242 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



APPLES. 



The apples have been injured by a frost which came when they 

 were in blossom, and also by a blight which attacked the fruit spurs 

 principally, but several varieties have set sufficient fruit. The 

 apple trees are in good condition and but little blight sliows itself 

 on those kinds which we generally consider resistant varieties. 



PLUMS. 



The plum trees are heavily loaded with fruit and the crop prom- 

 ises to be an enormous one, nearly every tree of bearing size having 

 a full crop. In sections some trouble has come from plum pockets 

 (Taphrina pruni), but at the Central Station the loss from this 

 cause is trifling. The trees are healthy and very free from leaf lice, 

 which have been abutidant in several previous years. 



GRAPES. 



The grape vines lost many buds last winter, but with all this they 

 were never more productive than this season nor the bunches larger 

 and inore promising. A part of one vineyard has been changed 

 from a short cane, low renewal system to a very high trellis and is 

 trained on what is called the Munson drooping system. I think 

 very highlj^ of this system and believe that vines manag'ed under it 

 will produce more fruit and be easier to care for and less liable to 

 injury froin early autuinn frosts than under any of the old systems 

 adapted to this section. 



STRAWBERRIES. 



The strawberry crop has been a verj'^ good one at this station 

 many varieties never doing better with us. Warfield, Haverland and 

 Crescent seem still to stand at the head of pistillate and productive 

 varieties, and in the order named, while Bederwood is perhaps the 

 best of the perfect flowering kinds, with Enhance a close second to 

 it. The old strawberry beds, when jiroperly renewed, have fruited 

 much more abundantlj'' than new beds, and this corroborates our 

 previous experience for ten years. The old system of once cropping 

 a strawberry bed and then plowing it up is wasteful and not pro- 

 ductive of the best results. A detailed report on strawberries will 

 be found further on in this report. The strawberrj'^ beds were 

 sprayed this spring with Bordeaux mixture, a part being left with- 

 out spraying as a basis of comparison, but no apparent benefit 

 seemed to come from the application of this fungicide this year. I 

 believe, however, that it is a good plan to do this work and that 

 usually it will be beneficial. 



RASPBERRIES. 



The raspberry crop was never more promising than in the spring, 

 but it will be somewhat shortened by the dry weather. Black rasp- 

 berries are doing especially well. The Older seems to be a most 

 excellent variety of them for general planting; the Kansas is a fine 

 berry for a second early kind. The red raspberries will be a fair 

 crop on several kinds, but a number of varieties have been serioush 

 injured by antliracnose and the "curl leaf,"nvhich is a term used for 



