50 ANNUAL REPORT 



Serious damage from drouth frequently occurs during the season the plants are 

 set ; judicious selection and preparation of soil and cultivation seem to be ahout 

 our only means of obviating it. To this end the soil should naturally be moist 

 and cool, but not wet ; sufficiently fertile, and thoroughly pulverized in preparing 

 for planting. Persistent cultivation must then l)e maintained, especially so as ta 

 keep a good surface mulch of finely pulverized soil. 



For this purpose we prepare steel-toothed harrows, adjustaljle to the width of 

 the rows, the teeth so made and set as to do the work perfectly, and passed 

 through often enough to destroy all weeds in embryo or infancy ; and after each 

 and every rain, so soon as the ground is in condition. The best results can only 

 be attained by keeping the plants singly in the row, or in quite narrow matted 

 rows. This character of cultivation also modifies changes in temperature, resist- 

 ing the heat of the day and the cold at night. 



In this connection I will allude to the practice of winter protection, giving pos- 

 sibly varying results in different localities. Our experience induced us to apply 

 it earl}^, entirely ignoring the oft-repeated recommendation to wait until the 

 ground was hard frozen — so soon as the plants were fairly matured, and the fruit 

 buds well developed. Covering with straw, one or two inches in thickness over 

 the entire surface ; from two to four weeks solid freezing weather producing so 

 far as was descernible no injurj^, but in all cases modifying the bad effects of the- 

 cold, dry winds prevalent at that season. 



In localities where alternate freezing and thawing frequently occurs this artifi- 

 cial covering is practically indispensable. In the Spring, when removing a portion 

 of this mulch from the plants, care should be taken to leave all that thej^ will easily 

 pushup through, thickening up that already in the paths with it. For in this mulch 

 we again have one of our chief defenses against drouth during the fruiting season. 



Adverse temperature, as manifested in Spring frosts, is a source of serious 

 loss, as it destroys the germ of the fruit in the bloom, or sometimes almost full- 

 grown fruit, plantations in valleys and on wide stretches of table land suffering 

 most ; those on bluffs and ridges of land comparatively higher than that immedi.. 

 ately around it often escaping the slightest injury. 



Considerable bodies of water, as lakes and rivers, greatly modify temperature as 

 well as moisture, in notable localities shielding the tender germ of the peach 

 against winter's fiercest blast, in many other tempering the late polar waves in. 

 spring until their lu'cath is harmless ujjon the tenderest fiower. 



These facts are of importance to everyone wishing to grow fruit of almost any 

 kind, who has any opportunity to make choice of site, and are of great and 

 growing moment to that large and rapidly increasing class who are depend- 

 ent upon the general fruit supply ; for that supply can only be adequately and 

 regularly met 1)y the fruit grower who knows well how to avail himself of these 

 stepping stones to his own success. 



The history of the strawberry in 3Iinnesota, as set forth in the puV)lished trans- 

 actions of this society, shows that failures are almost universally attrilmted to 

 conditions of temperature, rather than to any want of intelligent cultivation. 



Spring frosts have not proved .so serious as winter killing of the plants, at 

 least there are. many localities almost exempt from them. Winter killing is more 

 general and wide spread when it does occur, and calls for intelligent observation 



