32 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



WHAT KILLED MY CHERRY ORCHARD? 



C. W. MERRITT, HOMER, MINN. 



My cherry orchard is a thing of the past, and a mighty dead 

 thing it is, too. Last spring about 400 trees stood like a lot of dead 

 sentinels about my orchard ; where time would permit they were 

 chopped into firewood and burned, and their ashes are now scat- 

 tered to the four winds of heaven. The orchard represented the fol- 

 lowing varieties : Ostheim, Homer, Montmorency, Dyehouse, 

 Colorado, Ostheimer, Wragg, old English Morello, Abbesse, Vladi- 

 mir and Bessarabian. They all did finely in years of right condi- 

 tion, only the last three named were just old enough to begin 

 fruiting. 



In the spring of 1901 the orchard retained quite a good per- 

 centage of live buds after the spring freeze, and the trees seemed 

 in normal condition. Early in June the leaves began to turn yellow 

 and spotted with brown, which we thought was shothole fungus. 

 The disease spread rapidly. By July the leaves had all dropped off, 

 leaving the cherries hanging on the trees, about two-thirds grown. 

 Soon new leaves started, and a blight, looking like potato blight, 

 would attack every new leaf and soon kill it. We knew our cherry 

 orchard was doomed. It did its work beautifully, killing root and 

 branch. There was no choice made either ; all varieties suftered 

 alike, all died ; not even a shoot has ever come up. We have no 

 shoots to sell, nor cherry cord wood either. It makes a beautiful 

 fire, and our faith in cherry culture goes up in the smoke. Who can 

 tell what's the matter? Answer who? 



The Englemann Virginia Creeper (Ampelopsis.) — The Engelmann 

 Virginia Creeper is a form of the common Virginia Creeper, or Woodbine, 

 which adheres easily to brick and stone surfaces, and is the best climber 

 we have for covering such work. It does not grow quite as strong as some of 

 the common kinds, but the leaves hold on later in autumn and turn a most 

 beautiful deep crimson. This seems to be so much better than the common form 

 that we are growing no other kind. 



It is very easy to propagate the Englemann Ampelopsis from seed, but 

 the question has been as to whether the seedlings would be true to name: that 

 is, whether they would vary so much in the matter of having the peculiar 

 clinging properties which makes this vine desirable as to make it of little 

 value. Last year we raised about a thousand of these vines, and our experience 

 this season goes to show that this plant comes practically true from seed, and this 

 method of propagation may be depended upon to produce satisfactory results. 

 Of course this plant may be grown very easily from cuttings or layers. — Prof. 

 S. B. Green. 



