382 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



patch and completely ruined the bed. The fire went too deep 

 and completely destroyed the plants, leaving not more than two 

 or three plants to the rod. So I would say there is some cau- 

 tion necessarj- in burning off a bed. 



Mr. Wright: I had the same experience. This year I con- 

 sidered it too dry to burn the strawberry bed, so I mowed it 

 and raked it with the horse rake. It was a tedious job, but I 

 believe it paid me better. I was afraid of fire. 



Mr. Hawkins: I am a farmer and I do not think it is advis- 

 able to recommend to farmers this practice of burning straw- 

 berry beds. He would burn it out five times out of six. 



Mr. Taylor: I mowed one patch and burned the other, and 

 in the one I burned there are very few plants left. 



VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT, SECOND DISTRICT, 



FOR 1898. 



S. D. RICHARDSON, WINNEBAGO CITY. 



Generally speaking, the crop of fruit of all kinds was good in this 

 district. In some places, near the woods, the worms had been very- 

 bad in previous years, and the apple and plum trees did not have 

 vitality enough left to blossom. With that exception there were 

 plenty of apples wherever there were plenty of trees. Wealthys 

 brought a fair price in all parts of the district. Other kinds brought 

 a fair price in some parts where there was a scarcity, and in other 

 places one could not give them away, and they rotted on the ground. 

 Some persons bought cider mills and made the surplus into cider. 



Plums set very heavily in many places, but the plum pocket 

 ruined some kinds entirely, and the rot and curculio hurt other 

 kinds, but some trees still carried so many plums that the dry 

 weather made them email and almost worthless. Judicious thinning- 

 and proper cultivation would have remedied this. 



Cherries were good except where there were heavy rains when the 

 trees were first in bloom. Plenty of Russian mulberries and our 

 small native red cherries will keep the birds busy so that they will 

 let the tame cherries alone. Raspberries were a light crop, and so 

 were blackberries. The reds mostly winter-killed; the blacks were 

 good in some places, poor in others. With the exceptions noted,the 

 crop of small fruit, of all kinds, was good. 



The fruit list of the society I would recommend for adoption in 

 our district with the following addition: the Wealthy succeeds 

 well in all parts of the district when grown with a very short body 

 — from nothing to two feet — and has so far proved by far the most 

 profitable variety when grown for market. 



