134 • MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Aiken : Seven of them have an apple smaller than the 

 wild crab, the other nearly the size of the Hyslop, perhaps a 

 little larger. This year that tree gave us about four bushels 

 of apples. The others are very shy bearers. 



President Underwood: The seven beaj? fruit about the size 

 of the Siberian? 



Mr. Aiken: It is rather peculiar with those seven; they are 

 almost exactly alike. The eighth is a different variety entirely 

 and apparently seems to be taken from the Hyslop. 



FRUIT BLOSSOMS. 



O. F. BRAND, FARIBAULT. 



A valuable lesson may be drawn from the very limited number 

 and small size of fruit blossoms, as seen in the vicinity of Faribault 

 in 1893. 



A trip to the World's Fair terminated nij^ observations on May 30th. 

 Our spring was wet and cold, consequently late. Grass was four- 

 teen days later than usual. The third day of April was warm— the 

 first and only warm,day I have recorded up to May 21st. On this date 

 the mercury rose to 80' above, followed by a thunder storm at night, 

 shifting the wind to the north, with a temperature on the 22d of 46° 

 above. 



On April 19th we had a heavy fall of snow, which drifted to a depth 

 of six feet; another light snow storm April 26th. On May 5th a drift 

 in front of the house — in the sun and on the south side of a hill — 

 was from twelve to eighteen inches deep, and a great many banks 

 were still to be seen in the distance. 



The first plum blossoms were seen May 2Gth; the first Duchess 

 apple blossoms May 28th. Blossoms on a number of trees were seen 

 May 29th, and still more May 30th. These trees were from nineteen 

 to twenty-six years old. No blossoms were seen on about 300 trees 

 in a six-year-old Duchess orchard. There were but few Duchess 

 blossoms, and they small and weak. No Peerless blossoms were 

 seen Ma/ 30th, although a few were, probably, open on the 31st or 

 June 1st. No Transcendent blossoms of any account were seen. 

 The Simmons crab, a very early variety, bloomed verj' full; the blos- 

 soms we»e small, not nearly as large as in 1892. 



Not being able to see the bloom season through, I can now only 

 speak of the results. Among fully 500 Duchess orchard trees, there 

 was not one-half bushel of good apples. I think there were not over 

 two bushels of Duchess apples all together, and they mostly very 

 small and inferior. One Peerless tree bore almost as many perfect 

 apples as my entire Duchess orchard. 



Although I have referred briefly to climatic conditions before the 

 blossoming period, I don't think it had much to do with the general 

 fruit failure. I am inclined to attribute it to the injury' done to the 

 foliage of the trees between the 11th and IGth of June, 1892, an injury 

 that prevented them from performing their usual function. 



