MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 49 
clads, and for a few years they were doing so well that people began to 
entertain hopes that we should soon have apples, and also pears, in abund- 
ance. But these hopes were of short duration. 
Winter of 1872-3. 
Tne fearful storms and cold weather of January, 1873, which swept over 
the whole Northwest like a tidal wave, totally destroyed all of the pear 
trees and more than one-half of the apple trees that had arrived ata bear- 
ing size, and greatly injured many more. The consequence was a general 
discouragement which resulted in the neglect of what was left, and fora 
time the discontinuance of replanting. The partial recovery of some va- 
rieties, the fine crop produced upon the recovering trees in 1874, and the 
discovery that the injury sustained was generally from root killing, has 
combined to awaken a new interest; but the plantations now being made 
are largely of Siberians. 
Winter of 1874-5. 
The winter of 1874-75 was lopg continued and of great severity, but as 
far as my observation goes no injury was sustained by the apple trees ex- 
cept such as were previously much enfeebled by disease. Last spring the 
trees blossomed reasonably well, but the prevailing weather at that time, 
and for two or three weeks following, was cold and resulted in cutting off 
tbe apple crop and materially shortened that of the Siberians. However, 
I am confident that this was a blessing for us, for another full crop with- 
out a season for rest and recruiting would have been destructive to many 
of the remaining trees. 
Pears. 
For a few years previous to the hard winter a few varieties of pears were 
doing very well and were being quite extensively planted. In 1872 they 
fruited so well that several farmers had a surplus for market, and the de- 
mand for trees was very great. In the month of June of 1872, several ot 
my trees showed fire blight, and I also noticed it on trees in other places, 
As the extreme cold of the following winter destroyed all the trees of a 
bearing age, we are not permitted to accuse blight with having anything 
to do with their death, and have pronounced them too tender for our cii- 
mate and but very few trees are now being planted. I do not think that a 
single specimen of the fruit was raised in the county last year (1875.) 
Trees from two to five years old are looking very well. 
Strawberries. 
This fruit is not as extensively grown as it should be or has been in past 
years. The hard winters, the ravages of the White Grub and neglect of 
cultivation has nearly ruined the old planting, and new ones have partially 
failed from some cause as yet supposed to be unknown. The above cir- 
cumstances taken into consideration, the crop of fruit for 1875 was very 
good. 
