308 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Michigan. The timber on the land was cut to supply the copper mines, and 
when the mines mostly stopped working, the people took up the land and 
have made good farms, and have good orchards of all kinds offhardy apples, 
plums and cherries. Those who live back from the lake will have to take 
the precaution to keep ‘the frost in the ground around their trees later, so 
that the trees will not open their blossoms until the late frosts are over. 
Then they can count on a good crop of fruit. 
Most of the farms back of Duluth have a plenty of land that is well 
adapted to growing all kinds of fruit that is suited to the climate. Owing to 
the cold summers, the apple trees are not affected by the blight as much as 
they are in the southern part of the state. 
Mr. Dartt: Would it be possible to keep the frost in the ground 
any length of time? 
The President: There is enough sap carried over in the winter 
in the tree branches to cause them to leaf out. I remember when 
I was a boy at one time (and it shows exactly what can be done 
without waiting for the frost to come out), a rose bush stood outside 
the door near a window. One of us was unlucky enough to stick 
his elbow through a pane of glass, and made a little hole about as. 
large as a quarter ofa dollar. After a while it struck me I would go 
out and take a little branch of that rose bush and put it through 
that hole. I did so and stuffed it around with cotton batting, and 
immediately the buds on that little branch began to swell, and it 
soon came out into full leaf. I do not remember whether it came 
out in full bloom or not, but I know by the time the snow was gone 
that branch was in full leaf, and when it was taken through that 
hole in the window the snow was two feet deep on the outside, and 
the frost was at least two feet deep under the snow. 
Mr. Dartt: There is nothing in that theory that the frost can 
be kept in. It has been extensively tried, and the fellow who tried 
it found out there was just six hours difference between the time 
the frost came out where the ground was protected and where it was 
unprotected. (Laughter.) 
~~ Mr. Jewett: While it is true that while the frost is in the ground 
it cannot affect the limbs of the tree, yet I saw the result of an ex 
periment in New Jersey in whitewashing a tree. They made the 
wash thick, and it put the tree back some five or six days. 
The President: That is a different thing. This plan was to 
mulch the ground before freezing. 
Onions, unlike most other crops, delight in being grown on ground 
previously used for onions. An onion patch, to be profitable, must be very 
rich and free from weeds. It is less work to keep one clean if properly 
tended the first season. 
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