ANNUAL REPORT, I906, VICE-PRES., SECOND CONG. DIST. I3I 



a few locations where they do not blight too badly. The list is not 

 a long one. 



Perennial Floivers: Perennial phlox, peonies, Japan iris, Ger- 

 man and Chinese iris, gaillardias, blue and white larkspur, bleeding 

 heart, are some of the best known. 



In hardy ornamental shrubs, we have syringas in several vari- 

 eties, as syringa Japonica, syringa grandiflora, Chinese lilac, Japan 

 tree and lilac vulgaris, and Persian lilac, spirea Van Houttii, spirea 

 aurea, spirea prunifolium, flowering almond, hydrangea P. G., snow- 

 ball, upright and climbing honeysuckle, and many more that are 

 hardy and beautiful. 



The trees generally planted are the varieties recommended by the 

 society. A few seedling orchards are coming into bearing, but noth- 

 ing of marked value has yet been developed. 



Two Minute Talk. 



Mr. C. E. Older : The general report from the district is that 

 there has been a medium crop of apples ; at some places there has 

 been a heavy crop, at others almost a failure, on the whole a very un- 

 even crop, with very little blight, with no effort made, with one or 

 two exceptions, at spraying. One man, Mr. Mohl, of Adrian, 

 sprayed with dust spray, and, he thinks, with good results. The con- 

 dition of the trees this fall upon going into winter quarters is excel- 

 lent — every report says first-class or excellent. There is plenty of 

 moisture in the soil, in fact, there is a little too much moisture. The 

 strawberry crop on the whole was about medium. Plums were 

 about the same all over the district. At some places they were very 

 light and others very heavy. Worthington reports the finest crop in 

 its history. 



Mr. Geo. W. Strand : I would like to ask Mr. Older what va- 

 rieties of plums he considers the best for his section ? 



Mr. Older : Do you want me to say what I consider the best 

 or what the correspondents name? 



Mr. Strand : Well, generally. 



Mr. Older : The correspondents name the Miner, Forest Gar- 

 den, DeSoto and the Wolf ; most of them have named these plums. ' 

 One correspondent mentions the Cheney and the Compass cherry. 

 We think the DeSoto, Wolf, Wyant and Forest Garden are the 

 best. There are quite a number of new seedlings that have come 

 out which are very promising, but none very large. We want a 

 seedling to be large as well as good in quality. 



Mr. Geo. J. Kellogg (Wis.) : How about the Surprise? 



Mr. Older : Only medium. In four years I have had one me- 

 dium crop, one failure and the other two light. Trees look very 

 well. 



Mr. A. Brackett : What remedy do you use for the plum pocket? 



Mr. Older : We endeavor to pick them from the trees in 

 sacks. I say sacks, because we had whole sacks full. We spray 

 with Bordeaux mixture. We burn the pockets. We did not have 



