DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 61 



VEGETABLE AND FKUIT GARDEN'. 



While most crops grown in the fruit and vegetable gardens were pri- 

 marily experimental, they served to illustrate the planting and handling 

 of the various small fruits and vegetables, and the surplus products were 

 harvested and sold to boarding clubs and members of the faculty. Except 

 that some of the vegetables upon low grounds were seriously injured by 

 the heavy rains of August, 1897, the crops of that year were in the main 

 satisfactory, and the season of 1898 up to the present time has been very 

 favorable for the growth of nearly all of the garden crops. The straw- 

 berries made a good showing up to the time picking began, but the 

 weather for a number of days was very hot. so that the ripening period 

 was hastened and the picking season shortened. The other small fruits 

 are in a promising condition. The work of gathering, selling and deliver- 

 ing of fruits and vegetables has been almost entirely performed by the 

 students. 



THE ORCHARDS. 



As with the vegetable and fruit gardens, planting in the orchards for 

 the past ten years has been largely of new varieties whose value we wish 

 to test, so that the products have been much less satisfactory than would 

 have been the case had an equal area been devoted to standard sorts. 

 Owing to the general failure of the apple crop in 1897, the amount of this 

 fruit secured w T as comparatively small, being less than two hundred bush- 

 els of marketable fruit. The pears gave an excellent crop upon the older 

 trees in 1897, and promise to do even better this year. The peach trees 

 were so injured during the winter of 1896-7, that the fruit buds were en- 

 tirely destroyed and no fruit was obtained the following summer. In the 

 spring of 1897 the trees were shortened in. and a new growth started 

 from the lower branches. The trees are now in excellent condition, and 

 most of them promise a fair crop this fall. When the leaves appeared last 

 spring they were attacked by "curl leaf," but this was controlled by spray- 

 ing, at an expense of one to two cents per tree. 



GROUNDS. 



For a number of years the lawns have been severely injured by the lack 

 of water owing to the drouth, and the fact that the college water system 

 is inadequate to furnish the amount required for watering them, excep* 

 about the residences and a few buildings, but except for a few days the 

 rainfall in 1897 was such as to keep them in a fresh and growing condi- 

 tion, and the same is true to the present time this year. 



In the spring, numerous additions were made to the shrubbery groups 

 west of the President's house and about the Library, and Horticultural 

 Laboratory, as well as in other places. 



In the fall of 1897, the street car line was extended from the west 

 entrance to a point between Station Terrace and the residence of the 

 professor of English Literature, and the department teams did the grad- 

 ing for the track. The entrance of the line at this point made it neces- 



