462 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I will close by mentioning- one other class of birds that do not 

 appear to be much in favor with the farmers, but are of the greatest 

 importance to the horticulturist, the woodpeckers. They are climb- 

 ing birds with chisel-like bills and bearded tongues, and peck holes 

 in wood in their search for insects. Some of the species are winter 

 residents of this state, but of late years they are becoming compara- 

 tively scarce. The ones of most importance to the pomologist are 

 the downy and hairy woodpeckers. During the winter and spring 

 months, they destroy great numbers of the larva? and pupiii of the 

 codling moth, that are secreted in the crevices of bark and other 

 hiding places about our orchards. I have sometimes used paper 

 bands for catching these insects, and when neglected and left on the 

 trees through the winter have seen them completely riddled by 

 these birds, to get at the puppe beneath. They also feed on leaf 

 rollers and the larvae of all kinds of tree borers, both those found in 

 decaying wood and those living in the bark and sap wood of sound 

 trees, and are inveterate hunters after the large headed borer in our 

 apple trees. They should be protected and encouraged to feel at 

 home with us. They should not be confounded with the yellow 

 bellied woodpecker, which visits our orchards and groves in the 

 spring and the fall, and pecks round holes in rows around the trunks 

 and branches of trees for the sap and inner bark. 



It is the duty of all horticulturists and forest tree planters to study 

 these birds and becoine so familiar with them that they can dis- 

 tinguish them, and wage a war of exterinination on the sap sucker 

 They are on the increase, and unless they are headed off we may 

 never hope to raise valuable forests of pines and other evergreens 

 in southeastern Minnesota. 



Pinching House Plants.— Many people think if their house 

 plants have water, air and heat, their duty to the plants is done. 

 Plants are like children, they need watching or they get into bad 

 habits. A geranium, if left alone, will grow up loose, straggling 

 and perhaps misshapen. Properly trained, it might grow up into a 

 round, handsome, well balanced plant. The secret of a good shape 

 in a plant lies in "pinching." Pinching a plant means to squeeze or 

 pinch off between thumb and finger the tender growing tip of a grow- 

 ing steni on the plant. The immediate effect seems to be an injury. 

 The plant appears to stop growing. It is checked for a day or two, 

 but the ultimate result is a great gain to the plant. The single stem 

 becomes a double or quadruple. The plant becomes many branched. 

 Pinching is a fine art. It enables the plant lover to train and guide 

 his plants into fine shapes. It makes stronger and better plants and 

 increases the crop of flowers and fruits. 



The Electric Light is used for forcing a quick growth of veg- 

 etables in greenhouses by a few market gardeners near Boston and 

 New York. They run the light from sundown until ten or eleven and 

 find it pays. Whether electricity will have a larger use in crop grow- 

 ing remains to be seen. 



