76 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
MEADOW VALE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
ANNUAL REPORT, 1899. 
A. W. KEAYS, SECRETARY, ELK RIVER. 
Our annual meeting was held on Nov. 11, 18990. Officers elected: Pres- 
ident, Chas. A. Hill; vice-president, E. G. Bailey; secretary, A. W. Keays; 
treasurer, Albert Hill; executive board, Florence R. Hill, Minnie Heath, A. 
C. Bailey. A. W. Keays was appointed delegate to attend the state annual 
meeting to be held Dec. 5 to 8. A resolution was passed that this society 
take advantage of the offer of the state society in regard to the horticultural 
report and join the state society in a body. 
Some valuable lessons are to be learned from our experimental stock. 
Some of the apples that have been sold as hardy have been killed to the 
ground. Many of the newer apples stood the winter well and appear to be 
promising for this section. The most damage from the past winter’s freeze 
was in root-killing where common seedlings were used for stock or in 
budded trees. Sub-soiling the land and deep setting of trees has been most 
successful with us. 
We have a seedling blackberry that is far ahead of anything we have 
on trial; it is a very strong grower and an immense bearer of very large, 
juicy fruit. A large number of new apple trees were added to our stock last 
spring and several miscellaneous trees and evergreens, among which is a new 
wild peach, just discovered in the mountains of California. I think this 
will be a valuable stock for grafting, being very hardy. It was sent to us 
by V. O. Bailey. He also sent us Picea breweriana, or weeping spruce, one 
of the rarest conifers in existence in this country, and only to be found in 
two or three places. 
Strawberries were a fine crop the past season, seventy bushels being 
picked on our old trial bed and a small new bed. 
Hibernal trees, set two years. were in fruit; also several varieties of 
plums. Nearly all varieties of apples and plums were in bloom, but the fruit 
mostly dropped off the last of June. Nearly all trees have made a fine 
growth except those injured the past winter. 
Grapes have a very heavy crop of very fine fruit. We had peach trees 
that stood the past winter without any protection and were not injured. 
MuLcHING.—That mulching does not retard blossoming has been again 
demonstrated by Prof. Craig, of Canada, who mulched apples, cherries, plums, 
gooseberries, currants and strawberries about March 15, when the ground was 
deeply frozen and covered with about a foot of snow. The mulch did not 
retard the leafing and blossoming except in the case of strawberries, where, of 
course, the tops were entirely covered. This agrees with the experience of the 
best fruit growers in the United States. 
STORING CELERY.—I dig a trench eighteen inches wide, twelve feet long 
and four inches deeper than the height of the celery to be placed in it. Before 
killing frosts come I take up the celery, place it in the trench in upright posi- 
lon and close together. I cover with two boards 1x12 in.x 16 ft.,until heavy 
frost and snow set in, then cover with a thick layer of stable manure. Other 
covering might answer.—James Marshall, Iowa. 
