EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 193 



Early, and a variety of the black, of which the name was lost, 

 and the Shaffer, Cuthbert and Marlboro of the reds. The Progress 

 and Johnson's Early are the earliest, and the birds took the fruit 

 faster than it ripened. The Ohio is the hardiest and strongest 

 grower, and produced the largest crop of the blacks. Nemaha came 

 next in productiveness, and the fruit was much finer and better for 

 market. I think the Older naay be worthy of retaining. The Shaffer 

 appeared to be as hardj-^ as the Ohio and even more productive. 

 Marlboro and Cuthbert were about alike in productiveness. 



A seedling yellow cap, sent to us from Michigan, bore a large 

 crop of good sized berries, but seems to have no value for market or 

 much for home use. 



In the orchard, we have not many additions to make to our report 

 of 1892 and previous years. The greater portion of the trees are too 

 young to expect much fruit from. None of the trees were seriously 

 injured last winter, or so that they did not grow from the terminal 

 buds. There was no scab on either twig or leaf on the apple trees, 

 and but little upon any of the Siberian species, and all have made a 

 good season's growth of well-ripened wood. Pears showed some- 

 thing wrong with the foliage late in the season, and plums have 

 been badly infested with aphis. The leaves of some of the Desotas 

 showed little protuberences, that may have been caused by minute 

 insects. 



In our experimental orchard we have now growing over 300 trees, 

 most of which have been planted from one to five j^ears, but a few of 

 them about eight years. Altogether there are about ninety varieties, 

 about one-half being of the newer Russians, and the remainder are 

 seedlings or but little known varieties that we have picked up in 

 this state, Wisconsin and northern Iowa for the purpose of testing 

 their hardiness and value. As we expect that many of them will 

 prove utterly worthless, we are planting the rows about twenty feet 

 apart and twelve feet apart in the row. 



Of pears, we have about four varieties of Russian and one, a seed- 

 ling from Geo. P. Peffer, of Pewaukee, Wis. None of them have so 

 far fruited or shown any bloom, although some of the trees are ten 

 years old and have never shown any fire blight in trunk or branches. 



Of plums, not a single variety produced any fruit. On the third 

 day of April, the thermometer indicated li^ in the shade for several 

 hours, and for a day or two the weather was favorable for rapid 

 vegetation and caused the fruit buds of the plum to show very 

 prominent. On the nineteeth and twentieth a heavy snow fell and 

 remained upon the ground for several days. After its disappearance 

 the buds were mostlj'^ gone, and the trees blossomed but little. 

 Whether the buds were injured so that they fell off or were picked 

 off b}^ the birds, I am not able to saj^, but a neighbor informed me 

 that he saw large numbers of robins feeding upon them. 



During June, berries received from the central stations in 1892 

 fruited very well, but, being from home at the time they ripened, the 

 birds gathered them all, and we cannot report on their quality. 



The Japanese wineberry we have found too tender for this climate, 

 and do not consider it worth the trouble of giving it suitable winter 

 protection. 



