I06 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Anderson : I think by covering with straw the canes would 

 live through the winter if they were not mulched too heavily. 



Mr. Studley : I want to add my testimony to that of the worthy 

 secretary. I believe location has a great deal to do with it. I have 

 raised blackberries for a good many years. I have covered very 

 little, but my location is a very good one. I have a neighbor who 

 thought if I would not cover he would not. He went into the black- 

 berry business, and in three years he lost all his berries. He had a 

 different location. His location was very much exposed while mine 

 was sheltered. 



Mr, Elliot : In covering with straw has any one had them girdled 

 by mice? 



Mr. Wright : Mr. Anderson used straw, but he only used it as 

 a mulch and probably the mice did not bother him. I covered my 

 blackberries one year with hay mulch, and where the plants were a 

 little close together the mice girdled them completely, and I lost 

 nearly the entire patch. They were laid down with dirt and covered 

 with hay. 



Mr. Anderson : I do not put the straw on my blackberries un- 

 til nearly spring. If I did I should have them girdled. There is 

 more or less grain in the straw, and that is what the mice are after. 



Mr. Elliot : I want to call attention to a very simple remedy. 

 It is simply a little corn meal with a few grains of strychnine mixed 

 with it, put into a can and incline it about this way (indicating) just 

 so the mice can get into it. That is a perfect protection. 



REPORT OF SEEDLING COMMITTEE, 1903. 



WYMAN ELLIOT, CHAIRMAN. 



By a pre-arrangement, on August 14th, Prof. S. B. Green, J. 

 M. Underwood and I visited Mr. T. E. Perkins' seedling orchard 

 at his home in Red Wing. The weather was threatening, but as we 

 had made an appointment with Mr. Perkins to meet us at the train 

 we did not like to disappoint him or each other, so we braved the 

 storm, although it was not very pleasant viewing apple trees in a 

 pouring rainstorm. Many of the trees were full of fine sized fruit, 

 some bearing such quantities that props had to be used to keep the 

 trees from breaking down. The trees had made a good growth, and 

 the foliage on most of them was healthy, showing some slight effects 

 of rust. Some of the earlier kinds were coloring up finely, while 

 others were very green, indicating late varieties. We made a very 

 hurried examination in a pouring shower of rain, only passing by 

 a few of the most prominent trees. We found it so disagreeable 

 wading through wet clover we decided to postpone further inspec- 

 tion and come again at a more propitious time. So we hurried back to 

 Red Wing, and at the earnest solicitation of Mr. Underwood we 

 visited the Jewell Co. Nurseries. As the rain had ceased we were 

 taken for a drive through the grounds, which gave us some small 



