142 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



have been disappointed. The canes of many varieties, as of the 

 Loudon, Cuthbert and Turner, were frozen and frustrated the ex- 

 pectations of the growers. 



Although the strazvberries were far from giving good returns, 

 yet wherever care was taken to cover them, they have been decidedly 

 better in general than other small fruits. It seems the thaw of Feb- 

 ruary and the severe weather of March worked havoc in the straw- 

 berry beds, and later on the yield was materially reduced to one- 

 half or one-third of a crop by frost or too much rain, but on well- 

 drained ground the crop was very fine with some. 



As the cultivated fruits have been only a partial success with 

 most of the growers, it may also be said that even other fruits grow- 

 ing spontaneously in this district, as blackberries, raspberries, goose- 

 berries, highbush cranberries, wild plums and grapes, etc., have 

 not been as plentiful as usual, at least not "in Stearns county. The 

 cause is ascribed to the cold of May and June and to the late frost 

 of the past spring. 



Nursery stock has been planted throughout the district in gener- 

 al, but, as reports indicate, it was light in the southern counties 

 but larger in the northern. I have also learned that apple trees 

 have varied in price from ten cents to $1.25 a tree. The stock is 

 growing very well and is very promising for future returns, "until 

 old winter gets it," as one party humorously remarks. 



I may report here to the society of the twelve apple trees, grafted 

 on Pyrus baccata, received from the experiment station and planted 

 in 1905. These have been cultivated during the entire season of 

 1905 and 1906, and most of them at present are doing well. Three 

 of them, however, died ; but one, which had the bark peeled off last 

 winter, grew again and .is now four feet high. The others grew 

 from five to twenty-two inches last year, and this year increased 

 eighteen inches to two and one-half feet. 



Last spring I received thirteen more trees grafted on Pyrus bac- 

 cata, and at present I find that these are doing well except one, 

 which very likely will die before the coming spring. The six ap- 

 ple seedlings, presented by Mr. Wyman Elliot, have been carefully 

 placed in the nursery and are doing fairly well. 



Last season in this district the blight was not of any serious coo- 

 sequence, and it showed in the Transcendent crab and Yellow Trans- 

 parent a little only. Although a number of apple trees died, I do 

 not think it was blight that killed them. Many growers aim to 

 give good air circulation and prevent too rapid growth of new wood 

 by letting clover grow between the trees. Nothing else, however, 

 is done to prevent blight, and even blight-stricken branches are not 



