JEFFERS TRIAL STATION^ ANNUAL REPORT, I906. 95 



whether they were growing upon high or low land, but they suc- 

 ceeded a little better on the higher land. The hemlock spruce we 

 have had but four or five years, and so far they are not succeeding 

 any better than the white pine. The bull pine (Pinus ponderosa) is 

 not doing any better. Of all the pines the Scotch is doing the best. 

 The Colorado blue spruce (Picea pungens) and the Concolor are 

 proving a success and are our finest ornamental trees. The Amer- 

 ican white spruce is a grand success ; we consider it our best all 

 round evergreen, especially for shelter belts. Next in value for wind- 

 breaks we would place the Black Hills spruce and the native black 

 spruce. The latter named variety has the bad habit of holding its 

 cones year after year. The Norway spruce is not hardy in exposed 

 locations but with some shelter is a grand success. The western 

 sand cherry (Prunus pumila), which were so promising a few 

 years ago, have failed to give us any fruit the past three or four 

 seasons, owing to its all rotting before getting ripe. We consider 

 it a failure. 



The bufifalo berry has also failed with us. We have no use for 

 the fruit, and the bushes die apparently without cause about the 

 time they get to bearing well. The Russian olive (Eleagnus 

 angustifolia) also fails about the time it gets to bearing nicely. 

 It is not hardy here. 



The winter of 1905-6 was not a very trying one on fruit trees 

 and was in no sense a test winter ; therefore we cannot say very 

 much about the hardiness of varieties. 



We find it is important to have a windbreak about an orchard 

 and fruit garden, especially on the north and west sides of it, but 

 not a dense windbreak. The orchard seems healthier when the air 

 circulates freely through all parts of it. The cottonwood does well 

 with us; it soon loses its lower branches, and we think it makes the 

 best of windbreaks for the apple and plum orchard. 



Mr. Dewain Cook : This station is in Cottonwood County, out 

 on the prairie, on the highest point in Minnesota. I 

 understand that it is about seven hundred feet higher there than it 

 is here. It is a very flat country where I am. It has many of 

 these little bog holes and considerable alkali. A gentlemen spoke 

 yesterday about certain fruits that could be raised on alkali soil. 

 The fact is the growth will not start as early in the spring and 

 grows later in the fall. The wood does not mature so well in that 

 alkali soil as it does in clear soil, but there are lots of varieties that 

 do well in that soil that do not do well in the other. During one of 

 those test' winters we had years ago trees that were two hundred 

 miles west of the Mississippi river did not kill as badly as those 

 near the river. Mv idea is that those trees out there grew on the 



