294 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Owing to the ravages of the mildew and worms, gooseberries are nearly 
extinct. Such grapes as Concord, Worden, Moore’s Early and Brighton 
will do well in most parts of our district, and produced some fruit the 
past season. So far as known, grape vines have not been affected by 
disease in my county, and this fine fruit should be found in every farm- 
er’s and villager’s garden. Crab apples and wild plums were not very 
plenty. Judging by the reports we hear of the success of tree agents in 
our county, it will soon be a veritable garden of Eden. 
SMALL FRUITS IN SOUTHWESTERN MINNESOTA. 
DEWAIN COOK, WINDOM. 
In presenting this paper, it is not my object to tell what we have in 
the way of small fruit, but what we should and what we.can have. The 
varieties and methods recommended are not intended for the horticul- 
turist who aims to grow fancy berries for market, but rather for the 
farmer who would like to grow cheaply and with certainty an abund- 
ance of small fruits in their season. 
Our soil is mostly black prairie loam. The plowed fields are generally 
bare of snow the entire winter, and plants are more subject to root injury 
and root killing than in a timbered country, and the methods that bring 
the best results in the older horticultural districts often have to be 
greatly modified, if not altogether changed, to meet the requirements of 
our different conditions. 
One of the drawbacks to horticulture is the farmer buying the new ~ 
high-priced varieties of fruits,when perhaps he has not any of the standard 
varieties. When he buys he wants the best there is, and since he buys his 
plants as he buys his machinery, with the latest improvements, he is 
about sure to fail with them. A high-priced variety means a variety not 
in general cultivation. JI would say to the beginner, buy no high-priced 
variety of fruit plants. 
The strawberry is at home with us. The Crescent and Downer’s Pro- 
lific are varieties that make a good combination. For those who want to 
grow only one variety, I know of nothing better than the Downer’s Pro- 
lific. The plants should be set in the spring, in rows about four feet apart 
and the plants about eighteen inches apart, growing them in matted 
rows, keeping well cultivated and free of weeds the season set. In early 
winter the strawberry should be covered with a mulching of straw, straw 
manure or other coarse litter. In late spring this covering should be 
raked off the plants into the alleys between the rows and left there 
This bed will need no more care, and will furnish fruit for the family for 
three or four years. Strawberries will do better if set where the wind 
will not blow the snow from off the plants. 
Red raspberries as a rule are hardy with us, needing no winter protec- 
tion. They should be set in rows six or seven feet apart, with the plants 
about twoand one-half feet in the row,and kept free from weeds the first 
and second season. After this the plants will choke the weeds out. Let them 
grow in matted rows a foot or so wide, and don’t worry about the old dead 
