226 ANNUAL REPORT 



level down, and most of them will be covered up. Then, when the 

 planting is all done, I harrow it crossways, and there is scarcely a 

 single potato left uncovered. I don't know what is expected of me, 

 whether to go any further in the description of this process or not. 



President Elliot. What is your next cultivation after that har- 

 rowing? 



Mr. Grimes. I go over with the harrow again just as the plants 

 begin to show up from the ground, and I kill all the little weeds. 



President Elliot. What kind of a plow do you use? 



Mr. Grimes. I use a common shovel plow. 



Mr. Sampson. Can you give us any information in regard to 

 scab? 



Mr. Grimes. There is a disease we call the scab, but what you 

 term scab is, perhaps, caused by the potato bug itself. If they 

 suck the potato they will produce what is called scab. This year 

 we have noticed very little of that, and the vines were troubled 

 with these bugs only a little while. 



In regard to the disease of potatoes, like produces like, and if 

 you have planted your potatoes in the same ground several years, 

 they are likely to become diseased and will run out. You can't 

 avoid that disease in planting diseased potatoes, because it will re- 

 produce itself. 



Prof. Green. What is a fair yield per acre? 



Mr. Grimes. About 400 bushels. 



Prof. Green. Do you ordinarily get that? 



Mr. Grimes. Not ordinarily. An ordinary fair yield is from 

 250 to 300 bushels. 



Reports from the vice presidents were then called for. 



REPORT FROM FIRST DISTRICT. 



By Vice President A. W. Sias, Rochester. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: These reports from five 

 congressional districts, submitted to you each year, are supposed 

 to cover the whole great commonwealth of Minnesota. Let us take 

 a hasty glance at these reports, as given in last year, just to see 

 how much encouragement we can muster, to continue apple culture 

 in the same old style. From the first district you get an apology 

 for not doing more. From the second, about the same. The third 

 reports as follows: "Standard apple trees have about all gone to 

 the brush-heap, and if there are a few lonely ones left, they will 



