272 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
thing worthy of Minnesota horticulture in rewarding the faithful planter of 
fruit seed—also pay him generously for his productions, always having the 
ideals for our needs in mind when we note the improvement made in fruit 
growing during the past ten years. We know better things are in store for 
us if we continue in well-doing. Let us be faithful to the trust given us, and 
we may live to see Minnesota fruits as famous as its No. 1 hard wheat. 
OUR TEST WINTERS. 
R. H. BUTTERMORE, LAKE CITY. 
To what extent were all kinds of fruit injured the past severe winters? I 
answer, I cannot tell, but I can tell some of the reasons why some fruit 
raisers do not succeed. 
Respecting strawberries they should be protected from the severity of 
winter by a light covering of straw; but sometimes it is neglected, and there- 
fore a small crop the ensuing year is the result. Almost all kinds of small 
fruit have to be cared for in some way in the late fall. If not the careless 
one will reap his reward. 
About the winter-killing of apple trees, it is a question in my mind 
whether it is the severity of the winter or the changeableness of it from 
either very cold to warmer and from moderate to severe cold that causés the 
damage to our’apple trees. It is also my candid belief that the variable- 
ness of the weather in the spring, freezing and thawing, has more to do 
with the killing and blighting of our apple trees than the steady cold winter 
has. Thawing and freezing when the buds are opening is very injurious to 
apple trees, causing a dwarfing of the trees and blight. Unacclimated soft 
varieties are bound to winter-kill anyhow. 
We cannot grow oranges in Minnesota, but we can grow apples and 
good ones if we plant our orchards in a good location, have the standard 
hardy varieties and take good care of them. 
I have noticed lately in my orchard some special varieties that I wanted 
to propagate from, and after cutting the scions the trees blighted badly the 
next summer. They never blighted before. Pruning in the wrong season 
is also a very ruinous practice. There were a great many apple trees killed 
and injured by the severity of the winter of 1884-5, but a great deal of it was 
caused by the changeableness of it, and also we had not the hardy varieties 
then that we have now. 
Last winter (1898-99) was, I believe, as cold as that of 1884-85, but our 
apple trees were not very materially injured; some unacclimated varieties 
were hurt, and that is all. : 
We are advancing, and I believe in the near future we shall raise apples 
that may supersede any that are grown in the United States, and winter 
ones, too. About twenty-five or thirty years ago there were a good many 
orchards planted, but they were of a very short duration. In a few years 
after there was nothing left of them but dry stumps. I also had one, and it 
shared the same fate. Now you can travel in this locality and on every hand 
you can see beautiful orchards. What causes the difference? It is because 
our Minnesota horticulturists are up and doing, importing, originating, se- 
lecting, experimenting, propagating and thinking. 
