VIOI.A HXl'KltlMENT STATION. 193 



north. For a cotiiiiiercial orchard I only want a few varieties, sol 

 fjelectetl tried varieties, whether Kussian or seedling, setting them 

 U'A'n feet apart each waj'. The varieties I selected for this purpose 

 were of the Duchess family, the Wealthy, Hibernal, Lon^field, Good 

 Peasant, McMahon White, Patten's Greening, Okahena, Repka 

 Malinka and Hrett's set* <llinfjfs. Then in between the rows, breaking' 

 joint, as it were, I set my experimental trees of eight or more varie- 

 ties of Russians and every seedling that I know of that is before the 

 public except the Peerless, and next year I will try to get some 

 scions of it and top-work them, for fear I cannot raise apples with- 

 out it. I am aware that in a few years these trees will be too thick- 

 hut in these j'ears I can get fruit enough to pay for tree and labor. 

 It is an easy job to grub them out when thej' come in contact with 

 each other. The trees in this 3'^oung orchard have made a vigorous 

 growth each year since planted, and a large proportion of them 

 fruited this year, yielding large and attractive specimens. 



My old orchard, containing a number of Russians, Duchess and 

 other varieties, and ranging in age from fifteen to thirty-five years, 

 yielded a reasonable crop of fruit this year. But the hail-storm we 

 had on the fourth of August knocked off a large proportion of the 

 fruit and battered what was left so badly that they were hardly 

 salable. The Malinda and Repka Malenka being small and hard 

 were not so badly damaged as the rest. 



Our raspberries bore a very good crop, although the canes had 

 been badly damaged by the previous winter, as I had not covered 

 them. The varieties I have are the Cuthbert, Schaffer's Colossal, 

 Caroline and the Golden Queen; the latter did not prove hardy. 

 Of the blacks, I have the Ohio, Gregg, Tyler and Mammoth Clus- 

 ter. My grapes were a fair crop, and I have a number of varieties- 

 My strawberries were almost a failure. We had an average crop of 

 plums, also a good crop of currants, especially of a North Star that 

 the Lake City people sent me. From the same source I received the 

 ( )kabena, a number of Thompson's seedlings and a variety of plum 

 trees and gooseberry bushes, all of which have grown remarkably 

 well. Mr. Wedge has sent me some plum trees and other stufif, of 

 which I shall make note hereafter. These things I appreciate, as 

 this was the only stock given me to experiment with. Everything 

 else I have either raised or bought. 



SAUK RAPIDS EXPERIMENT STATION. 



MK.S. JK.N.Mli .SiAt.KK. .sUi'T. 



I sent a report some time ago about the plants sent me in the 

 spring. So far thej' have all done well, except the golden willow; 

 that died down to within a foot of the ground. 



Strun'herries.—We have i)lanted this year A.iMM) strawberry plants, 

 consisting of Crescent, Bederwood, Wartield, Jessie, Parker Flarle, 

 Captain Jack, Robinson, Woolverton, Enhance, Cumberland, Tri- 

 umph. Michel's Early, Shyster and Princess, (the Wilson has never 

 done' well here), and hope to have a good account of some of them 

 next summer. 



