162 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and the ground is less likely to pack than when water is applied to 

 the surface. 



He saved his strawberries from the late spring- frosts which nearly 

 ruined the fruit crop over the entire stale by a timely covering of 

 old hay, and he saved them from drouth by irrigation. His crop 

 was bountiful and of fine quality, while on unirrigated land it was 

 almost a total failure. The variety most used was Warfield fertil- 

 ized with Wilson. It is his opinion that in very dry seasons like the 

 last it is useless to attempt to grow strawberries without irrigation. 

 His orchard is young, and the trees made but feeble growth last 

 season. The first orchard was of Eastern varieties placed on a 

 southern slope, and soon died out. The second was of better varie- 

 ties, was placed on a northern slope and did well, but the land was 

 used for other purposes. The third and, I suppose, last is on a 

 northern slope, or hillside, not too steep for cultivation, but it was 

 thought that if it were kept well cultivated it would wash badly, and 

 for this reason it is seeded down. A little digging is done about the 

 trees, and the whole surface is mulched. It has never been my for- 

 tune to see a young orchard doing well under such conditions, yet 

 the professor may be able to prove what many believe, that a mod- 

 erate growth is preferable to a rapid one. He has many varieties of 

 apples, plums and pears, and as the trees come into bearing his re- 

 ports must become very valuable. 



In blackberry culture, trouble is found in laying down old plants 

 on account of the large size of the roots. Some were exhibited two 

 or three inches in diameter. A inan in Sheboygan county, on heavy 

 clay soil, has raised fair crops without covering. The best varieties 

 are the Ancient Briton and the Badger, which is supposed to be a 

 seedling of the Ancient Briton. A paper on pear culture showed 

 that at least one pear orchard in Racine county had paid well. 

 Pears are said to be doing well along the lake shore as far inland 

 as the lake influence extends, which is thought to be twenty-five 

 miles. In some instances the pear is doing fairly well top-grafted 

 on the apple and mountain ash, but the stock recommended in the 

 paper is the imported Japan seedling. 



In visiting my old home in Green Lake county, I found a few 

 straggling, or, I might say, struggling, old trees, marking the spots 

 where fine productive orchards stood twenty years ago. In my 

 opinion, trees have mostly died from starvation. I think a produc- 

 tive tree fifteen years old, on ordinary soil, should have at least one- 

 fourth of a wagon load of stable manure applied as winter mulch 

 each year. Although this treatment inight not make trees very 

 long lived, yet it would tend in that direction and would improve 

 the fruit in quantity and quality. The farm orchard seems to be 

 disappearing, and the commercial orchard is taking its place. This 

 is right, for in things difficult specialists are most likely to succeed. 



A firm in Ripon, in which L. G. Kellogg, president of the Wiscon- 

 sin Horticultural Society, is conspicuous, is starting a large fruit 

 farm on high grounds near Green Lake. Sixty acres will be planted 

 the coming spring, sixty acres the following spring and twenty 

 acres each spring thereafter. They will plant apples, pears, plums 

 and cherries. A man near Ripon, planted 3,000 Duchess two years 

 ago, and, if other sections are doing as well, Wisconsin will soon be 

 well towards the front in fruit production. 



When we can fully understand the language of the trees and 

 kindly minister to all their wants, then apples, pears and plums will 

 abound in Wisconsin and Minnesota. For kindness liberally be- 

 stowed on men, animals and trees, always was and always will be 

 a paying iuvestment. 



