EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 137 
varieties of apples. These are packed in sand and will be sown in the 
greenhouse early in March, by which method I hope to avoid the uncer- 
tainties attending the starting of seed sown in the open ground. Many 
of the kinds from which seed has been saved are Russian varieties of 
much promise. This I believe to be a good line of work, but with these 
seeds we only know their maternal parent and of course the results must 
be largely a matter of chance. With a view to doing better and more 
thorough work, I have arranged to dosome systematic plant breeding and 
crossing next spring in the fine young orchard owned by Andrew Peterson 
at Waconia. This will be systematic, intelligent breeding and may be 
likened to the methods employed to improve breeds of domestic animals 
and flowers. 
NURSERY. 
The nursery is in better condition than ever before. About two thous- 
and apple grafts, including many new kinds of apples, have been added 
to our stock, besides a large collection of trees and shrubs. The coming 
spring I expect to plant out the roadsides about the farm school buildings 
with trees and plants of various kinds. The time has now arrived, since 
the roads have been permanently graded, when this work can be made 
very instructive as well as ornamental. It is my intention to have all 
plants so set out labeled with their common and botanical names. 
FORESTRY PLANTATION. 
This I referred to in my last report as having made a good season’s 
growth. It is now in excellent condition, two years old and covers about 
three acres, laid out in rows eight rods long and planted with the follow- 
ing economic plants: European larch, white ash, black ash, green ash, 
box elder, wild black cherry, yellow birch, European white birch, canoe 
birch, American basswood, European basswood, five kinds of timber wil- 
low, six kinds of timber poplar, catalpa, butternut, black walnut, soft 
maple, hard maple, hemlock, red cedar, red pine, Norway spruce, black 
spruce, Douglas spruce and white cedar. The special value of this plant- 
ing is an object lesson to our students and others in forestry, for which its 
value is an increasing one. It will also furnish valuable data as to com- 
parative hardiness, rapidity and habits of growth, and the value for dif- 
ferent purposes of newly introduced forest trees. Corn has been grown 
between the rows the past season to crowd the young trees and thus pre- 
vent the formation of too heavy lateral branches. 
CONIFEROUS EVERGREENS FROM SEED. 
The introduction of coniferous evergreens on to our wind-swept prairies 
is a matter of much interest. I have carried on experiments there the 
past two years in raising seedlings of these trees, and some of the results 
obtained are of much interest and value and will be found reported on at 
length in Bulletin No. 18, of the Central Experimental Station, which you 
have all probably seen and to which I will not refer at greater 
length except to say that they seem to show the value of a few simple 
precautions, which, if followed,will enable any careful man to raise these 
plants successfully. 
Rocky Mountain Evergreens. After a careful study of these most beauti- 
ful and useful evergreens I have decided to make a specialty of raising 
