VICE-PRESIDENTS REPORT, FIFTH CONG. DIST. 95 



You pay your money and take your choice. If the old tree needs 

 food for its roots, it will go twenty feet from its trunk and further 

 to find plant food for that bearing tree, and you have got to give it 

 moisture in some shape. Moisture is the most essential feature if 

 the tree is to bear fruit, but at a certain time of the year we have 

 got to take this moisture away. There is a time when the tree 

 starts fruit buds, that is about the middle of the season, and if vou 

 give it too much moisture it will not set fruit buds. Vou have got 

 to know what time your fruit tree needs moisture and what time it 

 does not. In the spring time you get the most moisture, just at 

 the time when the tree needs it most, when it is growing, but when 

 July comes we ought to check it a little. Now if you cultivate your 

 trees in July it will hurt the fruit buds. I would rather have the 

 orchard in weeds, I would rather cultivate it again anew. In some 

 localities where there are steep side hills and the rain washes the 

 ground away, it is better to have some grass or let it grow to wesds 

 before the rains come, or have a strip between the rows seeded 

 down. 



VICE-PRESIDENT'S REPORT, SIXTH CONG. DISTRICT. 



FRANK MESENBURG, ST. CLOUD. 



The fruit crop during the past season was not as good as it 

 might have been, owing to the late frost and the drought in July. 

 My strawberry crop was a failure, on account of frost and too 

 much rain during the picking time. My plants looked fine in the 

 spring, but the berries were of inferior quality, and the yield was 

 light. The crop of the Stager Fruit Farm, at Sauk Rapids, was 

 good, and above the average in both quality and quantity. Beder- 

 wood, Warfield, and Brandywine are the most satisfactory varieties 

 •of strawberries for this locality. 



Raspberries were an excellent crop. The Turner appears to 

 stand the winter better than other varieties. 



Gooseberries and currants did well, and plums and crab apples 

 nearly as good. Grapes fruited well. 



Spring planted evergreens did not do well, and a great many 

 trees died. 



VICE-PRESIDENT'S REPORT, SEVENTH CONG. DIST. 



J. L. ADAMS, GLENWOOD. 



Small fruits and berries did as well as could be expected with 

 the very dry weather we had here in May and June, with very lit- 

 tle rain in July and August. The late rains helped the vines and 

 apple trees so they are looking nicely now. Although the raspber- 

 ries have not thoroughly hardened their wood, I think they will 

 come through the winter all right. The Turner, Loudon and Older 

 are the favorites around here, as they do not need much petting. 



