150 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Kellogg (Wis.) : Oh, yes, a fairly good size. (Laughter.) 



Mr. Brackett : What variety were they ? 



Mr. Westman : I don't know what they were. 



Mr. Kellogg : I take it from your remarks that it was a dam- 

 age to you to come down to the convention last winter. 



Mr. Westman: Yes, it was a damage. (Laughter). I heard 

 a man say here last winter that he raised a hundred quarts to the 

 square rod, and I said to myself that I was twenty-five years be- 

 hind the times, but I think probably I can catch up. I am a stone 

 cutter by trade, and I am doing this work more for recreation than 

 anything else. 



Mr. Brackett : In what condition are your strawberries now ? 



Mr. Westman : Most of the strawberries are covered with 

 about ten inches of ice. 



The President : That is a bad covering. 



Mr. Westman: I think it is a fine covering. (Laughter.) 



ANNUAL REPORT, 1906, VICE-PRESIDENT, NINTH 

 CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. 



OLE J. HAGEN. HENDRUM. 



On the level lands of the Red River Valley the crops of small 

 fruit were very light on account of constant heavy rains ; Nor- 

 man and Clay counties seem to have suffered the most. Last year, 

 i. e. in spring of 1905, the weather was dry without any late 

 frost, so planting of all kinds were fine, but May came in with so 

 much rain that small fruits failed to a great extent, tho apples of 

 all kinds bore a bumper crop, plums about half crop, currants very 

 good. 



The fall of 1905 was rainy and very wet, so the trees went into 

 winter quarters in rather bad shape, as we did not have any frost 

 till latter part of October, when the ground froze hard. The result 

 was the trees improperly matured, with leaves green and many sorts 

 froze back considerable of that year's growth. North from here 

 the conditions presented, from the reports received, a different view, 

 as the soil was not so full of water in the fall, but south from 

 Norman county the trees went into winter with full foliage. One 

 report from Otter Tail county says lost one-third of his trees. The 

 cause apparently was the result of immatured wood, and the great 

 change in the weather from warm to hard freezing weather was 

 what killed them. Northwestern Greening seems to have suffered 

 the most of all apples planted all over the Valley. 



This year (1906) the spring opened wet and cold, and later 

 freezing was reported from some parts of the Ninth Cong. District, 



