tatioi^s. 



MIDSUMMER REPORTS, 1899. 



CENTRAL TRIAL STATION, ST. ANTHONY PARK. 



PROF. S. B. GREEN, SUPT. 



The winter which we have just passed through was unusually 

 severe, and had it not been for the fact that our soil was well filled 

 with water, and that we had a fairly good covering of snow upon it, 

 we would have had much more injury. Where the conditions were 

 not as favorable as here, as in parts of Wisconsin and central Iowa, 

 injury to vegetation has been very severe. With us there has been 

 no more root-killing than usual, and our hardy varieties of plants 

 have come through the winter in quite satisfactory shape. The 

 wood of our apple trees was more discolored than usual this year, 

 but of those varieties that we regard as hardy it has started a vigor- 

 ous growth and is now in excellent condition. 



Among the plums there is not a variety of the domestica class left 

 in good condition, and many of them are killed to the snow line. 

 The Chickasaw class of plums is also badly injured. A lesson that 

 would seem to have been enforced by the winter is that the plums 

 for this section must come from the Americanus class. Our small 

 fruits came through in good condition where they had the usual 

 wintering, and the outlook now for raspberries, strawberries, grapes, 

 currants and gooseberries is unusually good. Our apricots were 

 all severely injured, and some of them killed back to snow line. Of 

 our cherries few varieties have set fruit, and nearly all were so se- 

 verely injured in the fruit bud that we can expect but little fruit 

 from them this season. 



Among the shrubs many varieties were killed back to the snow 

 line this winter which previous experience, for seven or eight years, 

 had seemed to show perfectly hardy. A more detailed report of 

 these, and general results of the winter, will be made in bulletin 

 form later on, so there is no need to refer to them here at greater 

 length. 



The last legislature appropriated money for a new horticultural 

 building, and work was begun on it about the 7th of June. This 

 will give excellent quarters for the division of horticulture, both of 

 the school and station, and for botany and physics, and will increase 

 the accommodations for chemistry and entomology and zoology 

 and is a great addition to the equipment here. 



