490 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



number or name is needed where the row contains but one variety, 

 but the plat ought to show where each tree or plant stands. 



Where any grafting is to be done in winter or next spring, the 

 scions should be cut before the wood freezes hard. Every freezing 

 and thawing exhausts a certain amount of the starch that has been 

 stored in the wood and cells. Manuring is as necessary for grow- 

 ing good fruit as for any other crop, and the early winter is a fav- 

 orable time for hauling. It should be spread as hauled, being care- 

 ful not to leave heaps about the trunks of trees. An occasional top 

 dressing of wood ashes is good for the orchard, and they can often 

 be secured in the villages by furnishing barrels or boxes to save 

 them in. Where trees have been heeled in for the winter it may be 

 necessary to look after them and see that they have drains for car- 

 rying off surface water and that the roots have sufficient covering 

 to carry them safely through the winter. Scarcely a week should 

 be allowed to transpire without looking over the orchard and gar- 

 den to see that fences are in repair and gates closed and that rab- 

 bits and mice are not doing damage. 



Finally, winter is pre-eminently the best time for planning for the 

 future, for reading and study to gain a better knowledge of one's 

 business, and for visiting and comparing notes with our neighbor 

 horticulturists. It is the season when societies hold their annual 

 meetings, and every one who possibly can should come out to the 

 meeting of the state society and all meetings of their own county 

 and local societies — and every neighborhood would be better if a 

 club holding weekly meetings was organized and kept up. 



Orders for trees and plants for spring planting should not be 

 made out without giving them considerable forethought and con- 

 sultation with other successful fruit growers; but thej'^ should be 

 got in early. Remember, that it is hardly expedient to consult the 

 average tree agent about varieties or make a hasty order with him, 

 and we should always examine contracts made with agents very 

 carefully before signing them and keep an exact copy. The better 

 method is to go in person to the nursery and select the stock wanted, 

 or to order direct from some reliable and responsible nursery. 



A good remedy for killing out the cut worms in the garden is to 

 make up a mixture consisting of a quantity of bran or corn meal 

 inoistened with water, to which is added a little paris green and a 

 little molasses or sugar, to give a sweetish taste. It is the paris 

 green that kills the worms, and this should be very thoroughly 

 mixed with the bran so as to have a uniform mixture. A spoonful of 

 this mixture should be placed near the plants just before night on 

 the day the plants are set out. The cutworms work at night, and 

 will be killed by eating of the poisoned mixture. It is much better, 

 however, to place the mixture about in various parts of a field a few 

 days before planting, as it will then kill off the worms before any 

 damage is done. 



