356 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



are to be used. The ashes are easily distributed over the field with 

 one horse and a road scraper and afterwards spread with a shovel. 



In the spring before planting time, the ashes are spread and 

 the land gone over with the riding cultivator until it is perfectly 

 free from weeds. 



Of course the corn stubble is now on the surface, and must be 

 removed, but it takes one man with a hand rake only half a day to 

 clear one acre. After this is done, the land should be gone over 

 once with the harrow. The land is then ready for marking and re- 

 setting of the strawberry field. 



THE GREENWOOD CRAB AND OTHER TREES. 



E. H. S. DARTT, OWATONNA. 



In a letter from Geo. A. Tracy, of Watertown, S. D., who has 

 had much experience in fruit growing, he says: "Of the trees I 

 bought of you in 1882 and '83, but few are alive. Of fifteen Green- 

 wood crab planted, ten are alive. Of ten Milton crab, four are 

 alive. Of five Briars Sweet, three are alive. Of fifty Duchess 

 planted, two are alive. Tetofsky are all dead. Wealthy all died in 

 two or three years. Dartt's Hybrid (now Dartt), bore a few crops 

 and then blighted to death. Early Strawberry bore splendidly a 

 few years and then died. Two Minnesota were killed by rabbits. 

 Orange crab did well five or six years, then died. Hyslop and Lake 

 Winter never amounted to much; all dead. Haas and Maiden's 

 Blush died first winter. The Johnson plum (now Owatonna), I got 

 of you, lived and bore lots of plums. Trees died mostly from root- 

 freezing and drouth, a few from rabbits and mice. Have you the 

 Greenwood now? They are the most profitable tree that has yet 

 borne apples for me." 



I have had the Greenwood crab about thirty years. In tree it 

 nears perfection. It is a No. i stock on which to graft other va- 

 rieties. It is a very early and abundant bearer. Ftuit medium 

 size and quality good. It should be on our recommended list for 

 northern Minnesota. It ripens with the Duchess and is not of great 

 value where the Duchess is successfully grown. However, it may 

 be well to have a few trees to bear in ofif years. One season ten 

 Greenwoods produced more bushels than 2,500 other trees in the 

 same orchard of an average older growth. It came originally from 

 Ingraham Gould, a pioneer nurseryman of Beaver Dam, Wis. 



