EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 183 



JUNEBERRy (DWARF). 



This is one of the fruits that is destined to be popular. It ripens 

 between the strawberries and the raspberries, and is the size of a 

 large, black currant. It is black with bloom. It is healthy, hardy 

 and productive, and, as yet, shows no weakness. I can recommend it 

 for general planting. 



GOOSEBERRIES. 



Thus far, I have made a failure of all gooseberries I have tried. 

 I have about concluded that I am not adapted to gooseberry cult- 

 ure. The trouble seetns to be mildew and ^Winterkilling. If we can 

 prevent the mildew by spraying, perhaps I may yet succeed in suc- 

 cessfully growing them. 



FRUIT TREES AND WINDBREAKS. 



I have found nothing that gets there like the cotton wood, stilb 

 six miles north of here on Red Rock ridge, and all through that 

 country where the soil is underlaid with rock, they are worthless. 

 They will not stand much shade; thej^ are a light-loving tree and 

 want plenty of room. I place the soft maple next in value. The 

 soft maple is a shade-endviring tree and will stand close planting, 

 I shall set considerable of both varieties in the spring. M3' rows 

 will be sixteen feet apart, with trees four feet apart in the row. I 

 shall alternate the rows with soft maple and Cottonwood. 



The Russian poplars, Petrovsk)^ Bercolensis and Certinensis, I 

 consider worthless. The Petrovsky was so badly infested with 

 the borers that I cut them down a year ago, and I shall have to 

 cut the Wobsk5-s down for the same reason. Pop. p3^ramidalis looks 

 fine and is promising, but it looks so much like the Lombard^-- that 

 I am afraid of it. Pop. Siberica, while not as rapid a grower as the 

 Cottonwood, is promising. It has many side branches and has buds 

 resembling the balm of gilead. Of two green ash trees set the 

 spring of '88, and well cultivated since, one is doing very well, the 

 other was destroj'ed bj^ the borers. 



WILLOWS. 

 The willow worm destroys the foliage of nearly everything in the 

 willow line, but I have grown at this station two varieties of Rus- 

 sian willows that are rapid growers, ornamental and entirely exempt 

 from the ravages of the willow worm. They are Salix acentifolio 

 and the laurel-leaved willow (Salix laurifolia). Of the latter, I have 

 shoots of this season's growth eight and ten feet high. 



ORNAMENTALS AND CONIFERS. 



In these, I am behind the times. The Russian olive (Oleagnus 

 angustifolio) is a peculiar looking tree with spurs of foliage re- 

 sembling the buffalo berry. With good culture, it grows as rapidly' 

 as the Cottonwood. It has silver-colored fruit about one-half an inch 

 long, that stays on the tree all winter and into the middle of the 

 next summer. Each fruit has one large seed with a thin covering of 

 a sweet mealj' pulp, that is usually relished bj^ children after frost 

 comes. The branches are thorny and. I should judge, would be val- 

 uable for a hedge plant. 



