330 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Merritt : I want to ask Mr. Yahnke if he does not think 

 that plums should be picked for market, for shipping purposes 

 particularly, instead of being shaken off on a sheet or anything else. 

 Do you know that if you shake a plum upon a sheet, and it falls 

 any distance, in a very large plum it will be likely to start the juice 

 around the stem, and it will be but a very short time before that 

 little drop will affect the other plums, and soon the basket or what- 

 ever receptacle tlie plums may be in will be an awful looking mess. 



Mr. Yahnke : In some cases it would be better to hand-pick 

 them, but where you have too many plums on hand you can't do it. 



Mr. Elliot : Mr. Yahnke spoke of the mulch with which nature 

 mulches every fall. That mulch remains there, and why do not the 

 roots come to the surface? In case of drouth, where we have ex- 

 cessive drouth, if the mulch is not put on until spring or summer 

 you will not get any benefit from that mulching, because the mulch 

 takes up every little shower that comes along and the roots do not 

 receive the benefit of that moisture. But in the other case the mulch 

 is there all the time, and it works no detriment to the roots when a 

 shower does come. 



Mr. Martin : What kind of mulch would you recommend to 

 put around fruit trees? 



Mr. Yahnke : I use all kinds of mulch ; it does not make much 

 difference, anything that shuts off the air and keeps in the moisture. 

 The refuse from sugarcane mills, straw, old hay or anything that 

 will serve the purpose I mentioned can be used. Manure is good 

 if you want to enrich the ground, and clover is also good for the 

 same purpose. 



Question: ''What is the best way to destroy moles?" 

 Prof. Washburn : The gentleman who asked that question is 

 laboring under a mistake ; the mole does not gnaw fruit trees. The 

 pocket gopher works on the roots and the field mice gnaw trees, 

 but I will give a dollar for every piece of fruit tree gnawed by a 

 mole. This subject will be treated of in the next bulletin. The 

 moles make unsightly ridges in our lawns, but that is the only in- 

 jurious thing about him. 



Question: "'What is the best way to destroy angle worms in 

 the soil?" 



Prof. Robertson : I never found any good reason for destroy- 

 ing angle worms unless they became too thick on the sidewalks. 

 The angle worm does a great dealof good for those lazy people 

 who do not dig up their ground. Lime will kill them, but you 

 don't want to kill them. They do absolutely no harm, but on the 

 contrary they do a great deal of good. 



