448 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



trees, and then I put up a high board fence for no other purpose than 

 to shut out those southwest winds. Prof. Green used to joke me 

 about fencing out the wind, but I saw that in order to be successful 

 I must shut off those winds. When Prof. Green was down there 

 last fall he saw it was a good investment. I have a very nice or- 

 chard. Now just a word or two more before closing. I have given 

 you the situation as it is with me. In addition to plums we should 

 grow more apples. We should always put out apple trees, and I 

 think we will get very good results. About the matter of currants — 

 we grow them very nicely, then we cut out the useless canes and 

 pack them in somewhere. The plum is becoming one of our best 

 hedge rows. I have an old cottonwood row that I am going to cut 

 out and put plums in its place. Just a word about beautiful trees. I 

 did think I was going to have some fine looking trees about the 

 place, and I heard that silver leaf maple and golden leaf cottonwood 

 were just the thing. One has a white leaf and the other a gold col- 

 ored leaf. The silver leaf maple is a miserable thing ; it grows up 

 from the root and is a wretched tree to plant, and the other is not 

 good enough to investigate according to my notion, so I have come 

 down to using plums for our windbreaks. 



The President : I have been wonderfully interested in this talk 

 of Mr. Gregg's. 



Mr. Taylor : I would like to emphasize what he says about the 

 golden willow. It is doing very finely in our section of country. I 

 have had it planted eight years, and it would be fit to make firewood 

 now. 



The President : The trouble with soft maple is that it dies at the 

 heart. It looks bright and all right, but when you come to examine 

 it you will find it is seasoned. The wind absorbs the moisture from 

 it in the winter time. 



Too many Ben Davis. — The present indications are that too 

 many Ben Davis are being grown for marketing at a figure to 

 yield a profit, and the situation can hardly be expected to improve. 

 Its success as an orchard tree has evidently stimulated its planting 

 beyond the demand for so inferior an apple. This does not hit 

 Minnesota very hard, as few of this variety are being grown here. 

 There is, however, some disposition to plant it which might well 

 be discouraged, if for no other reason on account of its failure to 

 come up to a safe standard of hardiness. 



