130 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



borer or currant worm in it. I have found sometimes in my trim- 

 ming- a few little knobs that looked as thoug-h some insect had stung- 

 the cane, but when I find a knot of that kind I cut it off and burn it 

 up. I thought, perhaps, it was on account of the higher cultivation 

 I give them. I do not know whether it is the chickens that keep the 

 worms out; I have chickens there, I know I have no worms. 



Mrs. Crooker: I was just going to suggest one thought. I once 

 asked Peter Gideon how he got rid of insects in his fruit, and he 

 said he induced his chickens and turkeys to stay there and after a 

 w^hile he got rid of all insects. 



Mr. Howe: What is the best time to plant currants? 



Mr. C. L. Smith: Any time from the first of September to the first 

 of June; the quicker you plant them the better they will be. So far 

 as my own choice is concerned, I would plant just as soon as the 

 frost is out of the ground in the spring, if I made up my mind now, 

 and if I made up my mind in July I would plant the first week in 

 September. 



Mr. Tomlinson: I learned a few years ago that mulching was 

 everything. I tried it and I find it leaves the roots on top of the 

 ground. 



Mr. Harris: Cultivate them. 



The President: I have had an abundant experience with mulch- 

 ing and have gone back to cultivation. It is not so much the 

 mulching as the fertilizing, I have not been able to make a success 

 of mulching. I have taken a patch of apple trees and put on a 

 mulch several feet thick, and I could not make a success in that 

 w^ay. The weeds grew up all the same six feet high, and it was such 

 an unsightly thing that I got disgusted and plowed it up. I culti- 

 vate everything now. 



Mr. Harris: I have often written articles and had them published 

 recommending people when they set out currant bushes or any 

 other bushes to mulch them, and yet I have not mulched any with 

 straw or any other material. But when I speak to an ordinary 

 farmer I say "mulch." If you are short of material and put on an 

 inch or two, that is a kind of mulching, but cultivation is a better one 

 way. The reason why I object to it is because the roots will come 

 out above the soil and leave them exposed. Another reason is on 

 account of the mice; it makes a fine harbor for them. Putting 

 manure on the currant bushes is a very different thing to conserve 

 the moisture. 



Mr. Yahnke: Mr. Smith was speaking about planting currant 

 bushes six feet apart. I think that distance is too near to plant them 

 both ways. I do not see how he gets more plants on the ground by 

 planting six feet apart each way than he would by planting 5x8 feet. 

 How can he spray them, and how can he get in to get the manure 

 between the bushes? I can get all around between my currants 

 except where I have them planted one way. I go in with the one- 

 horse plow and throw the dirt up towards the bushes and then level 

 it down with the cultivator. 



Mr. A. G. Long: If you will permit me I want to go back again 



