14-2 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. J. W. Murray : Do you raise enough to feed the birds ? 



Mr. Cook : I heard the question, but I don't want to answer 

 it. (Laughter.) 



Rev. C. S. Harrison (Neb.) : Does the Russian mulberry do 

 well with you? 



Mr. Cook : It does pretty well. 



Mr. Harrison : I had an orchard of cherries around which I 

 planted mulberries, and the birds never touched the cherries. 



Mr. S. D. Richardson : I have raised a good many cherries 

 since I have been in Winnebago City, but the last two years I did 

 not get many except from the Wragg. There has never been a 

 season but what I got a few cherries from the Wragg. When I 

 planted my Wragg cherries I got them from Silas Wilson. They 

 were pruned way up to the top. I dug a ditch two feet deep at one 

 end and sloping to the surface at the other, and I laid that tree 

 down there in that ditch, but left the top out and covered the rest. 

 Then I put a sod under the end of the tree and turned up the tip, 

 and that is the way I got the Wragg cherry on its own roots. It 

 is vigorous and healthy today. I find I can do better with a late 

 cherry than with the Early Richmond. The birds take all of the 

 Early Richmond. I would not think of raising cherries unless I 

 could raise enough for the birds and have enough left for myself. 

 I like a cherry tree on its own roots. 



Mr. R. H. Pendergast : The cherry seems to be at home in 

 Duluth. They planted out the common red cherry there, and I 

 have watched them for thirty-five years, and I have never known 

 a year but what the trees had to be propped up to keep the limbs 

 from breaking. I introduced the Richmond up there; it yields 

 heavily, and the fruit is fine. The Ostheim also does well. I have the 

 Wragg, but have not fruited it. Speaking about birds, I tried a 

 simple remedy. I went to the tinshop and procured a lot of small 

 pieces of bright tin. Then I took my stepladder and attached the 

 pieces to the ends of the twigs, and I have had no trouble with the 

 birds since. I left a few trees without the tin, and I got no cherries 

 from those trees. 



Mr. J. W. Murray: I have a Richmond set out sixteen years 

 ago, and it is good yet. You speak about scaring birds away with 

 pieces of tin. I never found it successful. I made scare-crows 

 and put them in my trees, but these waxwings, so-called, came when 

 the cherries began to redden and took them all. We shot a lot of 

 the birds and hung them up in the trees, but it did no good. Then 

 we got some mosquito netting and tied it over the tree, but, of course, 

 it would not cover it completely, leaving holes as big as my hand. I 

 stood right by the tree with a club in my hands and the birds would 

 go right into those holes. (Laughter.) I finally concluded if I 

 could not get any fruit the tree would do me no good, and I cut it 

 down. I had the honor of introducing the tin business at Lake 

 Minnetonka. I stretched some twine clear across the vineyard and 

 hung it with tin. It attracted a great deal of attention, and it kept 

 the birds off for two or three years, but finally they got on to it 

 and came in again. (Laughter.) 



