204 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Elliot : They were prepared in October and placed in 

 the root house in just ordinary soil in an upright position. They 

 were somewhat calloused in the spring. 



Mr. C. S. Harrison : Do you ever plant them in the fall? 



Mr. Elliot : I have experimented a good deal in planting in 

 the fall. On sandy soil I used to plant a good many in the fall, 

 but when I came to put them on clay soil they were apt to heave 

 out by the frost unless I took special pains to cover them very 

 deep. For that reason I prefer planting in the spring. 



Mr. S. D. Richardson : I have had very good success in 

 planting them in the fall and covering them. Our soil is very 

 heavy, but not heavy clay. I planted them early enough so they 

 would leaf out once in a while and callous and make some roots. 

 I have had good success in the fall planting. 



Mr. L. R. Moyer : Where can you get the six tined hook you 

 spoke of? 



Mr. Elliot : At almost any hardware store or implement 

 house. It is the most useful tool a man can have on the farm. I 

 have seen them with eight tines. The first experience I had with 

 that kind of a hook was with the old Hexamer hoe some twenty- 

 five years ago. I have one of them now. Those were made with 

 a cast iron head wedged in with an iron wedge. Hexamer was 

 one of the most noted gardeners in New York, and I believe he 

 was the inventor of that kind of a hoe. 



GARDEN EXPERIMENTS. 



T. T. BACHELLER, MINNEAPOLIS. 



In attempting a paper on garden experiments, as in per- 

 forming the work indicated, I am reminded of a statement made 

 by our own practical and energetic co-worker. Prof. Green, in an 

 article once furnished us for publication, which was as follows : 



"The many varying conditions of soil, climate and markets 

 make it necessary that every progressive farmer should carry on 

 many experiments, so that, in effect, every intelligent farmer is 

 the director of an experiment station." 



Experience and common sense both teach us that many of the 

 most common facts we must reckon with in every day life are as 

 yet imperfectly understood by any of us. We are extremely glad 

 that we can count upon the certainty of action of those laws 

 which are fixed so that we can know that "like produces like" and 

 that similar causes produce similar effects, as a rule. But we also 

 know that there is another fact in nature, concerning which the 

 writer acknowledges his utter inability to instruct others, by 



