28 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Collegeville Trial Station in 1916. 



REV. JOHN B. KATZNER, SUPT. 



We regret to say that our expectation of a good fruit crop 

 did not verify. Everything looked so promising last spring: 

 the winter was not too cold, the trees though late were full of 

 flowers, and no late spring frosts interfered with setting a good 

 crop of fruit. And yet our crop, as in many other places, was very 

 small and inferior. We can only attribute this failure to the 

 many rains and unseasonable cold weather during May and June, 

 followed by the excessive heat of July and August. Most varie- 

 ties of apples dropped their flowers entirely or set only a few 

 fruits. To make things worse, blight set in when the trees 

 started to grow vigorously in July, which in spite of all the cut- 

 ting could not be kept in check. Many trees were simply ruined, 

 and we were obliged to cut a large block of trees from the or- 

 chard. It is most discouraging to see a promising orchard gradu- 

 ally ruined by blight. Would it not be possible to breed blight 

 proof apple trees just the same way as Prof. N. E. Hansen is 

 doing with pears ? 



The best bearing varieties this year were the Hibernal, 

 Duchess, Anisim and Patten's No. 108. All others bore very 

 little fruit and quite inferior. Patten's Greening was small 

 and partly full of cracks, just like ripe plums crack after a rain. 

 The apples were about three weeks later in ripening and their 

 quality was not up to its usual excellence. This might also have 

 been brought about by the adverse condition of the weather. The 

 new varieties of apple trees obtained last spring from the State 

 Fruit-Breeding Farm are all alive and made a good growth. We 

 expect to find some good kinds among them. Besides these we 

 have a few seedings of our own raising which look very prom- 

 ising. 



Mr. Chas. Patten's pear seedling is a wonderful grower. 

 Grafts inserted on German stocks made a growth of more than 

 five feet over summer. One being three years old may bear next 

 year. As most of these trees were standing among the old plum 

 trees, and the place is needed for the better arrangement of the 

 orchard, they were taken out and heeled in over winter and will 

 be planted in a small trial orchard next spring. We have six 

 varieties of Prof. N. E. Hansen's new hybrid pears, grafted also 

 on German pear stocks. They are now two years old, and most 

 of them have made a splendid growth ; some are seven feet high. 

 We like especially No. 10 for its fine, stocky growth, large green, 



