HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 341 



There are several different species which remained here during 

 the winter months of 1888-9, or came as occasional visitors. The 

 most common of these are the great-horned owl, bluejay, cedar 

 wax- wing, hairy and downy woodpeckers and white-rumped shrike. 



The shore lark is one of the earliest arrivals from the south in 

 this locality. It appears from the 1st to the 10th of March, when 

 it lives along the railroad tracks and in farmer's barn-yards. There 

 it makes its home until the melting away of the snow leaves here 

 and there a bare spot in the fields. This is the time for nesting. 

 They select a dry place against a lump of dirt or tuft of grass where 

 they build their nest. It is of very simple construction, composed 

 mostly of dry grass and roots, and is so nearly like the ground about 

 it that to find it without starting the bird or watching her to her 

 nest, is almost impossible. It very often happens that while nest- 

 ing they are snowed in, and are obliged to abandon their nests and 

 return to their old homes or other protected places for quarters. 

 While walking across a field on the 3d of April, '89, 1 found a nest 

 of this species, which contained three young birds, and watching 

 this day after day, I found that scarcely two weeks elapsed before 

 they were hopping about the fields with their mother. 



REPORT OF DELEGATE TO WISCONSIN. 



By 0. F. Brand, Faribault. 



The Wisconsin State Horticultural Society held its annual win- 

 ter meeting at Madison in connection with the State Agricultural 

 society. The Horticultural society had but one day entirely for its 

 own work which was Thursday the 6th. I arrived there to meet the 

 society on Wednesday morning. The election of officers had taken 

 place the day before. Mr. J. M. Smith of Green Bay was re-elected 

 president and B. S. Hosie of Evansville, secretary. On Wednes- 

 day a short session was held at which was discussed the question, 

 can one thousand quarts of blackberries be grown as easily as the 

 same amount of strawberries? The conclusion reached was that 

 strawberries could be grown for three cents a quart, and that for 1,000 

 quarts the strawberries could be grown the cheaper, and also could 

 be grown on soil where blackberries would fail. Some of the speakers 

 thought that for five years or more the blackberries could be grown 

 the cheaper as a plantation of the latter would last twenty-five years. 

 Heavy clay soil was not recommended for blackberries. Mr. 

 Thayer stated that the cost of one acre of blackberries at the end of 

 the first season after they were covered for winter was one-hundred 

 dollars, this included stakes and wires. The president stated that 

 strawberries cost one-hundred dollars per acre when the first crop 

 was ready to pick. Had averaged two-hundred and fifty bushels 

 per acre for fifteen years; said that large crops must be grown to 

 make the business profitable. He spoke of the necessity of having 

 Pistillate varieties w r ell fertilized and that some seasons Manches- 

 ter were not well fertilized at a distance of two feet; hoes three 



