92 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



In plum culture I am somewhat discouraged. Highly recom- 

 mended varieties, such as the Abundance, German Prune, Surprise 

 and DeSoto have been killed the first winter or die a lingering death 

 before bearing. 



One lone peach tree has lived through three winters, and I hope 

 to raise my first peach next season. 



Three quince trees set in the spring of 1905 have lived but proved 

 slow growers. 



My Concord grape vines, that produced some fruit last year, 

 failed to produce a bunch this year, although I laid the vines down 

 and trimmed them last fall and gave a good cover, I will reverse my 

 treatment of them this fall and leave them on the trellis. 



Gooseberries of the Houghton and Downing varieties bore 

 large, nice, smooth berries profusely, and I consider them among 

 my best small fruits. Currant bushes have produced well. 



Raspberries fruited fairly well without laying down in winter. 



While on the subject of apple trees I omitted to mention the fact 

 that there was little or no blight among apple trees this year, while 

 last nearly every variety of a bearing age blighted badly. 



I still hold that apple tree blight does not come from the sting 

 of " bee," "bug" or "bacteria," but from the lack of sap food, from 

 a lack of root system, and from too great growth of foliage. Two 

 of my Transcendent apple trees blighted quite badly, growing in my 

 garden on a south cant. I cut off all the blighted twigs and hung 

 them among the foliage of unblighted trees in August, to test the 

 theory that blight could be conveyed from one tree to another, and 

 at this writing there is not a sign of any blight on any tree where 

 the blighted twigs hung. 



The extreme wet season and the scarcity of help has caused many 

 things to go undone in farming, gardening and horticulture that 

 otherwise would have been done. This will have to be put down 

 as an off year throughout Minnesota. 



Capt. A. H. Reed : I have made it my principal effort to produce 

 hardy apples. The Hibernal is the only apple tree I have that 

 bore to any extent this past season. I have become in love with 

 that variety, and if its eating quality was as good as its bearing 

 quality it would be an ideal apple. It has borne profusely for the 

 last three years. My Wealthy and Patten Greening were scabby 

 this year. In fact, no other tree but the Hibernal bore a fair crop. 

 Of the Compass cherry I wish to say that I have been experimenting 

 with it for the last six years. The one tree that I have, six years 

 old, had borne profusely for the previous four years, but it gave 

 way this season under a heavy load of fruit. The leaves turned 

 vellow, and I cut back the tree considerablv to save it. That cherry 



