72 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



down in a reclaimed sloug^h, but along- the slopes of a hill there is 

 the least liability of frost. 



Can we prevent frost from killing- the berries? I am reading- and 

 experimenting- a great deal. I tried the kettle of tar, and I tried the 

 log- heaps, and I tried wet hay. I can make smoke enough, but 

 during the last three years at the time we had the frosts, there was 

 no wind; the condition of the atmosphere was such that the sinoke 

 did not count. The smoke went right straight up in the air. So far 

 as making a cloud of smoke is concerned, that is all right, but it 

 would not make a cloud, so I had to give up the idea of saving my 

 strawberries with smoke. 



There is another wajs which might be too costly, but I am going to 

 try it just the same. I want to look over the weather rejjorts, and 

 when they say there is going to be frost at night I am going to cover 

 before sundown all of iny strawberries with slough hay. I have 

 experimented a good deal, and all of my experiments have been a 

 failure, except that when I covered them with the slough hay, just 

 the same as I mulch them for winter exactly, the frost did not kill 

 them. I may have to do it two or even three times, and supposing 

 it does cost six to eight dollars each time, how many berries per 

 acre would the frost have to kill in order to take out enough to pay 

 for covering three or four tituesT^ The hay is on hand there now. 

 We keep it there ready, so that if there is danger of frost we can 

 begin after four o'clock in the afternoon and cover those berries all 

 over before midnight. I cover them at night, and the next inorning 

 I uncover them. I believe it will pay. 



Mr. Haggard: What slope would you prefer? 



Mr. Smith: I would take the north slope of the hill every time. I 

 prefer the north or northeart slope of the hill for any kind of fruit. 



Mr. Brackett: How would it do for grapes? 



Mr. Smith: I am not much of a grape man; I cannot answer that; 

 perhaps Mr. Latham can. 



Secretary Latham: I will not take up the time to go into 

 this subject, but my best vineyard, the one from which I usu- 

 ally take the premiums at the state fair, is on a northeast 

 slope. 



Mr. Smith: I never did much with grapes, but I will know more 

 about grapes after a while. In the matter of anthracnose, I have 

 had very little experience with that, but this is what I did do: Wher- 

 ever I found any canes affected, not knowing what else to do, I 

 simply dug up those hills and burned the vines. In one i)lat of 

 Cuthberts, I had a strip about twenty feet in width and about forty- 

 five feet long running through cornerwise, that was affected, and 

 almost every cane was simply paralyzed with it. They set some ber- 

 ries, but they did not get large, and dried up. I simply went in and 

 broke up that whole piece, piled them up and burned them right 

 there, and then I took good healthy canes from the plantation and 

 set them right there, and they are just as healthy as any I have on 

 the place. In my Schaffer's Colossal I simply dug up the affected 

 canes and burned them, and I have not seen any bad effect. 



