HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 323 



REPORT FROM WASHINGTON COUNTY. 



By M. C. Bunnell, Newport. 



Mr. Chairman and Members of the State Horticultural Society. 



My report is rather limited. Ab to the interest of horticulture 

 in Ramsey, Washington and Dakota counties, I find that it is not 

 dying out. The prices that the farmers received in St. Paul, in 

 fall of 1889, for their surplus crab apples, especially Transcend- 

 ents and Hyslops, were remarkably good, ranging from $1.25 to 

 $1.75 per bushel. Not long since when I called upon a German 

 farmer he stated to me that he sold Hyslops for $2.00 per bushel. 

 Another gardener friend of mine told me that he made one hun- 

 dred and fifty dollars speculating in the Transcendent and Hyslop, 

 buying of the farmers and selling them at an advanced price in St. 

 Paul market. I noticed those that had crab apples to sell realized 

 more clear profit from them than from other products of their 

 farms. This has consequently encouraged a good many to add to their 

 orchard or replace dead trees. One German farmer showed me a 

 tree that he had picked nine dollars worth of fruit from and marketed. 

 Some still buy a few Duchess and Wealthy, notwithstanding the 

 injury they received some four years ago. Farmers are becoming 

 educated to the idea that if they would have an orchard to profit 

 from they must needs buy young trees to take the place of the old 

 ones as they drop out. Early Strawberry and Whitney's No. 20 

 are varieties that are purchased to quite an extent. I find that the 

 Virginia crab gives satisfaction as to hardiness of tree and pro- 

 ductiveness. If we could only get some standard apple (winter 

 keeper), perfectly hardy, I think the farmers could be induced to 

 plant it. But very few know anything about the Russians. The 

 De Soto and Miner plums still remain popular with planters. 

 (Planted in groups they produce well.) Grapes in some localities 

 were an average crop. Raspberries in some locations were a pretty 

 good crop. Strawberries a total failure, you might say, owing to 

 the succession of frosts in the spring. Some of the strawberry 

 growers are starting out on a few Jessies, though the Wilson takes 

 the lead for a shipping berry. Currants and gooseberries are 

 planted to more or less extent. The depression of the times, and the 

 low prices that the farmer has to take for his produce, prevents 

 his buying many trees at present. 



Shade trees, sold principally in St. Paul, are soft maple, elm 

 box alder, occasionally some basswood and hard maple, a sprink- 

 ling of evergreens and mountain ash. We still hope that we as 

 horticulturists in Minnesota may continue to progress by develop- 

 ing varieties of fruit that may prove a source of remunerative in- 

 come to the grower. 



