is one of those varieties that is very susceptible to scab, and of course this is a marked illustration of what happens if you don't spray at the right time. Notwithstanding the fact that the nine rows, the last ones, I speak of, were sprayed with the two following sprays at the same time that the other part of the orchard was sprayed, the results were entirely different because the first spraying, which was really the important one so far as the scab is concerned, was not put upon the tree at the right time.

The scab fungus, which seems to appear on your apples out here, is one of the most insidious diseases we have in the whole fruit industry. I think that scab fungous disease is probably the one that affects you the most. Now, scab fungus will not be noticed particularly in the spring of the year. The time that those spores are most prevalent, the period of their movement as spores in the atmosphere and the lodging upon the fruit, is right at the beginning, right about the time of the blossoming or immediately following. For a period of about two weeks at blooming time and after is the time that you have that condition.

And the trouble is--it is just like typhoid fever. You let typhoid fever get into a family, and they do not think anything of it except to take care of the patient properly if he has it, but it doesn't scare the neighbors, it does not interest them. But let the smallpox break out in a community, and everybody is interested and scared to death for fear they are going to get the smallpox.

Well now, as compared with things of a fungous nature, the scab is a good deal like typhoid fever. The latter is insidious and it will destroy more--I take it there are more people die in the United States of typhoid fever every year than die of smallpox, ten to one. I haven't the statistics but I have that in mind, that it is a fact that they do, and yet there isn't half the fuss made about typhoid fever that there is about smallpox.

Now, that is so about the scab fungous disease. In Illinois, to illustrate, we have what is called the bitter rot fungus in the southern part of the state. If any one has the bitter rot they are scared to death, they think they are suffering untold misfortune. The bitter rot attacks the apples when nearly grown. The ground is covered with the rotted apples, and you can see them in the trees, but this little bit of scab fungus, they do not seem to notice that.

The reason is this, that scab comes from very minute spores that appear upon the apples in May or June, and as the summer advances they spread more and more. It depends, of course, upon the amount of moisture there is present, but it begins its work when the apples are very small. If it gets upon the stem of the apple it works around the stem and the apple drops off, and you have apples dropping from the time they are the size of peas until the very last of the fall, and while it looks in the month of June as if you are going to have a good crop of apples when it comes harvest time your crop has diminished greatly or to nothing, and you wonder where it has gone. With this scab fungus they just keep dropping, dropping, all through the season; whenever you have a little rain or wind these apples that are affected will drop off. You don't notice them very much because they go so gradually, one at a time or so, and you don't notice you are having any particular loss until it comes fall, and you find that your crop is very small.

That is why I say, you should wake up to the fact that it is necessary for you to spray if you are going to have perfect fruit and plenty of it--and I doubt not you could increase the amount of fruit you have in the State of Minnesota by ten times in one year by simply spraying your orchards thoroughly at the proper time with fungicide.

To do this, as I said, you must have a spraying outfit, individually or collectively, in your neighborhood, and if you get one individually you can take the contract to spray your neighbor's trees, if you wish, and get back enough to pay you for the outlay. If you have only a few trees and you have some one who understands it, you could just as well spray a few other orchards in the neighborhood and get your spraying done for nothing in that way, charging them enough to cover the cost and enough for some profit. That is done in some sections and is a very satisfactory way.

The only way, however, that I would do this, if I were you, would be to enter into a joint arrangement of not less than five years, because if you do it from year to year, if a man has good fruit one year, he may say, "I guess I don't want to go to that expense this year; I will drop that." You know how it is. If you make a contract for five years then you can make your plans accordingly and get your material and your spraying outfit and everything. I wouldn't trust to a one-year plan because they get "cold feet," as the saying is, after the first year, and perhaps they have not noticed any great advantage and they back out, but if they keep it up five years they wouldn't be without it.

In a small way it isn't necessary to have a high power, high pressure engine to do this spraying with. A _good_ hand pump, as they make them now, has a very efficient force in applying this spray. It is not the force with which the spray material is applied that makes it effective, so much as it is the thoroughness with which it is done. You have to do a thorough job. In spraying you are providing insurance for your apple crop. That is just what it means, and not to spray is like doing without fire insurance on your buildings. You do that, not because you want fire, but you are doing it for protection, you are going to be on the safe side. You are doing like the darkey woman when she was about to be married. She had been working as cook, and the day came for her to be married. That morning she brought a roll of bills down to the boss. She said: "Mr. Johnson, I wish you would keep this money for me. I's gwine to be married." He said: "Is that so? But why do you come to me with this? I should think having a husband you would have him take care of it for you." She said: "Lord a' massy. Do you think I was gwine to have that money around the house wid dat strange nigger there? No, sir." (Laughter.)

That lady was taking the precaution of being on the safe side, and that is what we do when we spray our orchards, we are going to be safe.

There are a great many kinds of spraying materials. There is the bordeaux, one of our best fungicides, but we find in Illinois that it also, while it is a good fungicide, has the effect sometimes of burning the fruit if the weather conditions are just right. If you have pretty fair weather conditions up here and don't have too much rain, you probably would not get your fruit affected too much, and if you are not growing it for market it doesn't matter so much because all it does is to russet the fruit. It doesn't do any particular harm except when the scab fungus is especially bad, for then it does injure the foliage more or less. On the whole, in Illinois, we are using the lime-sulphur in preference to the bordeaux, and our commercial orchard growers there have completely abandoned the bordeaux except for bitter rot fungus or blotch fungus, which comes late in the season. The spray just before the bloom is a very important one for the scab fungus. After you can see the pink of the bloom on the trees as they begin to look pink, before the blossoms open, put on your lime-sulphur, or you can use bordeaux mixture at that time if you prefer it, without injury to your fruit.

(To be continued in April No.)

Everbearing Strawberries.

GEO. J. KELLOGG, JANESVILLE, WIS.

A few words about this new breed. Progressive, Superb and Americus are the best three I have found in the last ten years--don't confound American with Americus. Pan-American was the mother of the whole tribe. This variety was found in a field of Bismark, by S. Cooper, New York, and exhibited all through the Buffalo World's Fair. There is where my first acquaintance with it was formed. From this one plant and its seedlings all the ten thousand everbearers have been grown. But Pan-American don't make many plants. There are a great many good kinds in the ten thousand, and a great many of them worthless. So look out when and where you buy. I have great hopes of your No. 1017, but kinds do not adapt themselves to all soils or climates.

I have not found any success with the everbearers south of the Ohio. I have tried them three years in Texas. I sent plants to Bro. Loring, in California, and they failed to produce satisfactorily. Missouri grows almost all Aroma; California but two kinds commercially; Texas only Excelsior and Klondike for shipment. I hope our No. 3 Minnesota June-bearing and our No. 1017 Everbearing, will have as great a range as Dunlap.

Friend Gardener, of Iowa, has a lot of "thousand dollar kinds." I hope some of them will do wonders. He sold 5,000 quarts of fruit after August 15. A firm at Three Rivers, Mich., this season advertised 30,000 cases in September, but perhaps it was only 3,000; I have known printers to make mistakes. My boy's beds of Superb, Progressive and Americus were loaded with ripe and green fruit and blossoms October 1st this year. Most, if not all, know the fruit must be kept off the everbearers the season of planting till the plants get established, usually two or three months, then let them bear. If you want all fruit, keep off the runners; if all plants, keep off the fruit. Beds kept over that have exhausted themselves will need rest till July to give big crops. Beds kept over will fruit a week earlier than the June varieties, rest a few weeks, then give a fall crop, but don't expect too much unless you feed them.

There are ten thousand kinds of new everbearers, so don't buy any that have not been tried and proven worthy. There are thousands that are worthless. Friend Haralson only got No. 1017 out of 1,500 sorts. He has now 3,000 new kinds, set out four feet apart each way, he is testing. From what many growers are doing this breed will pay commercially, but it will be by experts. I have not time to advocate cultivation in hills or hedge rows; if you want big berries this is the way to get them. Be sure your straw mulch and manure mulch are free from noxious weed or clover and grass seeds. Everbearers need the same winter care as June varieties and a good deal more manure. Don't cover with asparagus tops unless free of seed. Put manure either fresh or rotted on the old bed with a manure spreader or evenly by hand. There is a possibility of manuring too heavily.

Mr. Durand: What is the best spray for leaf-spot and rust in strawberries?

Mr. Kellogg: Cut it out and burn it, but then there are some sprays with bordeaux mixture that will help you, but you have got to put it on before the rust shows itself.

Mr. Miller: I would like to ask Mr. Kellogg if he advises covering the strawberries in the winter after snow has fallen and with what success?

Mr. Kellogg: If the snow isn't too heavy you can do it just as well after the snow comes as before, but if your snow comes early and is a foot deep you have got to wait until the January thaw before you can successfully mulch them. That snow will protect them until it thaws off, until the ground commences to freeze. If the snow comes early and stays late it is all the mulch you need.

Mr. Franklin: Are oak leaves as they blow off from the trees on the strawberry beds, are they just as good to protect them as straw would be--when there are lots of oak leaves?

Mr. Kellogg: If you don't put them on too thick. You don't want more than two inches of leaves. If you do they will mat down and smother your plants.

Mr. Ludlow: Have you had any experience with using cornstalks that have been fed off, just the stalk without the leaves. Is that sufficient for a winter protection without the straw or leaves? I put on mine just to cover them. They are four inches apart one way and then across it the other way so as to hold it up and not get them smothered.

Mr. Kellogg: That is all right. I have covered with cornstalks.

Mr. Ludlow: Would it be policy to leave that on and let the strawberries come up through, to keep them clean?

Mr. Kellogg: If you get the stalks on one way and haven't them covered too thick the other way, leave them on; the strawberries will come through.

Mr. Gowdy: I would like to ask Mr. Kellogg what he thinks of planting different varieties together.

Mr. Kellogg: It is a good plan. I spoke of Dunlap and Warfield. The Warfield is a pistillate. If you plant all Warfields you get no fruit. If you plant all Dunlap it will bear well but it will do better alongside of a pistillate, or it will do better alongside of some other perfect. It will do better to plant two or four kinds. They used to ask me what kinds of strawberries I wanted, and what was the best one kind. I told them I wanted six or eight in order to get the best kind. I want an early, and a medium, and a late, two of a kind.

Mr. Gowdy: I planted one year three varieties with great success.

Mr. McClelland: What time do you uncover your strawberries?

Mr. Kellogg: I don't uncover them at all. If you got on four inches of mulch you want to take off enough so the plants can get through, but keep on enough mulch in the spring to keep your plants clean and protect from the drouth.

Mr. McClelland: Will they come through the mulch all right?

M. Kellogg: They will come through all right if it isn't more than two inches. If they shove up and raise the mulch open it up a little over the plants.

Mr. Willard: I would like to ask the speaker, the way I understood him, why he couldn't raise as good strawberries on new ground as on old ground?

Mr. Kellogg: The soil seems to be too loose. Now, that twenty-one acres I had, it was full of leaf-mold. It was six inches deep and had been accumulating for ages. I couldn't account for it only that it was too loose, and I had to work it down with other crops before I could grow strawberries.

Mr. Willard: So it would be better to plant on old ground or old breaking than new?

Mr. Kellogg: Yes, old ground that has been well manured, or old ground that has never been manured, will grow better strawberries than new soil, as far as I have tried it. New clover soil is a good soil.

Mr. Wedge: It might add to the value of this discussion to state that Mr. Kellogg's soil at Janesville is rather light soil anyhow. I am under the impression that if his soil at Janesville which produced so poorly on new soil had been a heavy clay soil that the result would have been different.

Mr. Kellogg: That twenty-one acres was clay after you got down to it and was in the woods; my other fields were out on the prairie. I don't think the light soil had anything to do with it, with my failure in the woods, I think it was the new soil.

Mr. Sauter: Can the everbearing and the common varieties be planted together?

Mr. Kellogg: Yes, if you are growing plants you want everything.

Mr. Sauter: How far apart must they be planted?

Mr. Kellogg: So their runners won't run together, and they won't mix. If the runners mix maybe you would get some crosses that are valuable.

Mr. Clausen: I was just thinking it might interfere, that some one might not plant strawberries at all on account of new soil. I would say I have a neighbor, and he had entirely new soil. It was black oak and hickory--I have some of that myself. I never saw a better patch of strawberries than he had. I don't think I ever saw a better strawberry patch than he had of the everbearing kind, so I don't think it is just exactly the old soil.

Mr. Willis: I have my strawberries on new ground, and they did very fine, couldn't be better. From a space of five feet square I got twenty-eight boxes, that is, of No. 3.

Mr. Wedge: Forest soil or prairie?

Mr. Willis: It was light clay. I have got about an acre and a half on new soil now, and they look very fine.

Mr. Glenzke: What would be the consequence of the berries being planted after tomatoes had been planted there the year before? What would be the consequence as to the white grub that follows the tomatoes, and other insects?

Mr. Kellogg: That white grub don't follow tomatoes, if the ground was clear of white grubs before. It is a three year old grub, and it don't come excepting where the ground is a marsh or meadow, and doesn't follow in garden soil, hardly ever. If the ground has been cultivated two years, you don't have any white grub.

Mr. Glenzke: Part of this ground had been in red raspberries, and I found them there. This year I am going to put in tomatoes and prepare it for strawberries. Will that be all right?

Mr. Kellogg: You may get some white grubs after the raspberry bushes if your raspberries have been two or three years growing. Potato ground is the best you can follow strawberries with.

Mr. Rasmussen (Wisconsin): What trouble have you experienced with overhead irrigation with the strawberries in the bright sunshine?

Mr. Kellogg: Everything is against it. You wet the foliage, and it is a damage to the plants. You can't sprinkle in the hot sun without damage.

Mr. Rasmussen: I didn't mean in putting it on in that way, but where you use the regular spray system. We watered that way about seven years in the hottest sunshine without any difficulty, and I wondered if you ever put in a system and sprayed that way, as I think that is the only way to put water on.

Mr. Kellogg: If you wait to spray after sundown it will be all right; the sun mustn't shine on the plants.

Mr. Richardson: Mr. Yankee once said in this society if one man said anything another man would contradict it. So pay your money and take your choice. I sprinkle my strawberries in the hot sun, and I never had any damage done to the plants. His experience is different. Ours is a heavy clay loam.

Mr. Kellogg: Tell the gentlemen about the peat soil, you had some experience with peat soil.

Mr. Richardson: No, I never did. It wasn't peat, it was a heavy black clay and I had the best kind of strawberries, they came right through a tremendous drouth without any water at all.

Mr. Kellogg: What did you use?

Mr. Richardson: I used a common garden hoe.

Mr. Willis: I heard some one talking about the grub worm. I read of somebody using fifty pounds of lime to the acre, slaked lime, and 100 pounds of sulphur to the acre in a strawberry bed, and he killed the insects.

Mr. Kellogg: I think that wouldn't kill the grub; he has a stomach that will stand most anything. The only thing I know is to cut his head off. (Laughter.)

Mr. Willis: Would it improve the plants, fertilize the plants, this lime?

Mr. Kellogg: Lime and sulphur is all right, and the more lime you put on the better--if you don't get too much. (Laughter.)

Mr. Sauter: I am growing the Minnesota No. 3, and also the No. 1017 as an everbearer. Is there any kind better than those two?

Mr. Kellogg: I don't believe there is anything yet that has been offered or brought out that I have examined thoroughly that is any better than June variety No. 3, as grown by Haralson, and the No. 1017 of the everbearers. He had a number of everbearers that bore too much. There was No. 107 and No. 108, I think, that I tried at Lake Mills, which bore themselves to death in spite of everything I could do.

Mr. Simmons: The question has come up two or three times in regard to peat soil for growing strawberries. Peat soil will grow strawberry plants first class, but the fruit is generally lacking. That is my experience. I grew some on peat soil for two or three seasons, and the plants grew prolific, but I didn't get any fruit.

Mr. Ebler: I would like to ask Mr. Kellogg what treatment he would advise for a strawberry bed that through neglect has matted completely over, in which the rows have disappeared.

Mr. Kellogg: Plow out paths and rake out the plants and throw them away and work the bed over to rows about two feet wide.

President Cashman: I see you all appreciate expert advice. We have Mr. Kellogg well nigh tired.

Mr. Kellogg: Oh, no; I can stand it all day.

Mr. Cashman: I am sure you all agree that it is a great privilege to listen to Mr. Kellogg on this subject. If you will follow his advice very closely it will save you a great many dollars, even to those who don't grow more than an ordinary family strawberry bed. He has had forty or fifty years of experience, and he has paid large sums of money for that experience and now turns it over to you free of charge, and I hope you will all profit by it.

Mr. Kellogg: I have grown probably 300 different varieties of strawberries, and the more kinds I grow the less money I make. (Laughter.)

Mr. Wedge: I would like to ask Mr. Kellogg and I think we would all be interested in knowing when he began growing strawberries?

Mr. Kellogg: Well, I don't hardly know. I didn't go into the business until 1852, but I commenced picking strawberries in 1835, and that was where the Indians had planted them. My father commenced growing strawberries when I was a boy, but when I got to be a man I went at it myself in 1852. (Applause.)

_IN MEMORIAM--Mrs. Melissa J. Harris_

Passed January 29, 1916.

Mrs. Melissa J. Harris, widow of the late John S. Harris, one of the charter members of our society and rightly called the godfather of the society, passed to her reward on January 29 last, at the age of eighty-five years. Since the death of her husband, which occurred in March, 1901, Mrs. Harris has made her home with some one of her four surviving children, all of whom live in the southeastern part of the state, not far from La Crescent, where Mr. and Mrs. Harris resided from 1856 up to the time of Mr. Harris' death, some forty-five years.

Many of the older members of this society have enjoyed the hospitality of this kindly home, among them the writer, who passed a very pleasant day there, looking over the experimental orchards of Mr. Harris, some twenty years ago. No member of our society surpassed Mr. Harris in his zeal for its welfare, and he was ready to sacrifice anything apparently to advance its interests. If the card index of the reports of this society was examined it would be found that no member has begun to do the service for the society in the way of contributions to its program, reports on seedling fruits, experimental work, etc., that was done by him. His passing left a real void in the life of the association which has never really been filled. A splendid life size photo of Mr. Harris adorns the walls of this office; a reproduction from this in reduced size is opposite page 161, Vol. 1901 of our annual reports.

The funeral services of Mrs. Harris were conducted in the Presbyterian church at La Crescent, the same building in which services were held for her husband, at which there were present from our society as representatives Mr. J.M. Underwood, the late Wyman Elliot, and the writer. Her body was laid to rest beside that of her husband in Prospect Hill Cemetery at La Crescent.

Mrs. Harris is survived by four children, ten grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. Frank I. Harris, one of the two sons, is well known to our membership who attend the annual meetings or the state fair; another son, Eugene E., who is also a life member (Mr. Harris saw to it that both of his sons were made life members during his life time) has occasionally been with us. Mr. D.C. Webster, of La Crescent, at present in charge of one of the society trial stations, is a grandson of Mrs. Harris. Exhibitors at our meetings and at the state fair are all well acquainted with this valuable member of our organization.--Secy.

EAT MINNESOTA APPLES.

Contributed monthly by R. S. MACKINTOSH, Horticulturist, Extension Division, University Farm, St. Paul.

FRUIT NOTES.

Early spring is the best time to prune apple trees. More and more attention is being given to the pruning of young and old trees in order that they may be able to support large loads of fruit. Yet too many trees have been neglected and now look like brush heaps instead of fruit trees.

Neglected trees should have all dead and interlocking branches removed this year. Next year a few more needless branches should be taken out and some of the others shortened. After this a little attention each year will keep the tree in good form.

Each year the Agricultural Extension Division of the University of Minnesota arranges for pruning and spraying demonstrations in different orchards of the state. Communities wishing this kind of help, should at once send in petitions signed by fifteen or more persons interested in fruit growing. Send applications to Director, Agricultural Extension Division, University Farm, St. Paul.

Pruning is a good subject for farmers' clubs to take up in March and April.

Look out for rabbit injury this spring. Apple trees cost too much

GARDEN HELPS

Conducted by Minnesota Garden Flower Society

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

_Cypripedia_, by Miss Clara Leavitt.

The showy lady's slipper (C. hirsutum) is found in swamps and rich meadows. Old settlers tell of gathering the pink and white "moccasin flower" by the bushel, to decorate for some special occasion. Today we are trying to shield a few in their last hiding places. The draining of swamps and cutting of meadows has had much to do with their disappearance. The picking of the leafy stem by the ruthless "flower lover" cripples the plant for a season or more and frequently kills it outright. Attempts to transfer it to the home garden have succeeded for a year or so but rarely longer, perhaps because its native habitat is very difficult to duplicate.

The small yellow lady's slipper (C. parviflorum), found in bogs, and the large yellow (C. parviflorum var. pubescens), growing on hillsides and in rich woods, as well as in swamps, are the most widely distributed and best known of this genus. They have often been transferred from the wild to the home garden. Where they have been given their native soil and environment the stock has increased and seedlings have developed. They have even been brought into conservatory or window garden and forced to flower in February.

The crimson stemless lady's slipper (C. acaule) is found in drier woods and on the stump knolls of swamps in certain locations. It has with difficulty been established in a few gardens.

The small white lady's slipper (C. candidum) occurs locally in boggy meadows. It is a very dainty plant. It grows in at least one wild garden.

The ram's head lady slipper (C. arietinum) is very rare and local. It is a very delicate and pretty thing, purple and white in color.

All of these species are to be seen in season in the Wild Garden of the Minneapolis Park System.

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Committee on the protection of Cypripedia: Mrs. Phelps Wyman, chairman; Miss Clara Leavitt, Miss M. G. Fanning, Mrs. C. E. C. Hall, Mrs. E. C. Chatfield, Mr. Guy Hawkins.

* * * * *

Our plant exchange should be of great benefit to our members, such a fine beginning having been made last spring. Send a list of the plants you have for exchange and those you would like to receive to our secretary. These will be posted upon the bulletin board at our meetings, where exchanges can be arranged between the members.

* * * * *

March 23. Public Library, Minneapolis, 2:30 p.m. Meeting of Garden Flower Society. Program:

Our Garden Enemies. Cultural Directions for Trial Seeds. Distribution of Trial Seeds. Minnesota Cypripedia. Have they responded to Cultivation?

BEE-KEEPER'S COLUMN

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

IMPORTANCE OF GOOD QUEENS.

The government census of 1910 gives the average of honey production per colony for the State of Minnesota at five pounds per colony. Allowing for mistakes which were made in making up this census, there is no doubt that the average amount of honey produced by a colony is not nearly as high as efficient beekeeping would make it. When some well known beekeepers will average year after year fifty, seventy and even a hundred pounds per colony, there must be something wrong with those who fall far below this amount.

There are many causes responsible for this failure of honey crops. Bad management, no management at all, antiquated or impossible equipment, locality, etc., are all factors contributing towards a shortage in the honey crop, but poor queens are the most universal cause of disappointment. The queen being the mother of the whole colony of bees, the hive will be what she is. If she is of a pure, industrious, gentle, hardy and prolific strain, the colony over which she presides will be uniform, hard working, easy to handle, easy to brave the inclemency of the weather and the severity of our winters, and populous in bees. The bees partake of the characteristics of the queen.

The fact of the matter is, that more than 90% of our Minnesota queens are either black Germans or hybrids, neither of which lend themselves to pleasant and profitable beekeeping. Having been inbred for years will make them still less valuable, and most of them have been inbred for generations.

Among many things in which the beekeepers of Minnesota should begin to improve their beekeeping possibilities, the necessity of good queens comes first. With a new strain of pure, gentle, industrious, leather colored Italian bees, their love for beekeeping should receive a new impetus, leading them to better equipment and better management.