WINDOM TRIAL STATION. 275 



WINDOM TRIAL STATION. 



DEWAIN COOK, SUPT. 



The autumn of 1898 was rather warm and wet. We noticed some 

 bloom on the Enhance strawberry early in October. There was 

 abundance of moisture in the soil when it froze up. 



We had a heavy snowstorm in November, which was drifted among' 

 my trees, in some places several feet deep, some of which did not 

 melt away until late in April. We had several heavy snowstorms 

 during- the winter, but we also had several spells of weather that was 

 so warm that there was but little snow on the ground during most 

 of the winter except what lay in drifts. We had a long cold spell in 

 February, the coldest being from 46° to 50° below zero. 



Apples. — I cannot see but that my fruit trees wintered as well as 

 usual, some of them better. There was no killing back of apple 

 trees. There was an occasional terminal bud killed on the Malinda, 

 Scott's Winter, Daisy and Hotchkiss— as we have over one hundred 

 varieties in our orchards, we think this is a pretty good showing. 

 The apple crop will be very light here this season, no variety bear- 

 ing anything to speak of, except a few trees of the Wealthy and Hi- 

 bernal that I girdled the latter part of June of last year. The orchard 

 is now making a remarkably vigorous growth. The variety that 

 seems best adapted to our condition, all things considered, is the 

 Soulard crab, and the variety that now seems the most worthless* 

 outside the blighters, that I cut out as fast as I find them, is the 

 Briar's Sweet crab. It grows a few inches in early season and then 

 nearly dies each season of scab. Root-killing of young orchards 

 where not well sheltered has been the rule in this section the past 

 winter. I only lost two trees this way, one Whitney and one Hibernal, 

 each set three years. On north and west slopes, trees root-killed the 

 worst. 



Plums. — A good many trees looked pretty sick this spring. I 

 chopped out quite a number of large Rollingstones that were on 

 their own roots. They have been very unprofitable, as they are 

 troubled with borers worse than most varieties. I also cut out 

 about twenty-five bearing trees of Wolf and De Soto that were root- 

 killed. They had been grafted on the Marianna, and seem to root- 

 kill with less cold than do apple trees grafted on French crab stock. 

 The plum crop will be light this season. New Ulm, Odegaard and 

 Aitkin now show up among the best. The Aitkin at this writing is 

 much the largest. The New Ulm has proved one of the most reli- 

 able bearers and very large when full grown. Its greatest drawback 

 is its drooping habit of tree. I also have great expectations for the 

 Odegaard and Aitkin in exposed situations. In this section plum 

 trees have root-killed the past winter quite as much as apple trees. 

 The plum trees of commerce seem to be grafted on either Marianna 

 or Myrobolan stocks. I have had difficulty and sometimes failed to 

 get trees grafted on hardy ( Americanus) stock for my own planting. 



Small Fruits.— Strawberries will be a heavy crop. We had a few 

 ripe berries from old beds on June 13th. Bederwood and Warfield 

 are mostly grown, the former rather soft and light colored for dis- 



