420 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
hydrangea. These varieties I would advise planting in the northern half 
of our state if we wish to be rewarded for our labor. 
There may be some objection to the lilac on account of its spreading 
over the ground by sprouts coming up from the roots, but if care be taken in 
the pruning of the mother bush, and cutting off below the ground the 
sprouts when they first appear, we can have as shapely a shrub as from any 
other variety and one that will withstand the dry or wet weather, the cold 
or hot winds with impunity. The next in hardiness I would advise the 
Russian olive (Eleagnus angustifolia). This may be trained in the form 
of a tree or shrub. I have on my grounds some of each form, and some of 
the trees are now ten or twelve feet high. Its leaves appear quite late in the 
spring, thereby escaping the late frost, and in the month of June it furnishes 
a profusion of small yellow flowers a color like that of a ripe apricot, and 
after sunset they fill the air with this delicious odor. It is about the last to 
shed its foliage, and yet its wood ripens to the tip ends of the branches; it is 
perfectly hardy in this climate, and as yet I have seen no enemies attack it. 
Next to this I would take the snowball, which, like the lilac, can be trained 
and pruned so as to attain a height of eight or ten feet and still have a 
robust, stocky appearance. As to the balance of my list, viz: the Missouri 
currant, Juneberry, red dogwood, Siberian pea, Japan rose (rosa-rugosa) and 
hydrangea, I would recommend them with reference to their hardiness in 
the order above named. 
I have had good success with all except, perhaps, the hydrangea. It 
has a beautiful flower but blossoms so late in the season that the early frost 
deprives us of all its beauty. My shrubs all grow in a lawn of thick Ken- 
tucky blue grass, but I strive to subdue the grass and weeds around their 
bodies by hoeing up to the middle of July, and then I mulch them lightly 
with the grass I cut from the lawn, and remove it in the spring. Ornamentai 
shrubs, as a rule, do not afford much shade, and this may be an objection 
to their more extensive planting in this treeless country, but, in my estima- 
tion, no lawn is complete, let it be ever so well shaded, unless it has here 
and there planted, either by themselves or in clumps, some of our beautiful 
shrubs. 
MELON CULTURE. 
Cc. E. FITCH, ALWILDA, S. D. 
(Read before S. D. State Horticultural Society, January 17, 1900.) 
In compliance with a letter from the secretary, asking for a paper on 
“melon culture,’ I will give you the method pursued last season. 
The site selected was rather heavy, black soil, sloping gently to the south 
and protected by quite a high ridge and the farm buildings. During the 
winter and spring the ground was manured and not plowed until time to 
plant, to give the weeds a chance to start. After plowing the ground as 
deeply as possible, it was thoroughly harrowed, planked and then marked 
out in rows three feet eight inches each way. In planting, a hill, level with 
the surface, was made at every intersection north and south and every other 
row east and west. As soon as the plants were up they were hoed in the 
hill, drawing the dirt well up among the plants. The cultivating was done 
with a two-horse corn plow until the vines commenced to run; after this 
stray weeds were cut with the hoe. 
