MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 33 
noharm. The currants are so small when it is applied that it is 
washed off before the fruit is ripe. 
Mr. Smith. I practice thorough cleaning of the ground, and 
have no trouble with the currant worm. 
Mr. Harris. J think the application of Greats to the ground 
can do no good, but think its application to the leaves will be 
effectual with the currant worm. : 
Training Raspberries. 
Mr. Elliot. Is any method of growing raspberries better than 
to let them grow without training ? . 
Mr. Grimes. I think it is better to head them down and cause 
them to branch low, and then cover with straw slightly—not 
much is needed. The best time to head back is just before pick- 
ing. Cut back to the top of the fruiting canes, then a new and 
spreading growth will begin. 
Fruit Prospects. 
Mr. Harris. They appear very slim now for this year. 
Mr. Brimhall. I have noticed some puff-balls on some kinds of 
trees, and have noticed that in such seasons the fruit crop is 
light. 
The Secretary here read a letter from Ernest Meyer, Esq., of 
St. Peter. 
REPORT OF MR. MEYER. 
JUNE 18, 1876. 
Truman Smith, Esq., St. Paul: 
Deak Sir.—Knowing your disinclination to answer letters I should not 
attempt the second time to trouble you with a letter, but having received 
notice of a summer meeting of the State Horticultural Society, to be held 
at Minneapolis, and not being able to attend, I will state to you a few facts 
of my experience in raising fruit since we met before. This business looks 
to me more discouraging now than it has ever done before. Commencing 
With the apple, I am sorry to say that my whole orchard is going to be 
ruined this summer by the blight. All the crabs, and many of the other 
trees are badly affected, and, having commenced so early in the season, I 
tear that a great many trees will be killed. The same trouble I find through 
this and adjoining counties. It is now the third time that this disease has 
appeared among my trees. In raising small fruits I have not succeeded 
much better. The black-cap raspberries are badly injured, and will not give 
half a crop; and, as this is the third year in succession that they have 
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