70 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



VICE-PRESIDENT'S REPORT, SIXTH CONG. DIST. 



W. L. TAYLOR, HOWARD LAKE. 



The season of 1904 will be known as the wet season. Straw- 

 berry plants were injured by the cold winter, but those that sur- 

 vived promised a large crop. Just as the first picking was on there 

 came a hailstorm that spoiled all the ripe berries and stripped off 

 part of the leaves from the fruit trees to such an extent that our 

 apples were not only under size but badly specked with hail. As a 

 consequence we had no fruit to send to the fairs or bring to this 

 meeting. Notwithstanding the hail we had quite a crop of medium 

 sized berries, mostly Bederwood, Warfield and Crescent. The Dun- 

 lap did nicely, and we will plant more of them next year. 



The Wealthy still holds its own ; one of our neighbors had about 

 125 bushels on his town lot. The Northwestern Greenings that 

 bore so many apples last year mostly died this summer, so we con- 



Col. Jorgenson and partial view of fruit exhibit at McLeod County fair, 1904. 



eluded that the young trees ought not to be allowed to overbear. 

 This applies to other varieties as well. Okabena did well again 

 this year, and while this may not prove to be the best apple on 

 earth I think it is a good tree to have in every orchard. At the 

 different fairs that I visited I saw greater displays of apples than 

 ever before brought in by farmers. At the Hutchinson fair a new 

 addition was made to the hall for the display of fruit only, and it 

 was supposed to be large enough for many years to come, but it was 

 soon filled, and more space had to be found for fruit. Here was 

 shown the influence of our beloved Pendergast, and I thought that 

 "He being dead yet speaketh," and I could not rest until his photo- 

 graph adorned the hall above the fruit display from his old orchard. 

 At the Howard Lake, Cokato and Dassel fairs more than twice the 

 amount of space was taken in the display of apples than ever be- 

 fore. Varieties shown, were: Wealthy, Duchess, Hibernal, Char- 

 lamof, Anisim, Red Anis, Peerless. Patten's Greening, Northwest- 



