2l8 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. A. J. Philips (Wis.) : I don't see why you should want 

 to call me professor. I don't think I have anything- to say. I think 

 Prof. Hansen made the best speech on blight that has been made 

 today. I think we have fooled away a half hour for nothing. 



Mr. Underwood : You had better sit down then. 



Mr. Philips : Yes, I thought the same thing when you were 

 up. (Laughter.) I made a fellow mad once in a meeting of a 

 horticultural society. He got up and said, "Mr. President, I have 

 been studying this blight question thoroughly, and I have discover- 

 ed how we can stop it on the limbs of the trees every time, but I 

 have not found out how to stop it on the butt of the tree. I would 

 like to have some man tell me how to stop it on the butt of the tree." 

 I said, "You are like the man trying to get religion. He said he 

 could not get it, he had tried for a week, and the preacher told him 

 he had religion since Saturday night and did not know it." By 

 the way, he carried around with him a Hyslop to show the 

 blight. I said, "You have stopped the blight and don't know it. 

 There is no surer way of stopping blight than by cutting the tree 

 off at the ground." (Laughter.) He asked me if I thought he 

 was a fool. I have talked with governors and with senators at 

 Washington, and I don't know any more what blight is or how to 

 get rid of it than I did before. 



The Chairman : I don't agree with Mr. Philips when he says 

 we have not got anything out of tliis discussion this morning. I 

 believe this has been a very profitable half hour we have spent in 

 discussing this question of blight, and I believe we have got some- 

 thing of value out of it. The remarks have been clear, scientific 

 and practical, and when this matter is properly edited and presented 

 in our report I think you will be really glad to have taken part in it. 



Don't Prune! — Most amateurs worn,- themselves over what they con- 

 sider the intricate problem of pruning. My advice is simply this: Don't 

 prune! Avoid the annual trimming that ruins so many of our gardens. There 

 are many more shrubs ruined by the pruning mania than by any one cause, 

 and the worst part of it all is that the damage is suffered by just those people 

 who would most appreciate having a few good shrubs. After the thinning out 

 of surplus specimens the only attention that the shrubbery- needs is a thinning 

 out of the old growth to make room for the new s -ason's wood, and, of course, 

 the removal of any dead or dying branches. Rt-member that shrubs do not 

 need the attention of the pruner to make them grow; pruning is only a means 

 to make the garden look neater. And remember this golden rule: "Prune 

 after flowering." This means that a late flowering shrub like the hydrangea 

 can be pruned in the spring because the flowers are produced on the growths 

 that it will make in the summer, but it is just as satisfactory to prune it in the 

 wintertime. The early flowering shrubs that flower on the growths of the 

 previous season may be pruned in the spring, but not until after they have 

 done flowering. Therefore spireas, lilacs, deutzias, go'den bells, and such 

 like, must not be cut back if you want to have flowers the same season They 

 will in all probability' require some reduction of the top, but it must be done by 

 reducing the number of the growths, rather than by shoitening. — Leonard 

 Barron in April Garden Magazine. 



