PLEASANT MOUNDS TEIAL STATION. 1 37 



Duchess and several seedlings were marked failures. 



Among the choice kinds from Nova Scotia w^as the Chebucto, 

 the largest apple in the world. They made a fine growth this 

 season, and if they are hardy enough for our climate will prove 

 a grand acquisition. 



Several varieties of apples were left on the trees to test their 

 staying qualities. We find at this writing (November 28) the 

 Wolf River is still hanging on best, with Walbridge and several 

 seedlings a close second. 



The Snow apple is doing well here, fully as hardy as Duchess 

 and, as we consider it, the best we know of for eating. It is a 

 good bearer when well established and a good keeper when 

 carefully handled. We believe it safe for more general planting. 



SAUK RAPIDS TRIAL STATION. 



MRS. JENNIE STAGER, SUPT. 



This was quite a good year for strawberries. The vines were 

 literally loaded with fruit, but just as I was thinking of thinning 

 the berries a hail storm came which did the work much more ef- 

 fectually than I could have done, leaving me a good crop of very 

 large berries. Currants and gooseberries were also a very fair 

 crop. Plums did not amount to anything, and with the excep- 

 tion of crabs neither did apples. 



Asparagus and all other early vegetables were absolutely 

 wonderful this year. Our rose bushes were wonderfully loaded 

 with blossoms, and that was the case with all shrubs and flowers. 

 Catalpas, among other seedlings planted two years ago, grew 

 ten feet this year. Of course we have had some drawbacks, but 

 success in so much reconciles us to small losses. 



Another Monster Tree Discovered. — Another monarch of the species 

 Sequioa gigantea Sempervirens has been lately found in the Sierra Nevada 

 mountains within a few miles of Gen. Grant National Park. At one foot from 

 the ground its circumference is 108 feet, and at 6 feet above the ground is still 

 93 feet. This colossal giant rises without a branch to the height of 175 feet, 

 at which point it is still 33 feet in circumference. It is a very fruitful tree, 

 bearing a countless number of cones which, by a strange contradiction, contain 

 the smallest seed produced by any of the conifers. The cones grow in clusters 

 at the ends of the branches, in one instance 140 cones being counted on the 

 tip of a branch only J }i inches in diameter. There is no limit to the life of 

 these wonderful trees. 1500 years of age may be considered only its prime of 

 greatest strength and beauty, and not until double that age can it be called 

 old. Some years since, within a few miles of this tree was discovered the stump 

 of a specimen of the same species forty feet in diameter. Calculations made 

 as to its age indicated that it was at least twenty feet in circumference at the 

 beginning of the Christian era. 



