Transactions at the Annual Meeting. Ill 



the bunches of grapes enclosed in them enough, if any, better to 

 pay for the trouble. 



We should be ungrateful to the Wisconsin Horticultural Society 

 if we did not acknowledge our success with the mulching of straw- 

 berry plants as advocated and acquiesced in at the last winter 

 meeting. The plan was to leave the winter mulching undisturbed 

 until the fruit was grown. This would keep the fruit clean from 

 the dirt usually spattered on the fruit by the rains. It would 

 keep the ground moist and furnish the plants with moisture when 

 so much needed. It would maintain fertility of the right sort. 

 Lastly, and happily, it would save labor by keeping down weeds, 

 and, withal, it would be much easier to let it alone than to remove 

 it. I frankly acknowledge that this saving of labor was the con- 

 sideration that warmly commended it to my judgment. I did not 

 think, however, that " as for me and my house," the labor saving 

 would go one degree farther and relieve us of all trouble in 

 picking the fruit as it really did last season. 



Our experiment was so complete that we had no berries to pick 

 on beds where we left the mulching. Why? Because the 

 weather was very wet and cool, and on our clay soil the mulching 

 held too much water and kept the beds too cool. We saved the 

 labor anyway, so we are grateful. The greatest degree of cold 

 here this winter so far is — 29°, against — 40° in the vallies. 



FIFTH DISTRICT — E. W. DANIELS, AURORAVILLE. 



Counties — Green Lake, Waushara, Marquette and Winne- 

 bago. — In physical geography of our fifth district, the east half of 

 Waushara, all of Winnebago and Green Lake, are mostly good 

 grain and fruit growing soils ; some stiff clay, but mostly clay 

 and sandy loams, gravelly knolls, with hay and cranberry marshes ; 

 but Marquette and the west half of Waushara are diversified with 

 light sand and fertile bottom lands, susceptible of producing the 

 hardier varieties of apples, and any amount of the crab. 



There would have been an abundant crop of fruit in the last 

 named counties the last season, but for one or two powerful wind 

 and hail storms which swept over them, destroying trees and 

 fruit. But the east half of Waushara, Winnebago and Green 



