250 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
LETTER FROM PROF. S. B. GREEN. 
RECEIVED JUNE 8, 1900. 
Giessen, Germany, May 28, 1g00. 
The weather since our arrival has most of the time been quite cold and 
cloudy. We arrived in Bremen on the 16th of May, after a rather longer 
passage than usual, owing to rough weather. 
This country is not a paradise for the fruit grower or forester. It is very 
liable to late spring frosts, and June frosts are frequent. A frost here the 
19th of May froze back all the new growth on oaks, beech and other frost- 
tender trees and froze cherries on the trees. The flowers of apples and 
pears were also severely injured and often destroyed. I learn that along 
the Rhine they have not had a good crop of grapes for five years. How- 
ever, when they do get a crop it is very profitable, and it is said that one 
good crop in seven years makes the grape business a profitable one. Con- 
siderable fruit is grown in this section, but, as a rule, the orchards are small 
and look much neglected and generally-are in grass. This is, however, a 
great country for shrubs and trees that are adapted to it. Just now the 
beautiful, hardy vine, Chinese wistaria, is gorgeous with purple flower 
clusters, and the shrubby and almost tree-like laburnum is gorgeous with 
great yellow flower clusters. The European linden is much used as a 
street tree and is exceedingly pretty, but I think our linden is a better look- 
ing tree in Minnesota and that we do not use it enough. 
' In Bremen I was particularly impressed with the pretty appearance of the 
new town. Formerly a moat went around the town, which, when of no 
further use, was partly filled up and was very unsightly. Some one con- 
ceived the idea of treating it artistically, with the result that it forms a 
most beautiful feature of the town, and many fine residences front on It. 
It has been treated as a long, narrow lake or river and most beautiiul effects 
brought out by suitable planting. 
Here, and frequently elsewhere in Germany, in the newer portions of the 
cities the houses are set back a little from the street, sometimes not more 
than six feet, but more often twelve to twenty feet, but the space in front 
is always neatly planted with shrubs and herbaceous plants. These are 
often trimmed into some regular form and probably from the artistic stand- 
point should perhaps frequently be condemned, but the effect as a whole is 
very pleasing, especially when taken in connection with the effect of the 
potted plants that one sees in every window. Here, and elsewhere in Ger- 
many, it is not uncommon to see shrubbery used in front of houses in p'‘ace 
of grass and the effect is good where high steps are necessary to reach the 
front door, but when the door is not above the tops of the shrubs, the 
effect is not pleasant. For the fronts of dwellings it is customary to cut 
the shrubs back occasionally so as to keep them rather short. 
We stopped over Sunday at Koln and, of course, visited the cathedral. 
At Bonn we spent parts of two days visiting the agricultural school there, 
which is a very good one and has about 300 students. The work along 
animal feeding was very interesting, but, of course, I was most interested 
in the botanical garden and the fruit garden. Cytisus Adami was here in 
full flower. This is a very beautiful plant belonging to the pea family, 
and is now gorgeous in yellow flowers, but the chief interest in it centers 
in its being considered a cross between two species and the characteristics of 
