50 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



of the ground. I put a mulch of straw manure around most of my 

 trees in orchard, which saved those that were so treated ; but the few 

 that were left made a poor and sickly growth, and several died. 

 The nursery trees were plowed between the rows late in the fall, 

 which protected them to some extent, and there was but little root- 

 killing. Some of them were also mulched, and of those none were 

 injured. 



The apple crop was large, but owing to the great change from 

 extremely dry to very wet during the ripening season, causing- the 

 trees to make a new start and an overflow of sap, they are not keep- 

 ing as well as usual. I expected that it would cause blight, but this 

 season has been the one most free from it of any for several years. 

 There was a little of it seen here on the Longfield and Yellow Trans- 

 parent in the nursery, but none on the larger trees of those or any 

 other variety — none even on the Transcendent. 



We have several seedlings which have borne for the first time 

 this year — one very promising one. It is in the third generation 

 from the Wealthy. It is a large sweet apple, red, and fine in qual- 

 ity. Of the many seedlings that I have raised from the Wealthy 

 (seed planted in 1876), nearly every one is of good size — some of 

 them larger than the Wealthy, most of them as large. Many of them 

 will keep as long as the Wealthy, and there are several varieties 

 that will keep much longer. The Peerless is proving better than I 

 once thought. It has fruited well the past season. The trees will 

 rank in hardiness fully with the Wealthy. 



Our Prolific crab is still proving itself true to name by bearing 

 heavy crops of apples. This year we picked from it thirty bushels. 



We had a large crop of plums ; trees loaded to breaking. The 

 Forest Garden, Wolf and Stoddard were fine and large. They were 

 not overloaded like the De Soto. The Mankato is a choice plum 

 when matured, but most of them rotted on the trees. I think quite 

 highly of the Compass Cherry. Young trees were loaded with fruit. 

 Its quality is quite good to eat from the hand, and it makes excellent 

 sauce ; also the tree is perfectly hardy. 



LA CRESCENT TRIAL STATION. 



J. S. HARRIS, SUPT. 



We have not very much of interest to report at this time. The 

 winter of 1899- 1900 was not severe enough at this point to test the 

 hardiness of the previous season's growth of any but the very late 

 growth that was made on trees that were so severely injured in the 



